Building DOOMQL: Using SQL as a Game Engine
Simon Willison · rss · 2026-07-14
Simon Willison shared an absurd yet highly entertaining project: DOOMQL.
Built by Peter Gostev using GPT-5.6 Sol, the core premise is "what if SQLite wasn't just for storing data, but acted as a game engine?" The result is a Doom-like mini-game where movement, collisions, enemies, combat, progression, and even every RGB pixel on the screen are handled entirely by SQL.
It runs via a Python terminal script. The author provides execution steps, explaining that it generates an SQLite database viewable via Datasette. Combined with the new Datasette Apps plugin, users can write HTML+JavaScript apps to display the game screen in real-time. After feeding a copy-pasted prompt to Claude, the author also quickly generated a web view featuring real-time refreshing and a minimap.
The appeal of this content goes beyond the quirky idea of "making a game with SQL"; it also highlights:
- AI rapidly turning an absurd concept into reality
- Datasette Apps serving as an interactive SQL frontend
- A prototype workflow seamlessly connecting terminal, database, and web layers
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