--- title: AI Learns to Play Mario | daily.dev description: A hobbyist recreates Super Mario Bros. from scratch in Unity, hand-tuning custom physics, sprites, enemies (Goombas, Koopas), and level geometry to match the... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/ai-learns-to-play-mario-cw0jutw0u twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: AI Learns to Play Mario | daily.dev og:description: A hobbyist recreates Super Mario Bros. from scratch in Unity, hand-tuning custom physics, sprites, enemies (Goombas, Koopas), and level geometry to match the... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/ai-learns-to-play-mario-cw0jutw0u og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/cW0jutW0U.png og:image:alt: AI Learns to Play Mario og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # AI Learns to Play Mario **[Code Bullet](https://daily.dev/sources/codebullet)** · 13 min read · 36 upvotes · 4 comments ## Summary A hobbyist recreates Super Mario Bros. from scratch in Unity, hand-tuning custom physics, sprites, enemies (Goombas, Koopas), and level geometry to match the original game. He then trains a population of a thousand Mario agents using an evolutionary algorithm, running dozens of generations until they can complete the level, culminating in a chaotic experiment flooding the screen with 250,000 bullet bills across a 12-hour simulation. The video is a lighthearted personal project with comedic editing and a sponsor segment for a finance app. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@thecookingsenpai** · 4 upvotes > Every 2-3 years this kind of content comes up. In a positive way I mean. Seems like Super Mario is for AI what Doom is for Hardware **@taiwofrancis** · 1 upvotes >  **@petermrozek** · 0 upvotes > Ah, Evan finally remembered what his YouTube login was (kind of a running joke on how often he posts lately). 😁 Sadly, this time he didn't dive into the algorithm details even a bit. **@saatvik\_tx** · 0 upvotes > This is awesome! > >  ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Someone Just Put All Of Minecraft Into Super Mario 64](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-just-put-all-of-minecraft-into-super-mario-64-7izcoucuf) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [This Super Mario Bros. Godot Recreation Will Bring You Old Memories](https://daily.dev/posts/this-super-mario-bros-godot-recreation-will-bring-you-old-memories-q2wtjaybs) · 80 LEVEL · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#machine-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/machine-learning), [#data-science](https://daily.dev/tags/data-science), [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#unity](https://daily.dev/tags/unity), [#physics](https://daily.dev/tags/physics) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-learns-to-play-mario-cw0jutw0u) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"AI Learns to Play Mario","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-learns-to-play-mario-cw0jutw0u","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-learns-to-play-mario-cw0jutw0u"},"datePublished":"2026-08-21T11:49:36.880Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T21:23:39.259Z","description":"A hobbyist recreates Super Mario Bros. from scratch in Unity, hand-tuning custom physics, sprites, enemies (Goombas, Koopas), and level geometry to match the...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zy-ZowzY8rI/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zy-ZowzY8rI/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Code Bullet","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Code Bullet","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--3QI-oI_1--/f_auto/v1716621385/logos/codebullet","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/codebullet"},"commentCount":4,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-learns-to-play-mario-cw0jutw0u","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":36},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}],"keywords":"machine-learning,data-science,game-development,unity,physics","timeRequired":"PT13M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"AI Learns to Play Mario","description":"A hobbyist recreates Super Mario Bros. from scratch in Unity, hand-tuning custom physics, sprites, enemies (Goombas, Koopas), and level geometry to match the...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zy-ZowzY8rI/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-21T11:49:36.880Z","duration":"PT13M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/cW0jutW0U","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/zy-ZowzY8rI"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Code Bullet","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/codebullet"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"AI Learns to Play Mario"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ai-learns-to-play-mario-cw0jutw0u","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Every 2-3 years this kind of content comes up. In a positive way I mean. Seems like Super Mario is for AI what Doom is for Hardware","datePublished":"2026-08-21T13:00:02.788Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cW0jutW0U#c-V9qoQtT8z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"TheCookingSenpai","url":"https://daily.dev/thecookingsenpai","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ffrIwc1G--/f_auto/v1757426086/avatars/avatar_ScKiWPtqpsvwHAvAS0jvG?_a=BAMClqZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"","datePublished":"2026-08-22T10:27:30.045Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cW0jutW0U#c-qDv3NYf2E","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Taiwo Francis Oguntade","url":"https://daily.dev/taiwofrancis","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--px3_Pvo4--/f_auto/v1785515368/avatars/avatar_FStpm3ZejUD3qGlEeoOUS?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Ah, Evan finally remembered what his YouTube login was (kind of a running joke on how often he posts lately). 😁 Sadly, this time he didn’t dive into the algorithm details even a bit.","datePublished":"2026-08-21T16:30:53.456Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cW0jutW0U#c-I5zjScI9n","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Peter Mrożek","url":"https://daily.dev/petermrozek","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--pBfYX68K--/f_auto/v1769247960/avatars/avatar_Qz65P1nVw3Bu6C5YwaZgA?_a=BAMAMiiu0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This is awesome!","datePublished":"2026-08-22T20:32:42.039Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cW0jutW0U#c-Orc4S0kzZ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Saatvik","url":"https://daily.dev/saatvik_tx","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocJSluMFKcElv0QbYcfpbkpJ8xa9rwuUQSrXKiN1U0VhJr_7CMM=s96-c"}}]} ```