Doom’s Myhouse.WAD is one of gaming’s greatest literary adaptations

House of Doomed Leaves

If bringing a novel to the big screen is a tough job, then making a movie into a video game tends to spell doom from the get-go. And we don’t mean the good kind of Doom. Go ahead, try to think of a film’s video game tie-in or even a less rushed adaptation that’s even a tad beyond “meh”. If it took your mind no more than one second to think of The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, then congrats. You win.

But that’s an absolute anomaly in the history of video games. We’re talking about a tie-in that’d be better than its movie even if the movie were good. Given the adaptation curse that no one can deny, it’d be no surprise if a Doom 2 mod inspired by a novel would result in the ultimate failure. But… it did not.

Steve “Veddge” Nelson’s My House took inspiration from Mark Z. Danielewsky’s House Of Leaves. That’s a critically acclaimed novel so cryptic many still wonder whether it belongs in the horror or love story category. But the most surprising aspects regarding My House are how it’s not only a fantastic mod, but also one of gaming’s best literary adaptations ever.

It’s worth noting from the off that House Of Leaves is far from your average novel Book-to-film adaptation history is already filled with the corpses of projects declared dead due to “unfilmable material”. Such complaints usually stem from attempts at adapting books written in regular prose format. Interesting. House Of Leaves will challenge you because of its meta-textual narrative, yes, but also especially because it seems to physically want you to not understand it.

This is what you can expect from the average page of House Of Leaves:

Conversely, My House doesn’t fall for the trappings of trying to retell the events from House Of Leaves in video game format. Instead, it tells its own story, loosely referencing parts of the novel through its world, narrative, and actions. What it most authentically adapts is the novel’s way of subverting all expectations.

Are you expecting to battle demons? Yes, this will happen, but first, you must uncover the secrets of what seems to be just a suburban house. Much like in the novel, the house will reveal itself as a maze of nigh-infinite proportions — one so large that the mod’s system file size greatly dwarfs that of Doom 2’s original file itself — but this is a maze players/readers can actually solve and get great satisfaction from.

Myhouse.WAD is still the Doom we all know and love

Oh, and if this article has made this masterful mod appear like it completely foregoes action in favor of its more cerebral elements, then apologies for the deception. Because on top of never really missing a beat in regard to Doom’s iconic action elements, the strange endeavor also culminates in one of the biggest battles ever seen in the series. But the details can be left for you to discover yourself.

I love how despite all of the liminal horror, surrealism, sadness and mystery of the "My House" Doom WAD, it still includes a massive fight against like 9999 demons at the end because of course it's a Doom WAD pic.twitter.com/yUUwyHWein

— Triple-Q (@TripleKyun) May 10, 2023

John Romero, Doom’s original map designer, recently played My House and only had good things to say about his experience. If he hasn’t already, then maybe he should read House Of Leaves.

Wait! Better yet, let’s get author Mark Z. Danielewsky to play MyHouse.WAD!