Gaussian Splatting has been gaining significant attention recently, with a growing number of experimental applications built on the technique. This project adds another nice example to that trend.

As a game, it's fairly simple, offering only basic first-person shooter gameplay. However, the impressive part is that Iakov Sumygin built this playable game using Gaussian splats, and it runs directly in a browser. The environment itself is based on a real-world location, an abandoned site scanned by Christoph Schindelar.

If you're completely new to Gaussian Splatting, here's how the developer describes it:

To put it simply, it's a way to turn regular 2D images or video into 3D scenes without using traditional 3D models. It builds a point cloud of tiny "Gaussian" blobs and uses machine learning to shape them, creating a realistic 3D environment you can view from different angles. As you might expect, this isn't commonly used in games, and it requires a lot of cleanup work, which is what makes this project especially interesting.

Sumygin used his own tools to essentially convert the scans into usable 3D geometry, and then vibecoded basic enemy NPC behaviour to create a playable prototype. The game is on PlayCanvas, and you can try it here. Use WASD to move, the mouse to aim, and left-click to shoot.

Another impressive detail is that the developer says the build is only 68 MB. You can learn more in Iakov Sumygin's blog post.

Curious to see what else is possible with 3DGS? Dany Bittel has a cool insect-themed 3D Gaussian Splats portfolio. Scroll down to see his bumblebee, red firebug, honeybee, and ladybug.

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