MyHouse is, I think, one of my favorite works of fiction right now. It's not perfect and I think some of the meme stuff is a little dumb, but I'm also writing a horror story with Shrek in it. The more I think about it, the more I think it's at least a little self-aware that it's dumb and goofy, and I appreciate it for that. It's something that could have only come out in the 2020s and I think I will look back upon it very fondly.

It's also the first time in years I think a game has felt chewy enough for me to actually want to look at its secrets, not just the ARG-y elements that I could really take or leave, but shit like the 1/10 chance of the closet labyrinth reminds me of Yume Nikki. I actually bothered to open up the game to see that for myself instead of just watching it on YouTube.

Back in 2020 during a manic depressive episode very much inspired by quarantine, I was concepting a similar house-horror Doom WAD (inspired by cinematic platformers and some PC games that freaked me out as a kid). The basement of the burned house, with the glowing-eyes monsters, was nearly identical to my mental images of my own project! So I felt a little bitter about it for a bit, that MyHouse did everything I wanted to do and then some and now I have to worry about being accused of being derivative, but maybe I can choose to find it inspiring instead.

[...]

For what it’s worth. I had some time to think about it and ended up coming to the conclusion the main reason I felt initially negative about it is because it’s genuine and sincere – in a way that most of its peers in its “genre” are not.

I should probably write a blog post about it at this rate. But yeah! Sure, it has its hashtag-liminal moments[1], but as far as I could say as an outsider, it seems to have those things just because the author thought they were genuinely cool or fit the theme. Not to fit in with any broader trends, not to add to the growing pile of weird cliquey Fandom wikis… and it doesn’t conform to any expectations put upon it.

It’s not a good DOOM map, it’s not a good ARG, it’s not a good adaptation of House of Leaves or Backrooms or whatever; it’s a good MyHouse. It’s trying to be what the author wanted to make.

I guess I would describe it as cute. I think it’s genuine, sincere, and cute. I’m glad it exists.

[1] An airport is liminal. A gas station is liminal. So this game contains liminal spaces. But the titular HOUSE is as far from liminal as you can get. A HOUSE IS NOT A LIMINAL SPACE… thank you.

[...]

It also got me thinking about a Needleminder DOOM WAD. Something I feel like I could actually do. So of course that’s been haunting me because I can imagine all the individual setpieces very clearly in my mind… and chapter 7 was already, in my mind, very influenced by Ghoul’s Forest…