Horror video game gets its creepiness from a quantum computer - New Scientist
Quantum Backrooms lets you feel what it would be like to be stuck in a quantum computerMoth A quantum computer has been used to create a horror video game called Quantum Backrooms – and it’s available to play online. Peculiarities of quantum objects have long inspired philosophers and artists, and now game developers are getting the bug too. James Wootton at Moth Quantum developed Quantum Backrooms, a horror game with labyrinthian levels generated by a real quantum computer. The game draws inspiration from “the Backrooms,” a horror legend developed on internet forums that consists of moving through a series of endless rooms. In Wootton’s game, each room corresponds to the quantum state of a part of a quantum computer called a qubit, while connections between qubits correspond to possible paths between rooms. Wootton says that in this way, Quantum Backrooms conveys the feeling of being stuck in a quantum computer. The player can look in a fixed direction, but everything they are not looking at is constantly changing until they focus their gaze on it, conveying the idea that states of quantum objects change when observed, he says. Moth Players don’t need access to quantum computers, as they were only used during the game’s development. Wootton says that he hopes that Quantum Backrooms will reach horror fans who will enjoy the new flavour of creepiness generated by the qubits. “A player can be given this link and not have any idea that it was run on a quantum computer,” he says. It is available to play here. Subscriber-only newsletter Sign up to Lost in Space-Time Untangle mind-bending physics, maths and the weirdness of reality with our monthly, special-guest-written newsletter. Sign up to newsletter Laura Piispanen at Aalto University in Finland says that hundreds of quantum games exist already, ranging from those that involve content generated on quantum hardware like Quantum Backrooms to those that rely on simulating quantum states on conventional computers. Access
