MyHouse.wad

[UM-86]

52 minutes ago, Bulletproof Pal said:

 

 

Figured it out. I had to open the downstairs door to make the window outside appear and then blow myself up on this side of the barrier. Crossing the barrier sends you to the second house and removes the soulsphere though, so I can't figure out a way to actually get it. I even tried shooting a rocket at my feet to launch my dead body over the barrier but apparently that still counted.

 

 

Nice finding! I managed to get the soulsphere (or at least a soulsphere..or maybe two of them...) by cheating via the "warp 1200 -300" command. The interesting thing about it is that this soulsphere counts as 2 items (the item counter went from 2/8 to 4/8).

[DavidN]

 

Part three! The warning in the readme came true - it’s taken over my entire life for the last three weeks.

[Bulletproof Pal]

2 hours ago, DavidN said:

 

Part three! The warning in the readme came true - it’s taken over my entire life for the last three weeks.

Love these videos as someone who doesn't know how doom works. Cracked up when you also tried to propel your dead body to the soulsphere, though in a more efficient way. 

 

By the way, one can reach the fireblu portal to the empty lot if you're in the empty lot, clip out of bounds, and escape the backrooms to the staircase. 

[Scuba Steve]

The last segment of the video regarding the bizarre anti-cheat method surprised me because I have yet to see Graf on this thread complaining about the hacks breaking how he wants to play.

[ShallowB]

I guess it has been a while since an art project threatened the continued existence of GZDoom :P 

[DavidN]

BeyondCompare 4 time again! Thanks @Klear for providing the original upload - this compares that version to the one that was uploaded in later March.

 

Map definition changes:
- A default map definition was added to MAPINFO in the late March version, forcing compat_useblocking to false (this is the GZDoom default, meaning that lines with actions will not block the use of lines with actions behind them - in Doom, the first line with a special in the player's range will absorb the player's Use action)
- Also set lightmode 3 (Dark) on the default map

 

Map changes:
- Many, many things have been set to appear on skill 5 (Nightmare) in the late March version that were toggled off in the original upload.
- The berserk pack on the shelf in the daycare has been moved so that it isn't slightly inside the wall. (It has also had its ambush flag set for some reason)
- Actor Enters Sector at the bottom of the bathtub now runs script 83 (a new script Music Liminal Bathtub that changes the music to RUNNIN3 and removes the Actor Enters Sector object) instead of 64 (Music Liminal), and script 64 no longer removes the Actor Enters Sector object tagged 369. This fixes a bug where going into the Brutalist house via the Twilight Zone portal in the furnace room would also delete the bathtub Actor Enters Sector object, but I'm not certain it was possible for the player to encounter the bug anyway
- An new Actor Enters Sector object at the bottom of the daycare chute will also run script 64 (just changing the music to RUNNIN3)
- Script 70, executed when the mirror is uncovered, now moves the glass tumbler from the sink to the shelf in the mirrored portal bathroom! The effect was absent before.
- Lines/vertices/sectors/tags for the tumbler have been added
- The mysterious phone at the Shell station! In the earliest version this was a usable linedef that used lock 10. Oddly, lock 10 does not use the Quarter but instead the BlueSkull. The action is 67, Floor Raise Instantly By Value * 8, but the sector and value to raise by are both 0 so the phone does nothing.
- In the earliest version, three lines behind each other on the sink in the kitchen of the flooded house have actions that alter the water level of the kitchen/bath in the altered house and lower the barrier next to the bathtub. The actions have been removed in the March update. I think this might have been an earlier attempt to script the water levels that got copied over to the flooded house when the flooded house was made, then the author later realized it was easier to do this action with a script but accidentally left the old version in the flooded house until deleting it in the late March version. If this isn't someone who was starting to learn ACS scripting after being used to doing more Boom-ish scripting then they are planting red herrings on a level truly never seen before in the history of civilization.

[HumanHardDrive1]

 

6 hours ago, DavidN said:

lightmode 3 (Dark)

 

i hate it. i set my gamma way up and changed the sector lighting method when I played the map.

[ShallowB]

26 minutes ago, HumanHardDrive1 said:

 

 

i hate it. i set my gamma way up and changed the sector lighting method when I played the map.

Later versions changed it to “Doom,” which looks a little better.  The gas station is still terribly dark, even on “Bright.”

[YeOldeFellerNoob]

Crazy map. I know I commented already but fuck this is a great WAD.

 

I'd argue that this could join the ranks of Ancient Aliens, Alien Vendetta, and the whole slew of classic DOOM wads.

 

And this is just one singular map!

[Klaesick]

MyHouse.wad reminds me of a good creepypasta, like NES Godzilla or even Ben Drowned. The Journal entries give this away the best, but the map itself has that kind of feeling. Starting off appearing average or "normal", and slowly descending into terror, the game/wad feeling almost alive.
I'm actually really glad we got more "Artsy" projects for Doom. Is it not everyone's cup of tea, but dang, I'd love to see more projects like or inspired by this!

Edited April 30, 2023 by Klaesick

[The Final Event]

On 4/19/2023 at 11:47 PM, skillsaw said:

I've been wondering about Veddge's identity as well.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Like NJ, I think it's most likely that Veddge is an alt of someone in the community. Tarnsman was among the first names that came to mind for me, as well (because of the nature D2ISO and it's release and the esselfortium/Jimmy connection), but this would be a pretty big departure for him, as he doesn't like doing anything programmery (e.g. all the scripting required to make this map work), so if it is him, I'd assume he had help with that stuff.

 

Honestly, the first name that came to mind for me was Xaser - he's made references to SCP before, he has all the requisite GZDoom skills, like Tarnsman he has the essel/Jimmy connection, he's even released standalone surreal horror-inspired maps for ZDoom (dead.air and dead.wire) and he's been around long enough. But -- like essel and Jimmy and Mechadon -- he's also been extremely busy with Supplice so I immediately discounted him.

 

That said - NEW EVIDENCE HAS COME TO LIGHT - I believe the author is Alfonzo. Around 14:20 in his Nirvana interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijTLkUWYZlM), his comments are way too on the nose: he literally says "Everyone needs to air your dirty laundry: get your MyHouse.wad out there". The timing of this is so on the nose it made my head explode when I heard it today. In this same interview, he mentions joining Doomworld a number of years before joining again in 2013 as Alfonzo - so there's room in the timeline for a "Veddge" (VEDGE == VEGEMITE == AUSTRALIA?!?) account, there. Alfonzo also has the essel/Jimmy connection, and he also has a long history with Tarnsman, so I think some of the qualities that lead NJ to conclude Tarnsman is Veddge could be the result of cross pollination from their long relationship. Alfonzo has always had an appreciation for Doom-as-art, and although I don't know him that well, based on his podcasting, streaming, and writing, I think MyHouse.wad would be right up his alley. The biggest question mark here is Alfonzo having a smaller track record with GZDoom mapping.

 

I hate to bring an end to the speculation but this was actually made by me

Fuck wait this isn't the group chat

Edited April 30, 2023 by The Final Event

[Klaesick]

On 4/30/2023 at 11:02 AM, YeOldeFellerNoob said:

Crazy map. I know I commented already but fuck this is a great WAD.

 

I'd argue that this could join the ranks of Ancient Aliens, Alien Vendetta, and the whole slew of classic DOOM wads.

 

And this is just one singular map!

I'm actually inclined to disagree. Not because it isn't good or well-made, but because it's an entirely different experience from playing those other wads.
Ancient Aliens, Alien Vendetta, and other "Classic" Sets are meant to heighten Doom's combat and expand/alter on the pre-existing experience of the game. "Doom Plus" if you will.

MyHouse.wad isn't try to be "Doom Plus", it's trying to be a Good Creepypasta mixed with House of Leaves as a game. It's not really "fun" to play in my opinion like BTSX or Scythe is, and it isn't trying to be.
I think MyHouse.wad could use it's own category. "Artsy" is probably the best term. Something like Lilith.pk3, Hellground, Comatose, and Lost Civilization would pair better with MyHouse then Ancient Aliens or Alien Vendetta, in my personal opinion :).

Edited May 1, 2023 by Klaesick

[princetontiger]

I'm waiting here patiently for someone to step forward and reveal themselves: "I am the Batman"

[Not Jabba]

Did anyone catch that Veddge was signed up to make a map for Community Chest 3? No one with that name is credited on the megawad, but I'm curious what happened with that.

My historical dev hell lore is a little lacking in general, but I know there were two versions of that project, Ling's original and the revival by Andy Leaver in 2006.

 

The thread Veddge signed up in was this one. At the end of this thread, you can see that Linguica leaves a link for another thread, presumably a continuation of the first. That link doesn't work for some reason. Veddge's status update in May indicates he was still working on the map after the thread switch, all of which was well before the revival in 2006. So I'm just curious whether if we were able to view that thread, it would have some kind of author list or indication as to what happened to the map or anything of that nature. I actually can't find the 2006 thread for CC3 either -- I'm not sure why they're all so hard to search. Anybody have anything that would help -- particularly a way to translate that broken old-forum link into a link that works on the current forum?

[Tristan]

1 hour ago, Not Jabba said:

Did anyone catch that Veddge was signed up to make a map for Community Chest 3? No one with that name is credited on the megawad, but I'm curious what happened with that.

My historical dev hell lore is a little lacking in general, but I know there were two versions of that project, Ling's original and the revival by Andy Leaver in 2006.

 

The thread Veddge signed up in was this one. At the end of this thread, you can see that Linguica leaves a link for another thread, presumably a continuation of the first. That link doesn't work for some reason. Veddge's status update in May indicates he was still working on the map after the thread switch, all of which was well before the revival in 2006. So I'm just curious whether if we were able to view that thread, it would have some kind of author list or indication as to what happened to the map or anything of that nature. I actually can't find the 2006 thread for CC3 either -- I'm not sure why they're all so hard to search. Anybody have anything that would help -- particularly a way to translate that broken old-forum link into a link that works on the current forum?

 

My guess it that the link breaks because the showthread URLs were for the old forum software, but since the thread id is still there, the working link should be this: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/31570

Unfortunately the thread is hidden now - Community Chest used to have its own subforum so I guess that's where it is...

 

[Velvetic]

1 hour ago, Not Jabba said:

Did anyone catch that Veddge was signed up to make a map for Community Chest 3? No one with that name is credited on the megawad, but I'm curious what happened with that.

My historical dev hell lore is a little lacking in general, but I know there were two versions of that project, Ling's original and the revival by Andy Leaver in 2006.

 

The thread Veddge signed up in was this one. At the end of this thread, you can see that Linguica leaves a link for another thread, presumably a continuation of the first. That link doesn't work for some reason. Veddge's status update in May indicates he was still working on the map after the thread switch, all of which was well before the revival in 2006. So I'm just curious whether if we were able to view that thread, it would have some kind of author list or indication as to what happened to the map or anything of that nature. I actually can't find the 2006 thread for CC3 either -- I'm not sure why they're all so hard to search. Anybody have anything that would help -- particularly a way to translate that broken old-forum link into a link that works on the current forum?

https://web.archive.org/web/20130412205052/http://www.doomworld.com/vb/community-chest-4/31570-community-chest-3-official-signup-old/

The entirety of the subforum is there as well

Edited May 1, 2023 by Velvetic
futher info added

[m3_mapper]

I love the feeling of knowing I'll never reach this level of expertise.

[Not Jabba]

29 minutes ago, Velvetic said:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130412205052/http://www.doomworld.com/vb/community-chest-4/31570-community-chest-3-official-signup-old/

The entirety of the subforum is there as well

Thanks!

 

Based on a quick review of a few main dev/signup threads, it looks like what happened is: Veddge signed up again in the new signup thread, requesting any available slot and reiterating that he would work on it over the summer (same as what he said in his status update). He never posted about it again anywhere after that aside from the May status update. At some point, the OP placed him as map 34, which I'm guessing is basically code for "this person might contribute, I dunno." He didn't respond to the July request for updates, never rejoined the Andy Leaver version, and was never again listed as a possible contributor.

 

It seems like a pretty straightforward case of vaporware, though it also confirms beyond any shadow of a doubt that Veddge was on Doomworld at the time under the name Veddge and there is no crazy deep-state conspiracy to reverse-engineer him in the present with help from Doomworld administration. I also did pick up on one interesting little piece of unrelated history: based on chopkinsca's post at the beginning of this thread, it looks to me like Phocas Island 2 may have started out as a contribution to CC3.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Not Jabba

[Gregor]

I like that the investigation is still ongoing.

This subforum find makes it look like the real Veddge died around that time and the author of myhouse somehow got access to his account, impersonating him ever since they "returned" last year. That would certainly give the contents of the QR code an extra level of meaning.

 

[Not Jabba]

12 hours ago, Gregor said:

This subforum find makes it look like the real Veddge died around that time and the author of myhouse somehow got access to his account, impersonating him ever since they "returned" last year. That would certainly give the contents of the QR code an extra level of meaning.

 

I can't imagine many people would be willing to exploit a person's death like that. More likely, the mapper just knew the owner of the Veddge account and were able to get access to it because Veddge didn't want it anymore, either because they have a newer account or because Veddge had moved on.

 

The most obvious question is still:

 

Spoiler

Who owned the Veddge account originally? They were a vegetarian, went to the University of Vermont to study graphic design (at least initially), were born in March 1987, were raised Lutheran but were basically agnostic, and loved many ZDoom/experimental releases of the mid-2000s except didn't like it as much when they went more extreme in terms of horde fights or feature use (e.g., loved Simplicity and Mucus Flow/Grove, didn't love Deus Vult or Tormentor's releases).

 

It seems most likely/logical that the owner of the Veddge account and the mapper are two separate people. It would be so much easier to know someone who had an old account than to have an old account of your own, and one that would potentially link you directly to the project you were trying to release under an alias. However, figuring out who Veddge is could certainly help, and would at least answer some fraction of our questions.

 

Veddge could be anyone, so either it could be someone we know (which would be helpful for thinking about who the mapper is) or someone who really never came back to Doomworld under a new name (in which case it's a dead end, but still kinda historically interesting). 

The only real possibility we've come up with so far is Alfonzo. According to skillsaw, he mentioned having had a prior Doomworld account in Nirvana's interview, though I haven't listened to the whole thing yet myself. I haven't been able to prove or disprove a connection between them so far -- sometimes it seems like they could be the same person and sometimes it doesn't. Everyone else I've looked at is simply impossible, either because they are clearly super different people or because their accounts were created before Veddge went inactive.

 

One thing that shouldn't be that hard to verify:
 

Spoiler

Did a person named Steve Nelson enter the University of Vermont as a Freshman in fall of 2005? If not, then the name Steve Nelson is fake.

 

Another question I'm interested in:

 

Spoiler

When we reached the final ending, Jimmy jumped in and claimed the Wiki writeup, specifically requesting that other people who had expressed interest in doing a walkthrough relinquish their claims and leave it to him. On discord he told me he had "talked to some people" and done some research in the editors to figure things out that others might have missed, so he would be the best person to do the writeup. He even thanked me for some of the forum walkthroughs I wrote that he said had helped him with his own writeup. This seemed fine, because he was enthusiastic and clearly in love with the map, so I happily let him do it. This seems to have all been based on a lie, though -- he clearly knew the map already and was involved in its development. 

 

So, by planting a member of the dev team as the wiki walkthrough writer, what were they trying to hide? Or, what information did they want to make sure was in the wiki page that other people outside of the team might not have included?

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by Not Jabba

[Catpho]

NJ is living in a 70s paranoia thriller at this point. He just needs to ask one wrong question.

 

About Jimmy additions: the whole "inspiration and development" section is a start. Curiously, the inspiration for Essel's ambient track was mentioned even before Essel's confirmation. Without further clarification and given the info so far, it isn't unlikely that what's written there is the closest thing we get to author commentary.

[ShallowB]

Considering they both work on Doom music together, I think it's also possible he just asked her about it.

[Not Jabba]

2 minutes ago, ShallowB said:

Considering they both work on Doom music together, I think it's also possible he just asked her about it.

 

Yeah, but...it seems less likely. He's never come clean, never taken his tongue out of his cheek, and never appeared in this thread again after it was revealed he was involved. He certainly hid that fact from me, and I know him decently well.

 

11 minutes ago, Catpho said:

NJ is living in a 70s paranoia thriller at this point. He just needs to ask one wrong question.

 

Heh, yeah.

 

I really do find all of this interesting -- diving into forum history, remembering what it was like to be on DW in the mid-2000s (I joined the forum the same year Veddge did and remember a lot of the same releases that were formative for me as an early Doomer), reading little bits of history about project dev and what people thought about wads at the time, finding all the little connections and interactions this person who nobody remembers had with the community at large, and obviously following the information that's there as a set of clues or looking for the ones that are probably there somewhere. I have to say again, trying to answer these questions feels a lot like playing MyHouse itself, but also it's sort of a "slice of life" thing that's fun for its own reasons. Like, it would have been neat to find a download of a beta map created by Veddge whether that was the same person who created MyHouse or not.

 

It does seem like I'm more invested in this than other people want to be, though. If this is like...anti-fun for everybody else, I can drop it.

[Catpho]

As a wiki-head, archive binges can be both mega tedious and mega rewarding. I envy your energy right now! I mean, me liking all these posts should say something, right?

[ShallowB]

It seems appropriate that this wad would make you take a trip down into the nostalgia of your own early years with Doom!

 

I was initially worried that this was going to result in accidentally doxxing someone, since some people seemed to be thoroughly convinced there was a real person's story involved here.  The last thing I'd want is for Veddge to put out a cool map and suddenly get people calling them up and asking about their "dead friend."  But that seems unlikely now because Veddge has both covered their tracks pretty well and also I think now that more people know about the secret final ending, it's becoming more or less common knowledge that the whole story is fictional. 

[Gregor]

43 minutes ago, Not Jabba said:

It does seem like I'm more invested in this than other people want to be, though. If this is like...anti-fun for everybody else, I can drop it.

Please keep going! You're our prime investigator on this case.

[SuJu]

1 hour ago, Not Jabba said:

It does seem like I'm more invested in this than other people want to be, though. If this is like...anti-fun for everybody else, I can drop it.

 

No please, continue! Your work, and the work of several others, has been very interesting to read, and just adds more to how amazing this mod truly is.

[Bulletproof Pal]

I think that is just sort of what happens with these sorts of things. When part of the mystery is "what is the mystery" it makes it difficult to know when we're supposed to stop digging, and this was such a neat experience that everyone is left hungry for more and want to keep pulling at strings. I would have said everything was unwrapped awhile ago but then there was the credits file and the mysterious disappearing reappearing soulsphere (which I assume is a leftover/mistake, like the phone booth and the coin item)

[Groplaw]

22 hours ago, Not Jabba said:

I can't imagine many people would be willing to exploit a person's death like that. More likely, the mapper just knew the owner of the Veddge account and were able to get access to it because Veddge didn't want it anymore, either because they have a newer account or because Veddge had moved on.

 

The most obvious question is still:

 

  Hide contents

Who owned the Veddge account originally? They were a vegetarian, went to the University of Vermont to study graphic design (at least initially), were born in March 1987, were raised Lutheran but were basically agnostic, and loved many ZDoom/experimental releases of the mid-2000s except didn't like it as much when they went more extreme in terms of horde fights or feature use (e.g., loved Simplicity and Mucus Flow/Grove, didn't love Deus Vult or Tormentor's releases).

 

It seems most likely/logical that the owner of the Veddge account and the mapper are two separate people. It would be so much easier to know someone who had an old account than to have an old account of your own, and one that would potentially link you directly to the project you were trying to release under an alias. However, figuring out who Veddge is could certainly help, and would at least answer some fraction of our questions.

 

Veddge could be anyone, so either it could be someone we know (which would be helpful for thinking about who the mapper is) or someone who really never came back to Doomworld under a new name (in which case it's a dead end, but still kinda historically interesting). 

The only real possibility we've come up with so far is Alfonzo. According to skillsaw, he mentioned having had a prior Doomworld account in Nirvana's interview, though I haven't listened to the whole thing yet myself. I haven't been able to prove or disprove a connection between them so far -- sometimes it seems like they could be the same person and sometimes it doesn't. Everyone else I've looked at is simply impossible, either because they are clearly super different people or because their accounts were created before Veddge went inactive.

 

One thing that shouldn't be that hard to verify:
 

  Hide contents

Did a person named Steve Nelson enter the University of Vermont as a Freshman in fall of 2005? If not, then the name Steve Nelson is fake.

 

Another question I'm interested in:

 

  Hide contents

When we reached the final ending, Jimmy jumped in and claimed the Wiki writeup, specifically requesting that other people who had expressed interest in doing a walkthrough relinquish their claims and leave it to him. On discord he told me he had "talked to some people" and done some research in the editors to figure things out that others might have missed, so he would be the best person to do the writeup. He even thanked me for some of the forum walkthroughs I wrote that he said had helped him with his own writeup. This seemed fine, because he was enthusiastic and clearly in love with the map, so I happily let him do it. This seems to have all been based on a lie, though -- he clearly knew the map already and was involved in its development. 

 

So, by planting a member of the dev team as the wiki walkthrough writer, what were they trying to hide? Or, what information did they want to make sure was in the wiki page that other people outside of the team might not have included?

 

 

 

Something that feels like it should be a big tell after watching the technical breakdown video series on the wad is how much seems like its done in archaic mapping techniques, making it seem like it really is an old account from someone that hasn't mapped in a long time.

 

If thats not some SUPER elaborate misdirection, does that style of map making really fit any of the proposed suspects other maps seems to be the question.  I don't know the technical minutia of various mappers techniques enough to answer that question, but it feels like a fingerprint.

 

I know its not the case, but how insane would it be if it was B.P.R.D coming back for a final doom map and thats why its archaic, lol.

[Not Jabba]

47 minutes ago, Groplaw said:

 

 

Something that feels like it should be a big tell after watching the technical breakdown video series on the wad is how much seems like its done in archaic mapping techniques, making it seem like it really is an old account from someone that hasn't mapped in a long time.

 

I haven't watched through the video series yet, but DavidN said he thought it was a mapper who was used to Boom scripting, which isn't really archaic per se -- it could be any modern mapper who doesn't normally work with GZDoom. A lot of the speculation so far is that the mapper was someone from the large group that have been involved in projects like dtwid and BTSX, and basically all of them would fit that profile except for Xaser.