Someone just created a House of Leaves-style DOOM mod

Earlier this month, a user called Veddge shared a new DOOM mod skin called "MyHouse." The map was supposedly created in tribute to a dear friend who had passed away — but the eerily, richly detailed world seems to have more in common with Mark Danielewski's terrifyingly immersive metafictional horror novel House of Leaves, up to the point of, well, discovering someone else's text and slowly going crazy around the idea of a place that is inexplicably bigger on the inside.

That, and also, the word "house" being curiously rendered in blue font throughout all the accompanying Google Drive-housed archival documents that perpetuate the mysterious lore around this particular DOOM world (complete with a creepy journal).

Here's how the creator describes the map:

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.

Even the copyright warning for the mod seems…curious:

DO NOT COPY AND REDISTRIBUTE THE MATERIAL IN ANY MEDIUM OR FORMAT!

I tried to delete this map but it continues to change and evolve without any input from me. What began as a tribute to a lost friend has consumed my entire life. As this map grew beyond what I created, I suffered paranoia and insomnia. It consumed me. Don't let it consume you as well. Delete it. Do not credit me. Do not try and contact me. Do not attempt to use the material for commercial purposes. Do not remix, transform, or build upon the material. Above all, do not distribute this feel, modified or otherwise. I tried to keep it from the internet, but it found its way online. It's still changing. It wants you to feel sad. Alone. Desperate. Don't let it win. Don't play it.

So hey if you want to check it out for yourself, then go for it! But I'm good.