MyHouse.wad

Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for MyHouse.wad; read at your own caution.

Overview

MyHouse.wad is a map created for Doom II purportedly based on the house of a man named Thomas Allord, who died shortly before it was released by Tom's friend in March 2023. The map begins as a seemingly normal recreation of a house but becomes increasingly absurd and horrific as the player explores, including abnormal demon enemies, eerie music, looping and maze-like rooms and changes to the house layout and a battle with Shrek. The map, inspired by the book House of Leaves, includes multiple endings and additional files within the download folder, including journal entries, sketches and photos of the real-life house the map is based on that expand on the lore behind its creation, making the map double as a creepypasta. The map gained a large following in the months after its release, inspiring fan art and content, as well as videos exploring it.

Background

On September 3rd, 2022, DoomWorld^[1] user Veddge made a comment on a thread sharing screenshots of a map his friend Tom, who he claims recently died, created. According to Veddge, the map is based on his house. It used to be a popular trend online to recreate your house in Doom.

On March 3rd, 2023, DoomWorld^[2] user Veddge made a post titled "MyHouse," where he shares a Google Drive^[3] link including the files for the Doom II map purportedly based on his friend Tom's house. In the post, he again explains that Tom died recently and he connected with Tom's parents, who shared some of his old belongings with him, including a floppy disc with the MyHouse files. Allegedly, Tom made the map around 15 years ago and Veddge cleaned it up and released it as a tribute to his friend (read below).

Excited to finally release this tribute map. Last August I lost a good childhood friend of mine and took it pretty hard. When I was visiting my hometown for his funeral, I connected with his parents who shared with me some of his old belongings. Among them was a copy of an old map of his backed up on a 3.5” floppy from high school. Thomas and I were into amateur Doom mapping in the early 00s but I had never seen this map of his prior to uncovering it on one of the old floppy discs. As a way of paying tribute to him and all the great memories we had together, I took the plunge and installed Doom Builder in order to polish up his map and add a few modern amenities just for convenience sake.

I haven’t touched an editor in over 15 years so it was quite a surprise to find out how easy mapping has become. I may have gotten a little carried away with these new UDMF features and, as such, the map is designed for GZDoom.

The Google Drive folder also includes sub-folders for some of Tom's sketchbook pages, photos of the house the map is based on, an obituary for Tom and a journal documenting Veddge's process of cleaning up and finishing the map spanning from August 2022 to March 2023. The journal documents Veddge's increasing obsession with cleaning up the game, an increase in nightmares as he works on it and how his life is being negatively affected by the game, including a mysterious car crash and claims that he can "no longer tell what elements of the map are his" (examples shown below).

I can no longer tell what elements of this map are my friend’s, which are mine… and what the map has created. I am no longer afraid that the map is creating itself. It needs me as much as I need it. Which reminds me of a dream I had the other night. I’m not sleeping much, but I recall

this one with surprising clarity. I was standing on a beach staring out at the placid water, the ocean stretching out as far as the eye could see. Seagulls cawed overhead and the gentle caress of water lapped the sand in front of me. I dipped my toes into the water. At least I tried. There was no water. No ocean. It was an illusion. I realized everything around me was fake.

Online Presence

One of the earliest playthroughs of the map was uploaded by YouTuber^[4] Kalymna on March 12th, 2023, garnering over 43,000 views in two months (shown below).

On May 11th, YouTuber^[5] Power Pak posted a video exploring MyHouse in great detail, pointing out the inspirations taken from House of Leaves, showcasing how the player ends up in The Backrooms if they go out of bounds in a certain area and linking portions of the game to the journal entries provided in the Google Drive to try and figure out the full story behind the game, garnering over 3.6 million views in two weeks (shown below).

Following the Power Pak video, the map became increasingly popular online, inspiring further playthroughs and explorations, as well as fan content. On May 15th, YouTuber^[6] Spazmatic Banana posted a video playing the map that gained over 324,000 views in a week. On May 17th, YouTuber^[7] Vinesauce posted a video of the game, garnering over 159,000 views in five days (shown below).

That same day, Twitter^[8] user @kitty4prz posted a piece of fan art based on the map, garnering over 1,500 likes in five days (shown below, left).On May 19th, Twitter^[9] user @ZAC__IMPACT posted a piece of fan art based on the map, writing, "loop two," garnering over 2,300 likes in three days (shown below, right).

On May 21st, Twitter^[10] user @JamesPaddock made a post sharing the game's title screen, writing, "play this. DO NOT look up anything about it. just play it. It's not much of a challenge and roughly 10 minutes of play time, do it right now I'm very extremely serious," garnering over 17,000 likes in a day.

Meme / Fan Art Examples

Search Interest

External References