It proves that a complex, real-time game can be built entirely inside a SQL database, challenging conventional assumptions about what SQL is capable of and serving as a creative, technical demonstration of SQLite's power.
SELECT * FROM HELLA playable first-person shooter whose framebuffer is a SQL query.
DOOMQL started with a deliberately unreasonable question: what if SQLite were the game engine, not merely the place where a game stores data?
The result is a small, original Doom-like game in which SQL owns movement, collision, enemies, combat, progression and every RGB pixel on screen. There is no SVG, browser, Canvas or game engine, and the playable runtime contains no Python graphics code.
For each frame, SQL reads the player and map tables and produces one row per pixel:
x y red green blue
40 20 232 240 248
41 20 30 35 45
A second SQL view turns those RGB rows into coloured ▀ terminal blocks. The
Python host does no drawing: it supplies raw keys, time and terminal size to
SQLite, then prints the completed query result unchanged.
player + map tables
↓
SQL simulation and raycasting
↓
frame_pixels(x, y, r, g, b)
↓
render_frame(y, coloured scanline)
↓
terminal
The complete visible frame is returned by one query:
SELECT scanline FROM render_frame ORDER BY y;
You need:
▀ supportThere are no third-party Python dependencies. From the repository root, run:
make run
The game follows the live terminal size. Enlarge the window for more SQL-rendered pixels, or increase the terminal font size to make each pixel physically larger.
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
W / S | Move forward / backward |
A / D | Strafe left / right |
J / L or arrow keys | Turn left / right |
| Space | Fire |
E | Use the index gate |
P | Pause |
R | Restart after death or victory |
Ctrl-C | Exit |
E.Along the way you will meet ORPHAN enemies, ranged LOCK WAITERS, health tuples and ammo pages.
This is the best way to demonstrate
A playable terminal FPS whose simulation and framebuffer are calculated in SQLite.
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