Level Writing Guide

**Author Note:** This page is heavily incomplete and currently is a placeholder soon to be replaced with more accurate and refined information. Do not take this is a sign to ignore any of the information within this article it is still valid information for writing. However, it should be taken with a grain of salt and not used as a writing guide proper until this message has been removed.

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Too Long; Didn't Read. (TLDR)

This page is a set of guidelines, terminologies, and general format explanations for how to write / understand levels. (If you do happen to do that) Levels are what make up the Backrooms, and it is very important that they are written properly and not low quality or with practically zero effort. You should write Level entries as if they were a survival guide in a sense. They should explain everything that a person would need to survive within the level, like its make up, the different creatures that inhabit it, and such. DO NOT MAKE IT A SHORT STORY OR JUST A FEW SENTENCES. Levels themselves are bizarre spaces with even more bizarre properties to go with it, and turning them into mini poems is not the point of writing a level. Instead, use the following format guidelines to write a level. I hope you enjoy this page in your writing efforts on this site, and just enjoy it in general as a way of understanding Levels a little deeper, and the methods of writing them.

## What am I writing about?

**Levels** are the most important aspect of the Backrooms and are what make up the majority of this place, so it is critical that before you start writing them you should know what you're doing. Not to insult your intelligence, but perhaps you've written plenty of Backrooms levels before. But this page is just a set of guidelines and checks you should have on my website before you think of posting a level on the actual site. (For writers wanting to use sandbox to write their entries, that is perfectly fine with me). In short, Backrooms Levels are distorted spaces. They cover everything from the barren and empty landscape of a ruined office to the heavily decorated and delicate spaces crowded with junk and furniture. A level can be technically anything, but what it shouldn't be is without purpose. This doesn't mean you should explain or even make it apparent what the purpose of the level is, that is up for reader interpretation and not your own. Rather you should make a level based perhaps on a certain kind of fear. For example, Level 7 has the fear of water and drowning in it. Level 6 has the fear of the dark. Level 11 has the fear of starvation, and so on. While this doesn't mean you have to do this, it can help make your level stand out. And on the subject of standing out, make your level one of a kind. If it's been done before, don't do it again. No one wants to see the same generic office space done over and over again. Don't outdo what has already been done pretty much (or perhaps the opposite). Make a level unique in not only appearance but also in smaller aspects like how dangerous it is, and what crazy phenomena happen within the level. The Level could be made entirely out of paper, the level can constantly loop back on itself, the level can be incredibly small, et cetera. Come up with unique ideas for levels to make them all unique from each other.

Don't use this article as a checklist for what you have to write in a level, use it more as a way to help you with writing your level. Be creative, but be familiar with what you are going into and writing. Follow some guidelines.

## How do I make an Interesting Level?

First and foremost, a level must have something going for it to even exist in the first place. I recommend starting with a simple, yet interesting idea for a level, it can be abstract, it can be simple, and it shouldn't be a boring idea or an idea that has already been done to death relating to Backrooms levels. They should all have their own danger to them that makes them far more dangerous or perhaps the opposite compared to the level before. But there is one most important rule for writing any Backrooms levels, and it is critical you understand and remember this. **NO LEVEL IN THE BACKROOMS IS SAFE.** No matter where you end up, where you go, or such, there will always be something or someone wanting you dead. Be it entities, other people, or the level itself, something will try to make your life here uncomfortable. This doesn't mean levels should be hell on earth but don't make them exactly a paradise for the people there. The Backrooms are meant to be terrifying for its inhabitants, not a lounge in the park in some parts. If you make a level that is completely safe to inhabit, it will be deleted, with no exceptions. You will be told to do it again if you want your level up.

If you are unsure how to start a level in the first place, here is a good idea just for starters. Always on the right side of the screen for a level is an infobox describing everything about a level simply, such as its dangers, entity count, and so on. Don't add random numbers here for just the purpose of filling things out. They, like everything you put on the page, have a purpose. Remember we are writing these like survival guides, they are used to convey information simply and quickly to any readers who might need to read something quickly and don't have time to gloss over details about the level. The infobox section should be as simple as possible for someone to understand in a short amount of time. Images are also a good way to start your level and a required thing for all levels. If you have a level, you have an image to go along with it, with no exceptions. People would naturally take photographs to help better explain the level visually for readers, most likely to give them a visual reference as well as to where they are. Not having an image can detriment users' ability to understand a level more clearly. Think of it like Wikipedia. Most Wikipedia pages have an image to back them, so you know what they are talking about. Include, images, **period.** Also, all images should be related to one another, so find images, or take images yourself, of places that are related to one another.

Another thing that might help and be mentioned before is putting a clear and cut danger into your level. You should make it apparent what you should be worrying about in this level though not so cut and dry that the fear factor is lost. This is pretty useful for brainstorming and getting the level started and doesn't need to be just one danger. It can be multiple; however, avoid putting too many things to keep up with. Notice how all the main levels each have one distinct danger:

* Level 0 - Isolation
* Level 1 - Entities
* Level 2 - Temperature
* Level 3 - The Environment
* Level 4 - Weather
* Level 5 - Insanity
* Level 6 - Darkness
* Level 7 - Drowning
* Level 8 - Entrapment
* Level 9 - Wandering
* Level 10 - Fog
* Level 11 - Starvation
* Level 12 - Light

In each of these levels, the problem of survival is different, presenting new challenges to even experienced wanderers and drawing the reader's interest. This is what makes them stand out from each other. It also gives the feeling that the Backrooms is evolving with you and finding new ways to challenge you as you continue deeper into the Backrooms.

## How do I make a Unique Level?

Uniqueness and concept are two very similar aspects, as they both rely on each other (concept > uniqueness) It is important to have both together to make a level. You should always start with a core concept for a level and branch out from there with new ideas big or small. It can be hard to come up with concepts or ideas, so brainstorm some ideas. They should fit with the theme of your level. Let's say for example the theme of the level is an electrical station. First, you should try finding an image for the level to go with it, this may be how you started writing, from an image. The image should be liminal or eerie in how it looks. There should be no people in the photo. Once you have your baseline down, start explaining the fundamentals of the level, what it looks like, certain anomalies about the look of the level, what's wrong with it, and so on. When you've described some basics, dive deeper into the level itself, perhaps specific areas within a level that could be related to the theme that is present. Perhaps you could add some hazards to those environments to make them more hazardous to the user exploring the level. A caution with adding hazards to levels, don't make it a death trap or level you are meant to die in. If you are meant to die, then wouldn't the level just be filled to the brim with just things that are designed to kill you? (like entities) Make hazards, but you shouldn't always make them the main focal point of the level unless you want there to be just no entities and just environmental hazards. Of course, if your level is like that. For example, the Electrical Station could have more environmental hazards because of its role in conducting and controlling electricity. There could be exposed wires that electrify puddles of water on the floor. Wires hanging from the ceiling can catch onto users and tangle them up in electricity, both choking them and electrocuting them to death. Environmental hazards are based on the environment of the level. All the water could be acidic, there could be holes in the ceiling that pour down rain from the ceiling, et cetera.

You are going somewhere. Doesn't matter where, or where from, it is the place in between you must hold in your mind. Is it a hallway, walls an off-white, and the waxed floor reflecting rows upon rows of lights stretching off into the distance? Is it a road, paved with gravel and winding through silent woods as the last of the sun's light dwindles, with only the occasional lamppost lighting the way? Are you in a city square, surrounded by crowds of faceless people in a blur of motion? You pass all these places on your way to somewhere else, never giving them a second thought, only ever focused on your destination. Now imagine there was no destination. Imagine the hallway stretched off to infinity, with no fourth-period algebra with Mrs. Watts and her ruler, no cafeteria with the noise of a thousand shouting children, and no exit with the buses idling their engines. Imagine the gravel road wound on indefinitely through the dark wood, with no hot cocoa or grandfather awaiting you at the end. Imagine if the traffic in the city square continued forever, and the nine o'clock train with its bitter coffee and worn seats would never arrive.

As mentioned before, every concept for a level should be unique, not done before. Don't make another bland Level 0-like level cause you can't think of an idea for a level. If you really cannot come up with a concept for a level that is unique from other levels, do not write a level. Sometimes you will accidentally use some concepts from other levels, or may use them and that is alright. As long as it doesn't take away from the actual level itself.

## Things you should avoid when writing.

Being uniform isn't a requirement for every single level and there can be **minor** deviations from the formatting of the page within reason. For example; you can have a short story before the start of your page, but that does not mean the short story can be your article. Do not make level articles (or for that matter any main article on this site) a short story. If you are going to write a short story based on a level then write a tale instead. You can incorporate tales into your writing as well, but again make sure that you are still writing the actual article; Wikipedia doesn't tell you a bedtime story when you're trying to learn about chaos theory or quantum physics, and nor should this. Colorful, or otherwise deviant fonts are also a big no-no. This doesn't rule out different fonts altogether; however, they shouldn't be obnoxious colors that just take away so much from the page. When you are using different fonts make them have a purpose for your writing. Typically different fonts are used for quotes or letters/messages imbedded into the article.

## Helpful pages for writing

Finally, there are many places you can go to for extra information about not only levels but concepts found within levels. The link to these pages will be put here. These don't just apply to writing levels but also to other pages.

* Level Terminology
* Level Concepts
* Noclipping
* Backrooms Terminology

## Name of the Level (NOT NUMERICAL)

Caption for the Image. (Only add three images. To do so, do < gallery > on the top of the image section, add the images in and then put a </ gallery > at the bottom.

### Difficulty

**0 - 5/5**

```
How difficult the level is to traverse or generally survive in
```

### Entity Count

**0 - 5/5**

```
If entities are present, the number of entities per person.
```

### Chaos Gradient

**0 - 5/5**

```
Describes the stability of the level, how often it changes, and how unpredictable its phenomenon are.
```

### Periculum Index

**0 - 5/5**

```
Add up all the numbers from before and divide it by two. if all of the numbers aren't five yet equal five or more, divide by another .5, and so on until it's lower than five. Only all 5's can equal five.
```

### Concordian Index

 **Class 0**

```
Round up the number from the periculum 0 - 5. Some special classes for concord exist for special instances.
```

## Information

### Estimated Size (mi²)

Read estimated level size to better understand this section.

### Hazards / Anomalies

**Environmental Hazards*** List all environmental hazards.
* In bullet point form
* (E.G. Steep Falls, Fatal Temperature Variation)

**Regular Anomalies**

* List anomalies
* In bullet point form
* (E.G. Auditory Hallucinations, Access to the Void)

### Null Level Status

If the level allows other users to be present in the level besides yourself. (✓ or X)

### Community Status

If communities (groups of people) exist within the level. (✓ or X)

### Current Level State

State of the level based on its placement or properties. (E.G. Stable, Unstable, Enigmatic, Aberrant, etc.)

## Demographics

### Communities

Describe the types of communities briefly here.

### Group Presences

* List major groups
* That are present on the Level

## Entities

* List any entities in the main roster that are here,

## Sub-Levels

* List all sub-levels here (If present)

```
                                   EXAMPLE PAGE! DO NOT USE!

```

**Level A**, known frequently as **"Name of the Level"** is a large expansive area of dull monochromatic rooms and corridors in a form most starkly resembling Level 0. This section of the article is dedicated to describing the level, though despite it being the description, never put a heading saying "description" as how the site works, when there is a heading at the top of the page it interferes with the page preview (When you hover over the page and it shows some text below the image.) This part is the real meat of your page and will be 70% of everything you put within the page. You will describe pretty much everything to do with the level in this section of the article. It should be very informative and have some amount of information, akin to a scientific report or article. Do not make it straight science however, still ground it in reality but don't be afraid to deviate a bit from what is possible. These sections should contain several things and should be descriptive, especially in the first paragraph, which should often describe everything like a summary for the page, but not a full summary of the article.

Typically by the second paragraph, you go into some more detailed explanations describing the level. One thing you should always note is that while being informative is part of this website, it always helps to make your article more unknown. It's quite hard to not only hook a reader but get them scared through text. I recommend you read other articles to gain an understanding. But down to brass tacks; don't over-explain or explain too much of something, no one wants to read a full paragraph on the different temperature variations of the level. Maybe you could use it to your advantage, such as describing level-wide changes in temperature over time. But make it brief, not a paragraph long. Know what should and shouldn't be described, and write it as if you were going to read it yourself, would you want to read what you've written and/or described? Will people get it?

## Level areas

This section is just for describing specific areas for a level that may or may not be drastically different to the core theme of the level. This does not mean they are entirely different, just distinct enough to warrant them being featured here. Often these sections will be different not just in how they are themed, but also in how they behave when compared to the main level. They can be safer or more dangerous than the core level, or have their own unique aspects to them; like a level within a level. When describing an area you don't have to put "Level Areas" and then the areas in sub-headings; you can put simply the name of the area if there is only one notable one.

This section is entirely optional :)

## Entities

Also another optional section, this page simply discusses entities that you will encounter here, often level-specific entities rather than common entities. (Those are described in the infobox in its respective tab) Despite saying that, this section can be used to introduce entities to new readers briefly, showing that they will be present on different levels starting from the one you are currently writing. This is more useful for more common entities such as Radio Crabs, Anethika's, Skin-Stealers, and such instead of less important and less numerous entities like say, TV-Heads.

Basically, just put down any interesting entities, and/or unique to this level here, with images included of the entity as well as the link to it if it is an entity that exists regularly. If you create a page for the unique entity to go along with this article; add the "Extended Article" tag to the article and make sure to not only have a link to the page in this one but also a link back to the original page if someone clicked on it on accident or something along those lines.

## Communities

This section is entirely dependent on the periculum index of the level (at or below 3). Though can depend on other factors such as the stability of the level and how far from the Quantum Stable and Unstable zone they are.

Communities in essence are just groups of people. It can be as small as two people, but the smaller the community is the less of a chance it has to show up on the page unless it has some significance to the level or is just the only community on the level. Communities within the presence of larger groups are usually subsumed by the larger group and turn into proxy communities.

You can add communities for larger groups, however sparingly, as with moderator approval, as it directly interferes with the lore of the group in question. Communities (especially ones farther out in the Backrooms) are usually isolated from the larger groups, which means they can form their own rules and even act completely differently from one another. This often produces splits, and it's not rare to see a group of people formerly part of a large group split because of isolation from the larger group. This is the case for communities farther into the Backrooms, often past Level 12 or Level 20 in the Quantum Fluctuant Levels. This is even more apparent for these levels, as entering the fluctuant zone means no return for wanderers wanting to go back to the previous 20 levels of the Backrooms.

A good example of this is Masked Maidens - Chrysanthemum, despite being very close in terms of the Backrooms, they are isolated in the sense that they are purely for resource gathering. Because of their isolation, they resort to breaking some traditions, such as allowing male volunteers, a thing that is very taboo with the Masked Maidens who are an entirely female-oriented group, not allowing male occupants. Communities can vary greatly even within established groups, often with different rules or traditions from the original organization.

You should focus on smaller groups, typically with around 20 - 50 members, which is classified as a small community. Please be original with your communities and do not overuse them. Don't make a Backrooms level lively and full of people, that is the exact opposite of what a liminal space is. Use communities sparingly, and tell an interesting story with them instead of just having them there to be there.

### (1) This is a community heading by the way

add a number to the beginning of the heading and underline it.

## Survival Guide

This part is a template, do {{Survival Guide}} to get the template for this section and write within the brackets, or simply press the one in the menu and put it in there. This section is not optional.

**Level Writing Guide Survival Guide.**This will be a comprehensive analysis of your entire page up until this point. You will examine everything you've said and explain either in detail or in short how to survive this level. (NOT TO ESCAPE, LEAVE THAT FOR ENTRANCES AND EXITS). this is both a type of summery of the article, and a bit of a do and don't section. This part is arguably the most important to get right. Think logically here.

### Entrances

```
**Level Here (In bold)**

```

```
(1) Use preformatted text for this section.

```

```
(2) And list each exit in a new line and with a number (1) (2) (3) and so on.

```

```
**Level Here (In Bold)**

```

### Exits

```
**Level Here (In bold)**

```

```
(1) Use preformatted text for this section.

```

```
(2) And list each exit in a new line and with a number (1) (2) (3) and so on.

```

```
**Level Here (In Bold)**

```

All other exits lead to this levels sub-levels.
Return to Level List Or go to the Following Level.

## Gallery

This section is optional for people who have more images than just the first three or more used in the article. Again they should match the article.

## Info-box Deep Dive

### Periculum Index

First and foremost, the index has three main elements: Difficulty, Entity-Count, and Chaos Gradient, and finally the total for each. It works a little differently than how you would think but I'll try and make it as easy to understand for you. This is the most important part of the infobox to understand.

**Difficulty:**

This describes several things, the most obvious of which being how lethal and/or hard it is to traverse the level (Level Complexity). This part often reflects a lot of the environmental hazards that can be encountered within the level as well. The difficulty, however, does not supplant entity count, the two are completely isolated from one another and just cause one is higher doesn't make the other one go down as a result. If you are aiming to make your level more entity-centric rather than environmental hazard-centric, lowering the difficulty of the level is a good place to start with such. The opposite applies as well to environmental.

Essentially: the higher the difficulty is, the more overall danger (discluding entities) there is in the level. They do not however supplant one another, and there can be both. However, **this number cannot be zero.** All levels, regardless of their theme and/or appearance, have some level of complexity to them. It must be a one or higher.

* **1 - 2** (Low-Level Complexity: Minimum Danger)
* **2.5 - 3** (Medium Complexity: Low Danger)
* **3.5 - 4** (High Complexity: Significant Danger)
* **4.5 - 5** (Extreme Complexity: High Danger)

**Entity-Count:**

Probably the most self-explanatory of the three; Entity count simply covers the ratio of entities per one person on the Level. The higher the number, the more entity per person. For example: a 3/5 rating makes it so that there are approximately 3 entities for every one person on the level, and so on and so forth. Adding decimals to the end of these numbers is illogical, as that would entail them being a percentage of an entity more, which again doesn't make sense. **Do not add decimals to entity numbers.** Making this number a zero would mean that no entities have been discovered on the level. And only discovered, no level can be entirely devoid of entities, unfortunately.

Essentially, each number is the ratio of entities per person. 2/5 = 2 entities per person, in the level.

**Chaos Gradient:**

This one is the hardest to explain by far as it covers some more complex concepts for the Backrooms, such as level stability. Essentially; this section covers everything to do with how stable the level is in terms of its placement. However this rule only really applies to levels within the Quantum Stable Zone, so don't worry about knowing what the means. Levels that have low chaos gradients have fewer anomalies to them, such as inconsistent level theme, or temperature variation. This only accounts for **anomalies,** not hazards, that are dependent upon the difficulty of the level. Lower stability leads to certain phenomena within the Backrooms as well, such as more frequent no-clipped surfaces, breaking of basic physics such as gravity or mass, et cetera. Essentially what makes the levels bizarre and weird? Also, when going past 2-3 (Destabilized) you are free to add as many anomalies to the level as you would like. For stable levels, you can add only around 4 - 6 anomalies, though this may change depending on what the anomaly is.

Essentially, the more chaos, the more strange the level becomes.

* **0-3** (Stable)
* **3.5-4** (Destabilized)
* **4.5-5** (Fluctuant)

**Periculum Index:**

Now that you have all of your numbers, add them all together and divide all of the numbers by 2 to get the number for the Periculum index. However, if your number is greater than five and all of the numbers in the index are not all 5's then you must add a .5 until the number is lower than 5. You cannot have a 5 for the index if the numbers aren't all fives. (No exceptions)

1. **Difficulty:** *2.5/5*
2. **Entity-Count:** *3/5*
3. **Chaos Gradient:** *4.5/5*
4. **Periculum Index:** 4/5

### Concordian Index

This version of the index is taken from most other forms of Backrooms wikis. The typical numbered format. In lore, this section used to be the definitive method for describing levels before it was eventually canned for the periculum index. However, still wanting the simplicity of it, the index was kept along with the new periculum. In the actual site itself, this is just used for people who don't care about the periculum and just want a quick and simple answer as to how dangerous the level is. This works similarly to the indexes of the fandom or wikidot wiki though only counts overall difficulty. It follows the periculum index in its numbering, though when encountering a decimal will round the number up or down depending on if it's over five. However, the same rule applies here that if all the numbers aren't fives, the index cannot be five. 4.5 will not round up to 5 here either.

 **Standard Classifications**

 **Non Standard Classifications** (ask before you use Class 0 or 6)

## Footnotes

1. ↑ Let me be clear in explaining what I mean about "Short stories". I simply mean a story that describes the article in a typical sense; a fairy tale essentially. Your big goal with these pages is storytelling first and foremost. While yes, these articles are in the form of an online encyclopedia; don't let that take away that you are telling a story in a sense. You are describing this otherworldly place of horrors beyond comprehension and imagination. A labyrinthine palace of unknowns and things to be discovered. You are telling a story in an atypical sense, but don't make it a tale. Let this (off site) page be an example of what not to do.
2. ↑ It doesn't need to be a gallery. You can always just have one image for a level, but its recommended, if you do it, to add a caption in this caption box, describing the image (briefly)