Three enthusiasts have launched an experimental project aimed at teaching rats to fully navigate and play the classic shooter DOOM. The team publishes progress reports and findings on their project portal, describing the setup and behavioural results as the work continues.
The animals move through game levels by running inside a spherical ball that can rotate in two planes. A third rotational axis is unnecessary because DOOM uses a pseudo‑3D engine, meaning movement in the game is restricted to forward and lateral directions. Shooting is triggered by the animals manipulating a dedicated lever, while the game image is presented on a curved display positioned in front of the apparatus.
Every correct in‑game action is rewarded automatically: the system dispenses a small portion of sweetened water to reinforce the desired behaviour. The project authors stress that training is still ongoing, but early trials have produced promising indicators of learning. Should the rodents eventually learn to play the shooter competently, reaching that level would require substantially more training time.
The team has also shared photographic documentation of the experimental setup and the animals interacting with it to illustrate how the control ball, firing lever and reinforcement system are arranged. For now, the work remains an exploratory effort demonstrating that nonhuman subjects can be conditioned to operate a complex interactive environment like a first‑person shooter, albeit slowly and with considerable training.