MyHouse.wad

[TJG1289]

8 minutes ago, thomasthetankengine said:

I'm somewhat shocked by this. Is this another angle of the house pictured in myhouse.WAD?

This is the house on the cover of American Football's self-titled debut album.

[OliveTree]

this is actually an incredible work of art

[Pixelslick]

inspired me to buy house of leaves
very good map

[Devalaous]

Spoiler

So there is a bug I triggered on a route where I started from reverse Underhalls. At the Brutalist house, I died and went to the Hospital, just to see that specific bit of content, and after reviving, I went for the Megasphere secret, at this point there is supposed to be only one item left (as the three 'real' items are the Berserk pack in the Daycare, the Megasphere in the Brutalist window, and the trolling Health bonus in the Airport). At some point during this, the triggers for the trollspheres seemed to go off repeatedly, as there was now 8 soulspheres on the pedestals in House 1, 4 in each 'floor'. While the map is totally not 100%able legitimately due to the ruined house having monsters, the Skinstealer counting as a kill, and all the Mirrorviles, this still irked me.

I fixed it by warping to the map's house 0 start (open console, type 'warp 2664 1840 -24') and completing House 1. The script that removes the trollspheres also removed the extra copies.

 

[TheBottomLine]

5 hours ago, Gez said:

Yes, Tom. There are hints in the airport.

Steve was dead all along!

Spoiler

Then who uploaded the map and accompanying files?

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by TheBottomLine

[TheBottomLine]

9 hours ago, mezza9 said:

Has anyone found out the actual physical newspaper (I'm assuming it was one?) where the obituaries were published? I was curious if the both actually exist, and are not just a result of digital fabrication.

 

The mod seems to hint of two possible ways of dying. A car accident and a house fire (nothing good can come out of a house fire). Otherwise it just seems bit too coincidental that two old friends would die in their 30s on the same day in a non-related accident.

 

The photo of them together seems digitally crafted as well. I took the obituary photo, cropped the face, flipped it horizontally, applied a little rotation and it's nearly 100% match in my GIMP when I apply opacity to that layer. The overall mood of that picture seems a bit fake as well. Tom is smiling, Steve is dead serious, and both don't seem to be dressed up for the same occasion. Also, this photo is supposedly taken when they were in their 30s – in the age of hi-res mobile phone cameras. Sure, polaroid cameras were all the rage a few years back, with young folks having their retro phase, so that could be one explanation. The other one being, it's photoshopped.

 

However, I'm guessing the obituary one might could be fabricated as well, since it requires higher resolution picture to create a plausible fake.

Sorry for going off on a tangent here. Not sure if most of you liked the kept the discussion more centric to the actual WAD itself. However, I'm not gonna lie when I say the journal, obituaries and whatnot invite the player to dig in deeper into the mystery.

At least for the images of Tom and Steve, that can easily be generated with AI. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think AI has really mastered generating legible text; I don't believe it could've created the obituaries.

[Logamuffin]

47 minutes ago, Devalaous said:

At some point during this, the triggers for the trollspheres seemed to go off repeatedly, as there was now 8 soulspheres on the pedestals in House 1, 4 in each 'floor'. 

 

This may or may not be intended. The hospital has 5 Soulsphere triggers for whatever reason: 

 

 

[Gez]

22 minutes ago, TheBottomLine said:

  Hide contents

Then who uploaded the map and accompanying files?

 

Dead Steve's Spooky Ghost, of course. That's the entire point of the Dead All Along trope.

[D4NUK1]

33 minutes ago, TheBottomLine said:

At least for the images of Tom and Steve, that can easily be generated with AI. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think AI has really mastered generating legible text; I don't believe it could've created the obituaries.

 

It's easy to insert text like that on a editor, so it's likely self made, to include points of interest on the wad.

[Devalaous]

Well, finished the whole thing, and I feel a sense of loss now as there is nothing more to see.

 

Spoiler

The last parts being Doomy was both great and weak at the same time; on one hand, now it was real tangible enemies, familiar ones at that. On the other, it was clear there was no more exploration of strange realms to see, just a good old 'earn your happy ending' giant fight. That said, the Doom player in me wishes some things were different. I am aware this clashes with the more cinematic parts of this wad, but still.

• That the ruined house monsters either get killed by scripts or don't count as kills. By even seeing the ruined house, you've cut yourself off from the ending.
• That the Mirrorviles, the Skinstealer, and the dogs don't count as kills: the former is meant to be one horrifying monster that chases you, as well as torments you from across a mirror in the attic; but due to the way that trick is done, it counts as FOUR seperate monsters. The Skinstealer is unkillable by design, so the fact it counts as a kill is a 'whoops' or trolling. The dogs, well..
• Ending 2 should lead to Underhalls/Reverse Underhalls as a 'try again' instead of just cutting everything dead.
• Good Ending should lead to The Gantlet, aka 'im finally free of the loop!' as well as give a sense of closure with an intermission. Being stuck there with the good boy with al my weapons and armour stripped and having to quit, doesnt feel like a definitive 'end' to me. Even if it didnt go to Gantlet, could pull up a custom castcall for a sense of finality.

Also, it took me *eighteen hours* to see and do everything. What an adventure. But again, now I just feel...lost. Regular Doom is going to feel a bit lacking for a bit, heh.

 

[Chao-G]

6 hours ago, MilkCartnMartn said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I actually might have some thoughts on that. the departures list in the airport is sort of strange. I know Power Pak pointed out the "helpme" on the sign in his video, but I don't know if anyone's noticed that to the right in the mangled "cancelled"s, another string spells out "anna". I have no idea if there's more significance than that or if anna is mentioned anywhere else, but I'm thinking there's a connection there. those are the only words on the sign that are misspelled, so I don't think its a coincidence.

 

Edit: it seems people already know about this, I'm just out of the loop

 

 

If you look at the third column of letters in the rows of misspelled "cancelled", it spells CENA if you read the letters in a particular order. Maybe we were John Cena all along, which explains why we can't see ourselves in the mirror! I apologize for this joke, I'll make my exit now.

[ultra_kek]

44 minutes ago, Devalaous said:

Well, finished the whole thing, and I feel a sense of loss now as there is nothing more to see.

 

  Hide contents

The last parts being Doomy was both great and weak at the same time; on one hand, now it was real tangible enemies, familiar ones at that. On the other, it was clear there was no more exploration of strange realms to see, just a good old 'earn your happy ending' giant fight. That said, the Doom player in me wishes some things were different. I am aware this clashes with the more cinematic parts of this wad, but still.

• That the ruined house monsters either get killed by scripts or don't count as kills. By even seeing the ruined house, you've cut yourself off from the ending.
• That the Mirrorviles, the Skinstealer, and the dogs don't count as kills: the former is meant to be one horrifying monster that chases you, as well as torments you from across a mirror in the attic; but due to the way that trick is done, it counts as FOUR seperate monsters. The Skinstealer is unkillable by design, so the fact it counts as a kill is a 'whoops' or trolling. The dogs, well..
• Ending 2 should lead to Underhalls/Reverse Underhalls as a 'try again' instead of just cutting everything dead.
• Good Ending should lead to The Gantlet, aka 'im finally free of the loop!' as well as give a sense of closure with an intermission. Being stuck there with the good boy with al my weapons and armour stripped and having to quit, doesnt feel like a definitive 'end' to me. Even if it didnt go to Gantlet, could pull up a custom castcall for a sense of finality.

Also, it took me *eighteen hours* to see and do everything. What an adventure. But again, now I just feel...lost. Regular Doom is going to feel a bit lacking for a bit, heh.

 

Spoiler

While the question of counting kills is more subjective (not counting them could have both alleviated 100% completion concerns and further hidden the secrets, but conversely could have removed the question of where all the enemies are that could motivate further intrigue), I think you may be projecting intent/meaning towards the endings that may not actually be there.
Assuming by ending 2 you are referring to the fake beach, although it may not be the "good ending" it is still an ending. While it may be more personally appealing to be able to loop or continue past that point instead of needing to load a save or being unsure of when to quit, I think there is a clear and intentional degree of ambiguity in both endings (plus the grave) serving as dead ends gameplay-wise. While I personally find it more interesting as it is now myself, either way if such described changes were made to push the player towards a specific route and interpretation this ambiguity would be lost, marking a significant deviation in the meaning of the work. It would be unfair to criticize something for failing to do something that it had never intended in the first place, after all.

 

[houston]

55 minutes ago, Chao-G said:

It spells CENA if you read the letters in a particular order.

The answer was in front of us all along... we just couldn't see it.

[Misha Tarkus]

Made an account solely to reply here - hadn't gotten into wads for nearly a decade now, butI wanted to offer my two cents and interpretations before it's buried entirely. To tl;dr, I disagree with any "Steve was dead all along" interpretations, and I feel it's a failure to grasp what the mod is truly about. While of course everyone's take is fair and valid, given how much this draws from the Liminal Space communities, I went at it with a mindset that interprets liminal spaces as the edges between possible realities.

Full spoilers below.
 

Spoiler

 

To tl;dr I think this work is actually about the possible ways Steve and Tom's lives have and could've gone, the house (and the wad) working as a sort of gateway or reflection of those possibilities. Through confronting elements of Steve's past, we see those different endings play out for him, although at the moment I am unsure of several details - but more importantly, which is the original Steve and Tom, the one from 'our' reality, who made the post. Let's call them Steve 1 and Tom 1, numbers connected to the 3 endings (1 - Burnt Down Sold House, 2 - Mirror Beach, 3 - Real Beach).

 

I believe it's clear Tom 1 died in a house fire. He died in his house, a house that burnt down and took him with it. It's clear to me Tom and Steve had been childhood friends that in high school possibly engaged in an experimental romance, maybe fueled by a night of D&D (Roll for Intercourse?) and later went their separate ways ... for a while, maybe. See, that's where I hit a snag, because in the original obituary for Tom I made notice of the vague genderless pronoun for the childhood crush he'd reconnected with, referred only as 'they' and 'them'. At first, like most, I assumed it was to deliberately throw us off as to this being Tom, but what if it's vague to account for multiple possibilities?

 

I'm unsure if Tom 1 and Steve 1 were together as adults or if Tom 1 had actually married a woman, instead. The importance of this is that I'm unsure if Steve 1 regretted never reconnecting with Tom, or if they had and felt guilt over it. The reason I bring this up is because it did feel wrong to me, in retrospect, that he'd refer to his partner as 'his childhood friend' so often, in the journals and such, even as a deliberate audience misdirection. It felt overly callous. Regardless, I'll be commenting on both possibilities going ahead.

 

So Tom 1 died in a housefire, but whatever the case, Steve 1 survived. It's unclear if he was in the house or not (as per above), but he receives the incomplete wad and sets about finishing it. I think at this point the possibilities start to unravel with the wad as a nexus, given the dreams and the game completing itself - but Ending 1, the burnt down house, that is the 'real' reality, unchanged, raw. The house is gone, and time moves on. The items, in my opinion, reflect a struggling to overcome elements of Steve (and maybe Tom's) past to achieve a better life or rationale after his death, and possibly even refer to rearranging how they feel about the past to change the decisions they took in life. Like they're picking how to process these memories and seeing the different results that come from them.

 

I'm always unsure which items refer to which, but for the sake of this original argument, let's assume all of them refer to Steve. I won't go through every item, but I think it's obvious he had a rough childhood (I believe the black room and the pepsi room are from Steve's past, not Tom's) and also possibly struggled with Psychosis, or a family member with psychosis (more on this later) - a mother that constantly divorced and remarried and other ills. Collecting all the items, in my eyes, reflects on being able to struggle past all that, although I'd like to point to one item and one dream in particular: the baby bottle. 'It wasn't meant to be'.

This is why I brought up the possibility maybe Tom and Steve 1 never got together, or maybe in separate world, the one that will be fermented by the Ending 2 (Mirror Beach), he did so, as Tom 2. The possibility of a biological child of Tom's, or possibly a child of Steve's if he pursued a heterosexual relationship, that was 'never to be' (either not present in reality 1, or not present in 2, whichever is the one Tom and Steve get together again) - essentially, a cursed child whose existence is predicated on the failure of their love. It is why it 'haunts' him, in the form of a nightmare that to me belonged to the child when it existed (Shrek fits as a nightmare more to  a child born in the late 90s or early 2000s than men that would've been born in the late 80s).

 

So either Ending 2 World is one where Steve is owning up to his feelings towards Tom and reconnects with him, born out of a regret he never did so in World 1, or vice versa, one where he refuses to reconnect with Tom to try and save his life (so he isn't home when the fire burns down, possibly?). I also think the 'immaculate' house is connected here, as one where he simply moves away rather than die there in the fire, out of possibly being warned or partially reconnected with, but not gone all the way. I'm unsure of which I believe in for Worlds 1/2, as both are compelling - in one, Steve never reconnected with Tom and is burdened with a deep regret, while in the other, they did and he regrets that it led to his early accidental death, wishing he could take it back.

 

I think World/Ending 2, the Mirror World end, is one where Steve confronts all his past traumas and rearranges the past memories, but what is happening depends on your interpretations of the above. If Steve 1 and Tom 1 were an item and World 2 is one where they aren't, it's a world where Steve saved Tom's life but it is a hollow victory, one where he feels no joy or happiness despite him being alive. If they weren't, and World 1 is where they never got together and 2 is one where they connected and got back together to assuage Steve's regret, I then interpret this as not a world at all, but an illusion, Tom thinking of what could've happened, some metaphorical and illusory ideal. Not his 'real' life, so to say, and not the path he truly took.

 

Thus, World 3 - either this is Steve in a world where they were an item back in World 1 accepting reality and choosing to move past it, confronting all the demons and traumas after a car crash (possibly alcohol-induced?), adopting a dog after getting over his personal trauma to deal with the hole left by Tom (as per the journal), or in a world where they were never together, similar accepting that reality and choosing to live on anyway. I truly believe this is a 'happy' ending, in which Steve is alive and well after those traumatic experiences at the edge of reality, experiencing what could've been.

 

And then, of course, the QR code Ending. I think this is one where rather than moving past all this, either through World 1 already being one where they were together or by remaking the world into one where they are together, Steve chooses to die in the same house fire as Tom. They die together, and thus share an obituary. I do not think this is the case in every reality, and I do not think Dead Steve made the map.

 

Alright, some lightning round stuff:

• If you want a tl;dr, I side more with Steve and Tom in World 1 (Reality) being a couple that was briefly together, Tom dies in a house fire and Steve becomes overcome with grief and guilt. He experiences the edges of reality through the wad, including a world where they never reconnected (and Tom was safe either due to luck or they never moved back into his childhood home) and thus he'd be 'safe', meaninglessly. Instead, he chooses to keep being together with him even if it means processing that grief.
• There is a possible negative bend on the above where accepting being by Tom's side always kills Steve 100% of the time and Dead Steve is the true ending, but I feel that clashes with the beach even if fits the contrast between the infinite void dream and the beach ending slightly better. The true end at the true beach feels too decisively good for this, and if it was true, I think the dog would only show if you killed it rather than spared it.
• I interpreted most items as tied to Steve - a psychotic father or mother (the pills by the chair could mean either), a constant switch of stepfathers, childhood traumas and some sweet memories in teenagehood, a trauma of dogs (and maybe a reason to approach Tom, a cat lover), with only the bottle being a confusing one. Given the crib is in the attic, an attic that doesn't seem to 'belong' in the real house, it could be that the marriage of Steve's parents fell apart due to a stillborn younger sibling.
• The 'maybe woman' in Tom's life I said here is mostly a reading on the vague pronoun of the obituary's partner being a deliberate clue rather than just misdirection, and an extra layer of interpretation to the 'wasn't meant to be' baby. A baby that'd only exist in the reality Tom and Steve never connected with each other again. However, this isn't strictly necessary an interpretation.
• To me, the Backrooms/Liminal Space zones reflect the edges of reality and possible outcomes being explored and nudged against. They aren't part of their memories and its why even the dreams don't quite describe them (it calls the pool rooms a 'cave').
• The plane to me is Steve's anxiety at moving away from Tom the first time, possibly due to their parents splitting up or his dad's death.
• There's a secondary theory to me that encapsulates the items as more of a mixed Tom-Steve theme, and I want to preface it by saying this isn't born out of any hate or discrimination, on the contrary. But I have a pet theory that Tom was secretly a trans woman living as a man in secret, deeply regretful of this fact. We've known about the S + A, and while it could be just a pet name for "Allord" in Tom Allord, it brought to mind a Trans friend whose name is a gender-adjusted version of her middle name. 'Allie, Allison' in this case? Although I'm actually unsure if Tom would be FtM or MtF - either a trans man post transition, or a trans woman living as a man unable to transition. In this interpretation, Tom would've faced a long struggle with their gender identity over the course of their life, possibly undergoing hormone therapy (the bathroom in the airport makes sense here - the blood inside, being 'attacked' as if being judged by bigots, and after the pills the gender plaques being swapped around), and the baby would symbolize either the child they wish they could biologically bear with Tom, or one they didn't have due to their decision to transition. This is mostly to make sense out of the swapped plaques and S+A specifically, because switching their gender around after the episode is so specific.

EDIT:

• Also forgot to say outright, but I do think Steve dies in a car accident in some realities. I think maybe they die in World 1 or 2, separate from Tom, out of either grief or plain circumstance, but the 'Hell' Gas Station is too much to ignore. I don't think this is his QR Code death, which I feel by the joint obituaries to solidly imply he dies with Tom in the house fire, but I also think it happens after posting the wad, which could explain the OP's absence since. Like a premonition, which would show why the car is there in every memory leading up to it.
• Going through the game again, I remembered the car is safely parked on the mirror world gas station, but also only the mirror world has S+A. To me this would imply their relationship didn't blossom in reality, changing my mind a bit, but only in the mirror - avoiding Tom's crash, which I think might not have been fatal given the open door. I'm unsure what to think about the bloodied gas station, though - the bathroom is a nexus point, so other than another point to the maybe transgender theory (but that's Steve in the station, not Tom?) I have no clue here.

 

Anyway, feel free to discuss specifics or just pass this entirely, I just wanted to share my thoughts before they faded from my brain. Hope it was entertaining if nothing else!

 

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Misha Tarkus

[Bananya]

Spoiler

 

I have been here for 20 fucking minutes how tf do i get out of here

 

[Devalaous]

27 minutes ago, Bananya said:

  Hide contents

 

I have been here for 20 fucking minutes how tf do i get out of here

 

 

Spoiler

The same way you got in, which is easier said than done. If your really desperate to get out, enable the textured automap, default button is P I believe, then you can keep track of where the hell you are in the damn thing.

 

[Patrol1985]

Guys, my last post on this forum was in August of 2021. I logged in now just to write that I tried playing MyHouse and with 30 minutes thus far on the clock I consider it to be a masterpiece. I didn't read other posts in this thread and don't intend to until I have finished the level myself, but I just wanted to encourage everyone who hasn't tried it already to do so. Play it!

[Anti-Mousetrap]

27 minutes ago, Patrol1985 said:

Guys, my last post on this forum was in August of 2021. I logged in now just to write that I tried playing MyHouse and with 30 minutes thus far on the clock I consider it to be a masterpiece. I didn't read other posts in this thread and don't intend to until I have finished the level myself, but I just wanted to encourage everyone who hasn't tried it already to do so. Play it!

 

Already played it, I got the disappearing house ending.

[princetontiger]

We need a Wall Street Journal A-Hed article on this wad.

 

"After 30 years, Doom's community remains strong"

[ComedyGold]

HOLY SHIT

(made screenshot less shit)

Edited May 23, 2023 by ComedyGold

[LSC Lasico]

10 minutes ago, ComedyGold said:

HOLY SHIT

HOLY FUCK IS THIS REAL?

[LSC Lasico]

HOLY FUCK THIS IS REAL.

[Focusbreak]

Yeah and decino is streaming it this weekend too!

[Mr Masker]

9 minutes ago, LSC Lasico said:

HOLY FUCK IS THIS REAL?

wow it's the guy from Happy Wheels!

[Kroc]

Is Nightmare mode being the easiest to play some kind of suggestion that a nightmare is easier than facing reality?

[ReaperAA]

1 hour ago, ComedyGold said:

HOLY SHIT

 

HOLY MOLY!! MyHouse is gonna explode in popularity (like it hasn't already but now its gonna explode even more)

[xmonkeyofevil]

Had a friend, who has no real connection to playing classic Doom, ask if I had played MyHouse because he's seen a lot of people talking about it. The reach this map is getting is insane. You love to see it.

[Kroc]

1 hour ago, ComedyGold said:

HOLY SHIT

[smartphone screenshot of the crappy ad-full YouTube app]

The irony is that the more this goes mainstream, the less I know who TF these people are playing it :P

I'm more hyped for Decino than whatever one-video-away-from-a-crime-against-humanity popular YouTuber is next.

 

-- edit: This is very good playthrough! He's very perceptive!

Edited May 23, 2023 by Kroc

[ReaperAA]

3 minutes ago, Kroc said:

I'm more hyped for Decino than whatever one-video-away-from-a-crime-against-humanity popular YouTuber is next.

 

I too am more hyped about guys like Decino (or maybe MtPain27 in future) playing this. But more mainstream popular youtubers playing this are going to bring more people into Doom.

[princetontiger]

How the heck did this blow up so much?

 

I've seen some stuff like this... Romero coming back and making a map, but damn this has been the most viral a Doomworld thread has been since the late 90s.