Grand Theft Auto V 'deer cam' on Twitch captures the heart of the internet

The deer cam is part of a project by digital artist Brent Watanabe

The deer sometimes gets attacked by passersby (Brent Watanabe)

An immortal deer running around the world of Grand Theft Auto is a thing that exists, and it's captured the heart of the internet.

A near-constant video feed of the deer's adventures in the virtual world has been an unexpected hit on Twitch, the livestreaming website popular with gamers.

The whole stream runs from a modified version of Grand Theft Auto V, and follows the deer in a third-person view as it randomly explores the environment.

Interestingly, there's no human intervention involved - digital artist Brent Watanabe created and manages the 'deer cam', but otherwise it's been programmed to control itself.

This quality makes the whole thing quite meditative, as the deer walks across splendid mountain vistas, dusk-lit beaches, and abandoned city streets.

The only time things heat up is when other characters try to attack the deer, for reasons unknown. Civilians walking down the street sometimes punch it, shoot at it, or even try to blow it up with tanks.

The computer can keep fighting itself to its heart's content, however, because the deer's immortal. Even when caught in an explosion, it simply picks itself up and carries on.

At the time of writing, 1,169 people were watching the live stream, and almost 252,049 people had seen it in total. That's pretty impressive, especially considering it only began a few days ago.

The project will run until 20 April, so get in some quality deer-watching time while you can.