A professor turned a 1977 text game into 3D action, and a nonprogrammer built a Doom-style game in hours
Mollick's remake kept the old puzzles and added fight scenes, while Unutmaz built a Doom-inspired game in hours.
The AI Daily Brief (Formerly The AI Breakdown): Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis · Why GPT-6 Astra Is So Significant and So ConfoundingEthan Mollick, a professor who studies artificial intelligence, decided to test the new model. Mollick wrote, "I asked GPT 6 Astra to turn Zork, the classic 1977 text adventure, into a full 3D action adventure game."
Zork was a typed-command game with no graphics, where players typed orders and the computer answered in words. There were no pictures on the screen, only sentences, and progress depended on figuring out the right words and solving puzzles.
Mollick reported that the remake "kept the original plot and puzzles, added fight scenes," and built the characters and setting to run as three-dimensional graphics in a web browser. He said the work was built using Three.js, a free tool for showing 3D scenes on the web.
Then Derya Unutmaz, a technology user with no software engineering expertise, tried a nostalgic project of his own. Unutmaz wrote that Doom was one of the games he loved playing in the mid-1990s, and that he had built a Doom-style game within hours using the same model.
Unutmaz wrote, "I keep adding new features, enemies, and levels that are so enjoyable to play and have almost no bugs I can notice, even in first versions." Unutmaz wrote, "Building it brought back so many great memories from those early days of gaming and was so much fun."
"It's beyond remarkable to think that something that once required a legendary team and extraordinary engineering can now be recreated, experimented with, and expanded in hours by someone like me, who has no software engineering expertise," Unutmaz wrote.
Another early builder, Theo, showed the same speed on a game called Fishlop. Theo wrote, "GPT 6 Astra is world-class at Blender and three-dimensional reasoning." He described Fishlop as "a one shot game it created all running in browser," and estimated that generating it would have cost under $30.
Mollick's remake is built as 3D graphics in a browser, and Unutmaz built his own Doom-style game that he keeps expanding.
Questions people ask
What was Zork?
Zork was a text adventure released in 1977 by developers at MIT. There were no graphics, so players typed commands like go north or open mailbox, and the computer answered in words. It was famous for tricky puzzles and witty descriptions, and for proving games could live entirely in language.
What was Doom?
Doom, released in 1993, was a first person shooter where the player moves through maze-like levels fighting monsters. It was built by id Software, a small but legendary team, and helped establish 3D graphics, network play, and fast action as standards for video games. It was technically demanding for its time and required expert programming in graphics and game engines.
What is Three.js?
Three.js, usually written with that spelling, is a free software library that lets websites show 3D scenes and games in a normal browser. It handles shapes, lighting, cameras, and movement, so a programmer does not have to start from scratch. If a game is built with Three.js, you can usually play it by opening a web page, with no special console.
Can someone with no coding skill really build a working game now?
They can build a simple working prototype by describing what they want and testing the result, then asking for fixes. The AI writes the code, art instructions, and game logic, and the person acts as designer and tester. Larger commercial games still need professionals for polish, performance, story, and support, but the barrier to a first playable version is much lower.