# i am very interested in exploring liminal games horror would be even better. What I am interested... ## Retrieval Notes - Session id: `019e991a-5e1c-7e51-a940-3933925a35ba` - Source: `Codex raw session` - Last activity: `2026-06-05T18:48:18.877Z` - Model: `gpt-5.5` - CWD: `/Users/nickyoung/Documents/New project` ## My Notes <!-- Add your notes here. This section is preserved across syncs. --> ## Conversation ### User i am very interested in exploring liminal games horror would be even better. What I am interested in partticular is games i can play on my mac which are really focussed on capturing the liminal vibe, basically, don't give me generic horror walking sims with an accompanying text in which you stretch the definition of what i am looking fopr ### Assistant I’ll keep this tight and picky: liminal first, horror second, Mac-playable only. I’m going to verify current Mac availability so we don’t accidentally drift into “technically adjacent” walking-sim soup. ### Assistant That confirms the local memory rules; I’m also going to note your preference as a durable taste constraint afterward, because “liminal, not generic horror stretched to fit” is exactly the kind of thing future recommendations should remember. ### Assistant I’ve got the shape now: the best Mac-native shortlist is narrower than the Steam liminal-tag swamp suggests. A few obvious names, including `Dreamcore`, `Liminalcore`, and `The Exit 8`, look strong aesthetically but fail the native-Mac constraint, so I’m keeping them out of the main recommendations. ### Assistant I’m adding a tiny memory note now: future game/media recommendations should treat “liminal” as a strict aesthetic criterion, not a loose synonym for eerie first-person horror. ### Assistant Here’s the strict Mac-native shortlist. I’m excluding “good horror walking sims that can be poetically called liminal” and also excluding Windows-only stuff unless noted. **Start Here** 1. [POOLS](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2663530/POOLS/) The cleanest match. It is almost entirely about poolroom liminality: empty public leisure architecture, wet acoustics, spatial repetition, oppressive calm. No monster-chase padding. SteamDB lists Windows/macOS/Linux support, and the Steam page says it was tested on an M1 MacBook Pro. This is probably the first one I’d buy. 2. [Interior Worlds](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2207970/Interior_Worlds/) Very strong fit if your desired vibe is “empty mall / school / office / suburban interior captured like found evidence.” You wander, take photos, and soak in uncanny-but-familiar spaces. SteamDB lists Windows/macOS/Linux support. More eerie than terrifying, but very much focused on liminality. 3. [The Liminal Dimension](https://airem.itch.io/the-liminal-dimension) Budget indie, but directly aimed at the exact thing: loops, deja vu corridors, Backrooms/poolroom-adjacent psychological horror. itch.io lists Windows/macOS/Linux, including “Mac 64 bit (Intel 64 + Apple silicon).” This looks less polished than POOLS, but less generic than most. 4. [The Complex](https://developer-jake.itch.io/the-complex) A Backrooms-first liminal horror game on itch, with macOS listed. I’d treat it as “worth trying if you want more explicit horror/entities,” not as pure liminal atmosphere. It has a wiki-lore/entity angle, so it may drift slightly from the clean “place-feel” you’re after. 5. [ISLANDS: Non-Places](https://store.steampowered.com/app/540510/ISLANDS_NonPlaces/) Not horror, but maybe the most conceptually precise “liminal spaces as non-places” game here. Short, surreal, mundane, empty, beautifully staged. Steam lists macOS support. This is the palate-cleanser pick: airports, escalators, fountains, food courts, transit-adjacent oddness. **Borderline But Maybe** [Superliminal](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049410/Superliminal/) runs on macOS and has sterile dream-architecture vibes, but it’s really a perspective puzzle game, not liminal horror. I’d only grab it if you also want “dreamlike built environment puzzle-box.” **Not Mainlisted Because Mac** These may be exactly the aesthetic, but I would not recommend them for your ask unless you’re willing to use Whisky/Crossover/cloud/console: - [Anemoiapolis: Chapter 1](https://steamdb.info/app/1522960/info/) — probably aesthetically relevant, but SteamDB currently lists Windows only. - [Liminalcore](https://steamdb.info/app/3107900/info/) — Windows only on SteamDB. - [Dreamcore](https://www.gematsu.com/games/dreamcore) — very relevant liminal horror, but official listings I found are PC/PS5/Xbox, not native macOS. - [The Exit 8](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2653790/The_Exit_8/) — great “anomaly corridor” idea, but not native Mac from the compatibility info I found. My actual buy order for you: `POOLS`, then `Interior Worlds`, then `ISLANDS: Non-Places`, then `The Liminal Dimension` if you want rougher indie horror after the polished ones.