MyHouse.WAD: Live Exploration & Review 

Go to www.buyraycon.com/nightmind for 15% off your order, plus get free domestic or flat fee international shipping. Brought to you by Raycon. MyHouse.WAD: www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/134292-myhousewad/

"Happiness has to be fought for" is probably the most profound message I've ever heard from a Doom mod

my interpretation of the contradicting timeline that theres actually two distinct timelines: one where steven marries thomas and has a fulfilling life him before some disaster at the house kills them both, represented by the true beach and mirror steven being able to accept impermanence, and another timeline where steven represses himself , moves away from thomas, and survives whatever killed thomas, represented by the fake beach where steven is extremely isolated in his meaninglessly long life

Honestly, a first impression by someone who covers projects like this for a living was something the internet desperately lacked. I'm glad you gave it a chance.

Finally, Night Mind becomes a gamer.

Nick sounds so overwhelmed here, and I just hope he’s doing alright! Nick, when you have time to read this, I just want you to know that whatever you make, regardless of how it’s presented, we will all still watch it and support you! I totally understand how you feel with so many big things going on in your life, and you just cannot take on one more thing! Thank you for everything that you do, and thanks for taking as much time as you realistically can to explore and share this project with us! But please, give yourself a breather, and I know it’s difficult/impossible to do at times, but please don’t let anyone or anything put any more stress on you than you already have! We love you Mr. Nocturne! Please take care of yourself!

Thanks very much for your kind words. Glad people are still checking out the mod for themselves. Playing the game for yourself is just an otherworldly experience. Spoilers below! I think there are a few things I don't cover in my video that do make the mod worth playing, even if you saw my video. People on the Doomworld forums and commenters saw what they saw as a transgender or queer theme running through various events in the game such as the airport bathroom, which passed me by, for one such example. It's interesting what people take from a piece of art and it's why I think there's merit to having multiple perspectives on these things. There are also literal details I missed, like playing on the Nightmare skill is secretly an easier difficulty for MyHouse compared to Ultra-Violence, with easier monster encounters to tackle. The warning text has even been edited to say "Are you sure? This skill level isn't even remotely difficult." when selecting it. I actually meant to mention it in the credits but just plum forgot when it came to recording.

One touch I love about this WAD that’s also a sort of easter egg for the Doom modder community is, when you go into the second version of the house the weapon animation changes. At first it’s the classic, sort of stuttery movement from vanilla Doom, then the weapons switch to “Smooth Doom” mode (Smooth Doom is a mod that adds extra frames to clean up all the animations).

This mod has blown up incredibly fast. From it just showing up in the recommended feeds out of the blue to people who haven't even seen doom modding to receiving a night mind video.

I think it’s so refreshing to see a lack of monster characters for a change, I mean, minus all the demons

Nick's genuine scare scream is now my new alarm clock sound

Maybe it’s a good thing Nick didn’t find the secret passage in one of the closets that leads to a House of Leaves maze with a spiral staircase included.

something i wish got talked about more was how much weight the music (or lack thereof) is pulling in absolutely full-selling the atmosphere. the first time i heard that eventual drop off the cliff into complete alien, glitchy weirdness in the soundtrack, where the melody gives way to distant, melancholic tones gave me a soild minute of chills. then the droning eventually comes back around into being warm and comforting, having character, giving perfect sound to fit the nostalgia of the scenes. i was mesmerized. absolute props to the mapmaker, and whoever made that music. because man, the experience would be nothing without it.

I think something that has to be acknowledged for people coming into this who aren't avid DOOM players, is that a ton of the heavy praise thrown toward this mod is because of the talent that went into actually making the level(s) work the way they do. There is a ton of insanely clever trickery going on to make things seem to happen that aren't normally possible within DOOM. Even having a dense multi-level building the way this mod does, isn't actually possible within the game's constraints. But there's level design tricks happening to make it seem possible. That alone is worthy of immense accolades.

this mod made me pick up House Of Leaves. im about half way through it and its INCREDIBLE so far. extremely unconventional and weird, its so incredibly creative and strange i cant really put it into words.

This has become legendary. Even the man John Romero himself experienced it.

This is a tad late but here's a fun tidbit for you; there's a secret room that's unlocked by repeatingly opening and closing the closet door various times in a row. If you thought the Navidson connection was all there'd be, then boy are you in for a surprise

Some excellent NM reactions I want to preserve: 9:22 12:05 12:57 13:34 14:43 15:34 17:12 17:46 22:00 23:20 30:31 30:46 31:30 33:02 + 33:12 35:31 36:18 36:43

My favorite part of this video is Nick finding all of the secrets in the most fucked up order imaginable

You know, if I had a nickel for every horror game about endless recursive cycles that turned out to be about gay love, I would have two nickels and a lot of time spent crying and wishing they could’ve just been happy forever

I'm so glad you got the chance to experience this yourself, blind, and that you took the time to share that process with us -- and that you discussed the second obituary and all the house of leaves elements. Take your time, and we'll look forward to whatever you're working on next :)

This is the first time I've seen someone play this and conclude from the journal that you're supposed to actually _drown_ in the bathtub. It's fascinating how, by pure coincidence, he wound up thinking the hospital and bathtub sequences are connected.

I’ve watched Power Pak’s video three times at this point, it’s amazing and really well presented 😊

Playing through MyHouse.WAD is probably one of the best gaming experiences of 2023. The game felt like an extension of the Creators own mind. From the beginning we learn more and more about the Creators life; their childhood, their family, their friendships and their dreams. Including all the things that just weren't meant to be, essentially all of their major life experiences. The ending was probably the most fitting I've ever seen to a story about life's struggles. Happiness has to be fought for, but it's worth it in the end.

the level of dedication the creator made to the culture of doom map mods while also completely breaking all the rules and creating the weirdest most incredible doom work of art I've been brought back to the game in years. It's always cool to see it covered by more people, no need for someone to explore it fully, just the coverage+ experience is enough

My personal theory is that the house represents warped versions of all of the memories Thomas and Steven spent together. Meeting each other at daycare at an early age (daycare area, notice the two cribs) Accidentally causing a house fire (memory stated in journal) Being afraid of the family dog (one of the pictures shows a dog turning into a monster) Going their separate ways and discovering they are unhappy (the concrete apartment maze) Something involving a gas station in a forest, it’s too vague to tell what memory it could be (possibly hiking or camping since it mentions they were both physically active) Going swimming (again with them both being physically active)(represented by the poolrooms) could also represent a fear of being bullied in locker rooms The airport (likely the last area they were at since the plane crash has some finality to it and is likely how they died) The hospital, where they both pass away from their injuries The beach representing either some form of afterlife or their message and memory being carried on by the people who play this mod and learn their story.

Seeing people's reaction to Shrek is always my favorite part of watching people play this map for the first time

This mod is so deep and intricate, I have seen 5-6 different people play through it and literally _every one_ finds something new. It's truly an incredible work of creativity, especially on such an old game engine.

Cool to see your exploration of the House! Your channel was a huge inspiration for me making my own video on this wad. It's been really awesome to see so many new people playing Doom this year. And so heartbreaking that GZDoom has that hideous texture filtering on by default so new players all get unwittingly assaulted with that eyesore. If you like the music here, that was done by Jimmy Paddock and Esselfortium, they're both legends at what they do!

My favorite bit so far is hearing the normally-unflappable, always-smoothly-delivered voice of Nick jumping and "Holy shit!"-ing at the changes and surprises rofl.

Edit, in the replies I've included my essay if anyone wants to read it. Speaking of house of leaves. I was able to use Everymanhybrid as a reference in my final project for semesters. I talked about the book and the way the internet moved around it. I was able to use specific examples, and i rewatched your videos after finally watching all of EMH, and MH finally. Thank you Night Mind, you made my final much more bearable when it came to HOL. To detail more, I ended up going into depth about how the book used film language while twisting the literary language, and used both. Also I went into hard detail about chapter 8 and how all the morse connected to like 6 other themes in the chapter itself. It’s such a dense book and not just in weight. Thanks for being a reference NM! Last thing why does every review I've read just hate Johnny, I loved him, it was interesting to have such a unique second, third? Main character, since its his story as the second layer.

Power Pak, Icaruslives, JOHN FUCKING ROMERO HIMSELF and now Nick Nocturne has played this!??!?! Aight, WAD of the year, calling it now

I saw the second obit as being more symbolic. A representation of how it feels for the surviving partner of a couple, how it can feel like their life also ended the same day. But it really can go either way and still make about the same amount of sense just in different ways.

I was there during the stream, and yeah, the main thing I think Power Pak didn't cover (because, well, to them it'd be as obvious as water to a fish) is how well this project interacts with the fandom and community expectations around Doom mods and levels. A "demons in my house" with "doomcute" touches like everyday objects done in the engine is basically what *everyone* did in the 90s when Doom came out. Then it introduces the only-in-GZDoom touches that, sure, if you know your levelmaking you know *how* it was done... but doing it so smoothly is still a wonder to behold.

I watched Power Pak's video on this and proceeded to read House of Leaves. The book is definitely worth the effort

I'm SO glad to see NM covering this. I hope he dedicates a full episode to it as it's the kind of story that requires a lot of thought and speculation which NM is so good at.

I wanted to give my two cents on this map since i have played it and everything. This map or WAD we call it is not only a master piece but every one in doom world is still figuring out all the secrets and all the hidden stuff in it. Now i do mapping for doom and i have played this, this map is haunting and creepy as well. The thing about this wad is how creative it is using a advance map format called Ultimate Doom Map Format (UDMF) for the non mapping people UDMF is basically taking the old Doom 2 game engine and making it more advance to do crazy stuff like this. before anyone ask me "omg did you make this wad?" No, no i did not, this was made by someone who was really really good at taking a 30+ year old game and turning into something that is both great and haunting at the same time. Now i have watched Power Pak's video on this and nick nailed it on the head, the person did go full in dept on the map and explained it. Before i end off this comment i wanted to say that i've been a long time fan of your work Mr. Nick or Night Mind which every one you want to be named but i digress. I understand the feeling of being so busy with projects that take months to work on and everything, i mean i'm working on a project that's making me have burnout at the moment. I hope you can get it done and not be so burned out by the end of it all. By the way this is my first time commenting on your videos so i hope i'm not coming off too much of a fan boy or being like those creepy idol people you see in anime's. Best Regards: ScavengerWolf

I feel House of Leaves meets The Backrooms is a crossover that fits together great. If handled just a little differently, could really be a match made in heaven(hell?).

I hope you get to see "the hallway." Might be one of the most terrifying moments I've ever had in a game.

NM has such a genuinely fun personality. Does he stream games/reactions normally? I find this almost as enthralling as the produced content.

PowerPaks video really kinda explains the references to the Backrooms, liminal space stuff and even the Shrek thing. It's a Doom mod that's a tribute to Doom mods. Doom mods have a long history of having wacky references to pop & meme internet culture. And what's more memey and internet right now than Shrek & the Backrooms? So much of the initial exploration of the House involves noticing things that are supposed to be IMPOSSIBLE in Doom. Rooms on top of Rooms? The textures and animations randomly upscaling? The classic music slowly being corrupted? Normal doors? Only hardcore Doom heads would notice these things right off the bat. It's a love letter to Doom and more.

Who would’ve thought a Doom mod would get a Night Mind video in 2023

I’m actually glad you decided not to tackle it in the same comprehensive way that Power Pak did - giving your own unique angle without rehashing the same details makes it for a far more pleasurable watching experience for those of us who have seen both

I don’t see anyone commenting on this part, but for a bit of context, making your house in the Doom community is/was super popular in and of itself. It’s a really common trope in the community as a way to cut your teeth on creating maps, so it’s an extra level of meta here, hiding this story inside of a mod named MyHouse It’s be like making a video essay that turns into surreal horror itself but giving it the most clickbaity title possible so it almost gets lost in the noise. Side note, the fact even the ‘normal’ house has extensive hidden portals to create “impossible rooms” on top of each other shows a lot of skill to vets.

This video was not a waste of time in any way, it was entertaining, informative, and helped showcase an incredible project. Keep up the amazing work!

I really enjoyed watching on stream and in video format. You very much did it justic and went in the right way to it. I could fawn all day over the tricks they used to bypass the games engines limitations... they had to have built a dozen houses, just houses, to imitate multi leveled houses which cant exist. When you opened the door and backed out and the door was back and the demons couldnt come through... that was because it was a portal to another house that only has the bottom floor while the previous house only had an upstairs. Its SO many slight of hands in this its AMAZING.

I've been really enjoying the less scripted content. Not to say that scripted content is bad, it's truly great and what I subscribed for. What I'm saying is that you have the charisma and presence to make to make more off the cuff stuff like this work, work well, and be very enjoyable. I'm always happy to see more from you!

Doom seems WAY scarier in a haunted house setting ... I'd love to see more mods like this! Those horror movie sound effects are on point as well!

this is one of my favourite videos, I like the rawness of it

I did just finish Power Pak’s detailed review 2 nights ago, but this will be fun. Love me some Night Mind.

I've played Doom since my childhood and this mod definitively hits extra hard when you are familiar with all the classic mechanics and gameplay details. The way myhouse.wad suddenly threw all of my previous knowledge of the game out the window was pure dread from start to finish.

This was amazing. I usually dislike long stream like gameplay but with you I like it

it's so cool to see someone who hasn't played doom much (if at all?) before play this map! it's really easy for me to get caught up in the flashy stuff as i go "wait that's illegal" at every other thing this map does, but to see you just bowl past that and get lost in the wonder of like, exploration and narrative without as much of that context and *still* find satisfying and interesting things in it and have a fun time with it, is awesome!

22:43 Dude, I got the goosebumps. I was aware this is a stream VOD, and I've watched my fair share of MyHouse.wad gameplays, but I wasn't prepared to hear the sound of Tim from Marble Hornets succumbing to the Operator and telling Jay to run. Almost a decade later and what those guys did is still instantly recognizable by my brain, haha!

I was wondering when this mod would be in the office. This is probably one of the most bold attempts at VG Unfiction I have seen. I mean, WOW

My favorite parts of the WAD was everything that wasn't directly based on pre-existing media. Mainly, the ever-changing house itself, and the music that warps as you explore it. Also, the fact that all the other areas mimic the plan of the house is a really cool attention to detail. The bathroom sequence is also one of the best buildups to a scare in recent horror gaming. Wish it felt free enough to elaborate on the house and the idea of exploring memories without relying on setpieces we've all already seen before. Although I will say, the 5 and a half minute hallway easter egg is done well, cool to see that recreated in a game.

*Timestamps for the video* Start: 0:00 End: 1:30:24

Props for giving recognition to power Pak, which is how I learned about this wad

I'm actually glad someone was willing to give some proper criticisms of this wad, because it's been nothing but positive takes on it so far. Not to say those positive things aren't deserved, of course!

No time wasted Nick. Appreciate you taking the time with this Take care of yourself.

I laughed my ass off at you trash-talking Shrek: "it's gonna be MY swamp... now I'M an All Star" 😂😂😂

Thank you so much Nick, despite you being so insanely busy you still put out your extended thoughts beyond the gameplay, and prevailed. Your passion does not go unseen. love your work!

9:20 i dont know why but this reaction to the enemies respawning never ceases to be funny to me

Good to see you shout out Power Pak. That’s how I originally heard about the mod and it felt like a Night Mind video

Picked up house of leaves a couple of weeks ago, shit is insane I love it so much (got like 200 pages left lol)

Seeing raw reactions from people who aren’t big on doom brings me pure joy

The Brutalist Apartment isn't a Backrooms thing, it's a reference to another weird liminal photo of an indoor courtyard. The baths were a reference to another liminal photo. The only actual Backrooms reference requires you to use noclip. That said, yes, it cribs from HoL quite a bit, to include an easter egg maze you can find in a closet. On the plus side, it encouraged me to buy HoL and read it myself, so it's connections aren't all bad.

Night Mind has a fursona I repeat Night Mind has a fursona this is the greatest day

really enjoyed playing this with hideous destructor. it's got a fun mix of CQC areas and wall bangable enemies. one of our players in the HD server experianced it blind with HD while we sat in and enjoyed their terror.

Amazing to see, always love seeing your work.

The turn around for this video was crazy. Amazing work as always Nick. Also, big kudos to you for shouting out Power Pak

it genuinely is so cool and so intriguing, the mod makes me want to delve into it myself and the format of this video made me want to keep watching instead of just watching and then switching to listening and then switching back, amazing as always night and while I like your original format the best I'd still happily watch more of this format as well

The thing is, I'd never ever have heard of House of Leaves if it wasn't for this. Even forgiving their backrooms stuff, which is also pretty niche to be fair, at least outside of internet culture. Please do a proper ending run :D

loved following along with your obsession, Nick!

To me, someone who was in the original target audience of this when it released (an unassuming doom player who stumbled across it) and kept up with the community wide unravelment of the mystery, the idea that this takes too much from house of leaves falls flat. It's a playable adaptation of house of leaves' ideas, much like how the original doom took from Alien and Evil Dead. And most importantly it had very strong nods towards the source material like the namedrop of Navidson, leading people like me to discover a book that's right up my alley that I never would have otherwise. I also think it totally earned it's backrooms, well, rooms, considering in it's original context it came as a complete surprise, which I really haven't seen any other backrooms adaptations manage. Before this blew up the backrooms were completely unexpected. I cheated and jumped over a fence on my initial playthrough and it completely caught me off guard

This video is absolutely fantastic, and I actually loved seeing Nick break his usual format! He’s always passionate, appreciative and meticulous, but seeing his raw excitement, surprise and reactions was a really wonderful element too. It’s great to see him experimenting with a mix of styles, and I hope he’s still able to feel proud of this video. I was so intrigued it kept me up until 2:00am lol, and it makes me feel excited to create things. This was such a fascinating, unconventional and unique media piece and honestly one of my favourite NM videos! Thank you for your energy and time to both Nick and the MyHouse creators!

My House, in the Middle of My House, in the Middle of My House

Wad format is typically a basic map that can't do the special tricks in this mod. The pk3 is a more compressed format for larger files with a lot more going on. This particular pk3 is larger than Doom 1, 2 and all their expansions combined

Oh wow I literally finished this last week! What perfect timing!

Glad to see this getting some attention. I messaged Nick about it just a day after the original forum post was made. Was hoping he would cover it soon.

Damn, so many Nick livestream vods. And for stuff I'm familiar with! Have I finally caught up to current events in ARG and strange things?

So I take this game differently. This game is too careful with the details to not be being intentional with its blatent referencing. There's even the impossible hallway that sometimes appears randomly in a closet. This game is a tribute to a hard life. And all the things that make it bearable: love even if eventually lost, media, inside jokes and a place to call home. You can take steve's death literally or not but the obituary is only found when you do all the work to make the good ending happen and then burn the house down instead. I think he "died" when his partner did, and the haunting is all the things they loved and cherished crashing together into one forming a place that is one part nightmarish reminder and one part loving tribute. It's greif personified. And the good ending, which involves finding the false beach in the mirror world and deliberately wading back into a swarm of hostiles, seems like fighting the urge to give into the grief. I think the mirror world and all the rest of the weirdness is the temptation to wallow and give into greif, to stay there is to die. But to leave and fight hard is to live. To find acceptance. Burning down the house also works in this I think, you burn up all chance for closure you blame yourself and all thats left is the grief. There are items there in the burned house but they are corrupted and don't count. It's a constant temptation both to the player (an extra way into the backrooms is helpful) and to steven, giving in is easier and lets you sit in the greif forever never moving on. And if you give in to that temptation right at the end, right before the truly hard final fight you find your obituary. But if you don't give in and you fight the mass of enemies you get a beach and some peace.

Pleasantly surprised I managed to find something purely by chance before Mr. Mind himself 😊 and oh boy there is a LOT to this map.

I've often had nightmares about this project turning me into a red tulip and then a burrito and now I understand why... it's because the game is full of DOOM!

This channel has 3/4 of a million subscribers. This video got 50 thousand views in the first day. Now it just takes *one* guy to hear that single suggestion from NM and to follow that advice through to full fruition. Beyond the trail of leaves he'll have given us something deeper to bite into. (Actually, make that *two* suggestions, with the second one being to avoid the use of lame wordplay like what you read in my previous sentence.)

"My house in the middle of Our house, my house"

Tom Scott Voice: "I am currently outside my 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞"

Thank you so much for referring viewers to PowerPak's video. From the moment I saw that video, I knew PowerPak would grow and that growth coming from the NightMind community is wonderful to see!

My House. WAD is one of my favorite things right now so I’m HYPED

There’s something messed up about playing a DOOM level and the now popular DOOM wad in reverse, sounds and everything, I love it. “It’s your neighbor’s house! It’s like your house, but reversed!” *”Gasp!”*

"i cant make an hour and 40 minute video about this. guys, i only have the time to make an hour and thirty minute video"

YES, I was hoping and expecting you to cover this as it's one of those things that's just right up your alley, excuse me while I prep a 1h 30 min bike trip with you in my ears.

I think shrek represents something about the guy who made the WAD that most people hate or shame, that is actually an ok trait to have Perhaps the fact he loves Thomas the way he does is this trait?

With all the incredible games that have come out this year so far, imagine telling yourself a year ago that a doom mod could genuinely be considered a top 10 game in 2023

I love that you did a video on this, and I still feel completely satisfied by it.

I was there for the first twitch stream and I watched the video the whole way through! Thank you for covering this even though you are so busy 💜

I truly love watching Night Mind play videogames. I hope he plays more in the future :) I'd love to make a suggestion of Soma. It's an older game, but I think you'd really enjoy it!

Oooohhhhh perfect timing, I have just enough time to watch this before I clock out! Night mind at work let's gooooo

i've never been faster to a video