Citizen Science Games on the Timeline of Quantum Games

TL;DR

This paper surveys the landscape of quantum physics–themed games used for citizen science and their relation to quantum-computer games. It identifies three driving forces shaping the field: the use of games for serious scientific purposes, the evolution of quantum computing, and open game-development events such as Quantum Game Jams. The authors review eleven citizen science quantum game prototypes (and related platforms) and discuss challenges including data quality, intuitive visualization, and sustainability, noting that most projects have since become inactive. The work highlights the potential of collaboration and open-resource sharing to sustain future efforts, and suggests design guidelines and research questions to better integrate citizen science with quantum research and quantum computing ecosystems.

Abstract

This article provides an overview of existing quantum physics-related games, referred to as \textit{quantum games}, that serve citizen science research in quantum physics. Additionally, we explore the connection between citizen science and \textit{quantum computer games}, games played on quantum computers. The information presented is derived from academic references and supplemented by diverse sources, including social media publications, conference presentations, and blog posts from research groups and developers associated with the presented games. We observe that the current landscape of quantum games is shaped by three distinct driving forces: the serious application of games, the evolution of quantum computers, and open game development events such as \textit{Quantum Game Jams}. Notably, citizen science plays an influential role in all three aspects. The article points to existing design guides for citizen science quantum games and views future prospects of citizen science projects and quantum games through collaborative endeavours, human-machine collaboration, and open access quantum computers.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Screenshots from (a) the citizen science game Quantum Movesquantummovesdemo, (b) the online platform for Alice Challenge. In Quantum Moves, the player controls the position of a wave-like potential confining a liquid-like quantum object and aims to move this liquid to a specified position. Alice Challenge allowed anyone to propose and test experimental setups through the LabView-based Alice interface and see the actions defined by their Quantum Moves gameplay realised with lasers.
• Figure 2: (a) An annotated interface of the citizen science game Quantum Moves 2ahmedPHD and (b) two sequential close-ups from the plot. In Quantum Moves 2, the player controls the position of a wave-like potential confining a liquid-like quantum object and aims to move this liquid to a specified position.
• Figure 3: Screenshots from the citizen science game meQuanics. In meQuanics, the player solves puzzles consisting of complex knot-like structures that represent topological quantum circuits of certain quantum algorithms mequanics.
• Figure 4: Sequential screenshots taken from the tutorial phase of the game Decodoku, a puzzle game for developing error correction protocols wootton2017decodoku.
• Figure 5: (a) A screenshot from the Jupyter interface and example puzzles from the game Quantum Awesomeness, showing the structural depiction of two IBM Quantum devices: (b) the 20 qubit QS1_ 1 device and (c) 5 qubit ibmqx2. Quantum Awesomeness offers a series of puzzles designed for benchmarking quantum computers. Each puzzle is a connectivity graph made up of a grid of qubits presented as coloured dots with numbers in them and paired with letters (in black, smaller circles). The player pairs the coloured circles so that each dot should have a similar colour and number as one of their neighbours.