An open-source project called DOOMFLY uses a digital simulation of a fruit fly’s brain to control characters in the classic shooter Doom, according to a report from habr.com. The project was introduced on September 8, 2026, and represents a novel crossover between neuroscience and video gaming.
The simulation is based on the neural circuitry of the fruit fly, also known as Drosophila. Habr.com reports that the developers have adapted this biological model to process game inputs and make decisions, allowing the simulated brain to navigate and play the game. The work is part of a broader trend where digital reconstructions of animal nervous systems are being tested in interactive environments.
Related coverage from snob.ru and 3DNews indicates that the same digital fly brain model has also been applied to Super Mario 64, demonstrating that the approach is not limited to a single game title. BBC has separately explored how such fly brain research could inform the understanding of human behavior, though that piece is not directly tied to the DOOMFLY project.
The project is notable for being fully open-source, meaning other researchers and hobbyists can inspect, modify, or build upon the code. According to habr.com, this release could lower the barrier for experimenting with biologically inspired AI in gaming contexts.
What to watch next is whether the DOOMFLY approach scales beyond simple game environments, as larger brain models might offer new insights into decision-making and learning systems.
