The Aviator is Karim Maaloul’s 2026 rebuild of his widely shared 2016 Three.js experiment (old GitHub repo (opens in a new tab)), now expanded into a proper arcade game with two ways to mistreat a tiny cartoon pilot. Five environments carry the flight from bright morning into stormy darkness, while sharks, lightning, a giant tentacle and an enormous crab make the round blue ocean feel less friendly with every level. Mouse, touch, keyboard and gamepad controls are supported, with leaderboards and shareable challenges providing reasons to attempt one more flight.

The new version runs on Three.js r186 and WebGL, with gameplay written in TypeScript and its characters modeled and animated in Blender. A GLB contains the two aircraft, pilot, weapons, airship and enemy rigs, while separate HDR, cloud, lightning and audio assets build the changing atmosphere around them. The rounded sea uses a custom shader for stylized cloud and sky reflections, supported by dynamic lighting, shadows and bloom. It is a substantial evolution from the elegant little scene that inspired countless Three.js remakes: still immediately readable, but now backed by enemy waves, collision systems, weapon progression, animated encounters and a complete game loop.