MyHouse.wad

[Grassy chunks]

Dawg wtf!!!... I, at first thought this map was a newbie's first attempt at making a "house" style map. Downloaded and opened it in Gzdoom but it was running at 1-2fps, thought this was strange because there was not enough detail that meets the eye around to make it happen.

 

Then, i tried to open this map in Gzdoom builder and it took me 30 minutes to do so. Just to be face slammed with the largest map I've ever seen with a whopping 164452 linedefs and 298798 sidedefs!... This already beats baston of chaos as the largest (UDMF) map made in general.

Gameplay wise i give it a sold 100/10, sucker of grandiose sized maps in general.

[Shepardus]

43 minutes ago, Grassy chunks said:

This already beats baston of chaos as the largest (UDMF) map made in general.

FYI Ar Luminae was already larger than Bastion of Chaos in terms of linedef and sidedef count.

[Mr Masker]

On 3/20/2023 at 7:39 PM, Dominic Tarason said:

 

Written by an incredibly cool and sexy individual, I'm sure.

Cool article. I was waiting for some attention to this mod outside Doomworld, good to see it now.

[Renbot]

Amazing stuff. Played around a lot to see all the small details in person.

Spoiler

The QR code seems to be down, right? The one at one of the endings, as described by the wiki;

https://qrs.ly/wkekc0q

Quote

Sorry, this QR Code has exceeded its monthly scan limit.

 

[Klaesick]

1 hour ago, Mr Masker said:

Cool article. I was waiting for some attention to this mod outside Doomworld, good to see it now.

If this doesn't get a Cacoward I will be very disappointed. I have my hopes high, however :)

[MisakaMikoto]

As luck would have it, when I played, I decided to enter by the basement stairs (the front door seemed too obvious—I figured I was walking into a trap if I did that), but when I reached the bottom of the stairs, I thought better of it and decided to case the joint first to get an idea of what I’d be up against.

 

So I ran around the house, taking an inventory of all the enemies visible through the windows, both upstairs and downstairs, then went back inside and found the three skulls. But then when I tried to leave the house, the front door and interior garage door disappeared. After some time looking around the place, I consulted the wiki and was confused to find that I should have been picking up keycards instead.

 

Through some trial and error, I eventually discovered that (1) the trigger that reveals the bottom windows of the house is at the bottom of the basement stairs; what’s more, (2) tripping that trigger activates a second trigger, at the corner of the house over by the soulsphere pedestal, that swaps the inside of the house to skulls instead of keycards. (The second house will be visible through the outside windows after tripping trigger 1, but it won’t be accessible through doors [e.g., so as to require skulls instead of keycards] until after tripping trigger 2.)

 

I don’t know how likely it will be that anyone else will begin by running down the basement stairs, then backtrack back up into the garage and run around the house before actually entering (or that anyone who does will actually see this post), but if you do those two things in that order, you’ll skip the first house entirely and begin the game with the second house.

 

I didn’t realize what had happened for quite some time, because (trying to avoid spoilers) I never read farther down in the wiki to realize I’d accidentally caused myself to start my playthrough with the second house; I just sat there wondering where the keycards had gone.

 

(Video demonstration here.)

Edited March 21, 2023 by MisakaMikoto

[PrinceOfBrains]

I just finished playing through My House a few times, and I was so excited I had to come here to finally make a forum account to talk about it. (I'd lurked here unregistered for years just to see what everyone was up to, but I knew I didn't have the right kind of brain to ever make a WAD myself no matter how much I wanted to, so I never bothered posting.)

 

Spoiler

I just wanted to say that My House is the most beautiful and most horrifying thing I've played in a very long time, Doom or not. I wound up getting the Navidson and both beach endings, and I can't stop thinking about it. 

 

I genuinely never expected a Doom WAD to provide such a moving statement on how adult memories and childhood fears can intermingle so well, and the whole thing (including the extra media in the Drive folder) has absolutely rocked me. The shifting heights and perspectives, the descriptions of the artifacts, the subtle transformations every environment undergoes due to seemingly unconnected events and triggers would all be interesting enough on their own even without the backstory, but it becomes profoundly personal in a way a lot of video games can't manage. Hell, the first beach ending even reminded me of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 the tiniest bit.

 

I'm probably just this attached to it because I lost my father two years ago, in a particularly unexpected fashion. He and I had a fantastic relationship, and we spend a lot of my childhood playing boomer shooters together in the 90s. (I was actually only born a few months after Tom from the backstory, which made the whole thing hit home a little harder.) His last Christmas, I bought him a bunch of shooters off GOG to load onto his computer, which he spent the entire pandemic playing on his lunch break while working from home, with most of them being id titles of the time like Doom and Quake. In a way, the idea of a WAD that deals with loss in a very Doom-like fashion is really helping me work through some stuff, and I'm just sad he never got to try it, even if he maybe didn't 'get' it lol.

 

That's a lot of words and I'm sorry, but this experience really meant a lot to me, and I wanted to post about it in a way that (hopefully) the creator would see, and know how grateful I am to have played it (no matter how irritated I got at the Navidson ending, because I was so sure I had all the artifacts lmao).

Edited March 22, 2023 by PrinceOfBrains

[Barry Burton]

Move over unloved.wad, this is my new favorite. Amazing, incredible and overall such a fantastic and frightening experience.

[Albertoni]

8 hours ago, Artbor said:

 

  Hide contents

The QR code seems to be down, right? The one at one of the endings, as described by the wiki;

https://qrs.ly/wkekc0q

 

 

This seems to be the case, the same happened to me.

[ChaosSmurf]

On 3/20/2023 at 12:39 PM, Dominic Tarason said:

 

Written by an incredibly cool and sexy individual, I'm sure.

But when will it get a shoutout in Playboy

[Caffeine Freak]

Just finished it. Took maybe an hour and some change total.

 

I am an awe. Completely and utterly fucking blown clear the fuck away. My brain has been completely screwed with and my sense of direction and puzzle-solving has been thoroughly tested. I've never played anything quite like this in Doom in my 25+ years of playing the game. As a fellow designer and Doom modder, I tip my hat to you, sir, as well as whomever else had a hand in creating this.  

[CrazyJeff]

Could we get a reup elsewhere? Google Drive doesn't work. I've tried two computers so far.

[Renbot]

1 hour ago, CrazyJeff said:

Could we get a reup elsewhere? Google Drive doesn't work. I've tried two computers so far.

here you go

https://anonfiles.com/rfWao4g8ze/MyHouse_20230322T171448Z_001_zip

[xmonkeyofevil]

Came from the PCGamer article. Man, where even to begin. I missed the soulsphere trick the first time around, so I thought it was just a hyper detailed house showing off clever uses of GZDoom to make it seem far larger than it was. Exited the level in like 10 or so minutes, noticed there was a ton of kills unaccounted for and replayed. Wandering around the house I noticed more monsters and then entering from the back door

Spoiler

everything is now 3D with smooth animations. Nice. I go through the house taking in everything that was different from before, and thinking this was such a cool way to add a ton more to a level within such a small place. After emptying the second house of enemies, I'm ready to leave only to realize that I'm trapped in the house.
 

What followed was a two hour long journey into unraveling what this mod had to offer. The various house types, the looping geometry, making me second guess everything I was doing. Nothing was as it seemed. I ended up with creatures (aliens?) invading the house, burning it down, finding an airport and jumping out of a plane to find an old worn down house, finally with an exit allowing me to leave. As I leave I take a look back to see the house has disappeared. Thinking back on what a journey that was, I finally exit the map.

 

To then find out that after all of that, I had only seen a fraction of what was available. This could very well have been a small standalone game release, similar to a 'Pony Island' type of scenario, but as others have said it all very much feels like something that really shines within the realm of a Doom mod.

[HumanHardDrive1]

Just finished it. I will be processing this for a while... it's art like others have said

[Yeah]

All I get is an "R_InstallSprite: Sprite CPOS frame A is missing rotations" error when I try playing. Either it's broken, or I'm stupid.

[Endless]

This is insanely well done.

 

Also:

 

Spoiler

Wanted to commend the efforts the various Doom Wiki editors have done to properly walkthrough the entire thing. One of, if not the, biggest and most researched map article in the entire wiki. Properly bonkers. My House.

 

[eltiolavara9]

pretty sure i just played a cacoaward

[Scuba Steve]

1 hour ago, Yeah said:

All I get is an "R_InstallSprite: Sprite CPOS frame A is missing rotations" error when I try playing. Either it's broken, or I'm stupid.

I'm guessing you're trying to run the map with another wad?

[Origamyde]

Spoiler

 

Thank you so much for such a wonderfully unique experience @Veddge. I've been cruising through the many layers of oddity and creepiness your map could possibly offer, holding on my breath as I discovered its contents. I do not know whether the many artifacts you can collect throughout the wad hold any meaning in particular, but it sure was fun trying to find them all :)

 

Sorry for your loss. There's nothing much I can do about it, except hope that you get nominated for (and win) the Cacowards 2023. It would be truly deserved, seeing how much of a showcase of UDMF and ZDoom gimmicks this wad is.

 

 

[Suitepee]

https://youtu.be/GE2x1J-ie80

 

Here, take my Cacoward nomination and please continue doing amazing things with portals. Congrats on creating the "DDLC" of Doom wads, and I will never hear D_RUNNIN in the same way ever again...

Edited March 22, 2023 by Suitepee

[YeOldeFellerNoob]

What in the everloving fuck did I just play.

[Ribo Zurai]

This has to be one of the most insane things I've ever experienced in a Doom wad and it's best left completely unspoiled.

[Scuba Steve]

On 3/11/2023 at 4:23 PM, innerethos said:

  Hide contents

QR Code link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wNdWb4JkdaZn2M5B8MhFLrapsYFYvLOv/view

Really trippy map. Way too heady for me to play, but this is just the kind of thing I would love to see others play through.

 

Really beautiful inside and out. Like nothing I've seen before. 

@innerethos did us all a solid a few pages back with the QR code direct link...

[Jazz Cappricio]

I am a long-time lurker who has finally created an account simply to join the parade of praise. This is far and away one of the most memorable and beautiful experiences I have had with a game. I found myself turning to my childhood more than once.

 

Rest well, and take care.

[rose]

Joining the chorus of lurkers making accounts here, absolutely incredible .wad.

 

Spoiler

The House of Leaves references, and especially the pitch black labyrinth scared the absolute shit out of me. I was anticipating Minotaur sounds.

God damn, this rules.

 

Edit: Read through the journal, you have mastered Danielewski's writing style and format screws. I am in awe.

Edited March 23, 2023 by rose

[Kraja]

Oh yeah. 

That's a caco winner right here. 

 

I'm still in the process of picking up my jaw off the floor. 

i'm totally gonna dissect this map and see how it works behind the scenes when i get some free time. 

 

Also - from this day on i'm gonna call this GoneHom.pk3 

[Gregor]

On 3/12/2023 at 3:05 PM, Scuba Steve said:

  Hide contents

I was thinking the same thing but, rereading all the material, I can't find anywhere it explicitly says he hasn't seen him in a long time... It only talks about "childhood friend" and alludes to their past relationship. I think this is an example of the fallibility of memory; we made an assumption about their relationship and our brains simply filled in the rest. I would wager the nebulous wording was intentional. If this is inspired somewhat by 'House of Leaves,' the love story aspect would make sense, only this time subverting your expectations.

 

Well, in a status update on his Doomworld profile page from December last year he mentions that he hasn't seen his childhood friend in 10 years.

[Jakub Majewski]

That was a great mod. The experience was certainly magical. Sorry for your loss.

 

I've decided to make a full playthrough of the level in question. Obviously, you should play this at least once before watching.

 

 

[Gregor]

Just a couple things i noticed that i think warrant closer inspection:

 

Spoiler

The car that appears several times throughout the game seems important. It's seen parked in front of the daycare center as well as outside of the airport. The same car then appears again in the woods before the gas station, this time crashed against a tree with the headlines illuminating the patch of grass in front of it. The front window is broken on the driver's side, the door is open and there's blood on the ground in front of the car, implying that the driver smashed through the window and landed on the ground when the car crashed into the tree. However, further on there is more blood in the direction of the gas station and inside the station as well. This is in line with the description of the nightmare in the journal that references this scene. Here the narrator wakes up in the driver's seat of his car after smashing into a tree with his leg injured and bleeding, dragging himself into nearby deserted gas station. This is also the same nightmare that references the hospital the player enters when dying the first time in the wad. The narrator also mentions that when he woke up he wasn't sure whether he felt relieved or disappointed that it was all just a dream. 

 

Another thing is the QR code secret that can be found on the gravestone. I put this in a separate spoiler because it seems to be the final plot twist of the story that is obviously supposed to be revealed last.

Spoiler

Scanning the QR code leads to a google drive pic that shows the obituary to the right of Tom's obituary in the newspaper article. It is revealed to be Steve's own obituary. He died on the same day as Tom in the same town of Oswego, Illinois, on August 3, 2022. Now, the google drive download of the mod also came with several related documents, among them a photo folder that contains a picture of a framed photo that seemingly shows Tom and Steve standing next to each other in a bar or something similar. Yet if you look at the photo more closely, you can see that it uses the exact same pictures from the obituaries of both of them, just mirrored on the y-axis. They both also have some kind of filter applied to their pictures that results in a fake look that might indicate that both were edited in photoshop. The clothes both are wearing have been altered compared to the article. The suit Steve is wearing looks particularly fake; maybe because the picture in the newspaper only showed his neck and shoulders aside from his head and therefore had be altered more substantially to add the rest of his torso in order to create the fake photo showing both supposedly in the same location. The filter look might be the result of the creator of the mod trying to smooth over the grainy resolution from the newspaper scans. That the photo is real is also discounted by @Veddge himself stating in a status update on his profile from December 4th of last year, that he hadn't seen his friend for 10 years, so them having met recently seems impossible.

 

According to the obituary, Tom died in his home, which would indicating that he died in a house fire like implied by the burned house section of the mod and the related nightmare in the journal. Note that this is also the only section of the journal that is struck through, perhaps indicating denial but certainly setting the passage apart from the rest as of particular importance.

 

One thing that stands out about Steven's obituary is that it states that his funeral service will be a joint celebration. This must be with Thomas Allord's, as their services are both held at the same time and place. However, Allord's obituary suspiciously makes no mention of his funeral service being shared with someone else. This, i think, makes it quite likely that the newspaper article has been either heavily doctored by the mod author or is entirely fabricated.

Another thing that is probably relevant is the location of the various artifacts. It's interesting that none of them can actually be found in the "normal" house. The pop artifact is locating in the sitting room that only pops into existence after picking up the blue skull key from the attic. The attic itself also doesn't exist at the beginning. It seems that both the attic as well as the sitting room and avant-garde room were not part of the real house of his friend but instead added by the narrator - maybe they are sections from his own childhood house that he morphed into Tom's house as part of the process of blurring the line between himself and his friend as is hinted at several times in the journal. Keep in mind that the OG house also doesn't have ground floor windows in the pool table room; these are only added in the second version of the house, which is where Steve's memories start to invade the structure and reality of the house.

The wine bottle, Christmas ornament and milk bottle are only available in the mirror reality of the house. The rubber duck sits in the bathtub inside the master bedroom but can't be picked up until all the sinks in the house have been filled with water, leading to the flooding of the house. Again, there is no rubber duck at the beginning in the bathtub, it only appears once we enter the changed reality of the second house.

 

On final thing i noticed is that the inside of the locker where the backpack is found inside the bathhouse is quite suggestive of a grave. The rusted bathtub the player has to jump into in the Brutalist house also feels that way.  Finally, the sound the bookcase in the basement that leads to the burned house makes when it slides open is very reminiscent of a stone lid of a tomb sliding open.

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by Gregor