Q-Sweeper
2021
Q-sweeper stands for quantum minesweeper. The original game is redesigned by applying quantum concepts–noise and entanglement–to it. The minesweeper maps and mine placement is generated using data from a quantum algorithm.
We are further exploring entanglement using socket connections to entangle multiple ongoing games. This project is being set up as an interactive installation that further explores the intersections of games and quantum computing. More details coming soon...
This project was built as a part of the Quantum Design Jam hosted by The New School in partnership with the IBM Skills Academy and IBM Quantum team
The code is open-source and the game can be played in the browser.
link to play →
link to Github repo →
Documentation
We created the maps using Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm, an extension of the Deutch-Jozsa algorithm. The 1024 tiles in our board correspond to 1 out of the 1024 shots taken on the quantum computer. Thus, the map transforms into a visualisation of the data and its associated noise.
The game has two main features: entangled mines and interfering tomatoes. A percentage of the mines are pre-determined to be entangled mines. These mines are interconnected with 2 or 2 other mines. Opening one of these mines will reveal the other mines, but will not end the game. The number of tomatoes are dictated by a percentage of the q-bit data and are placed randomly across the board covering blank and numbered tiles making the game harder for the player.
The game's sound effects were created using the Quantum Music Playground.
For a more in-depth explanation and game walkthrough, watch our video here.
Click to view transcript.
References
We ran our algorithm on the lima quantum computers from IBM's Qiskit starter kit.
Our sound was built on Ableton using the Quantum Music Playground.
The javascript code was built on top of a coding train minesweeper project and
the flagging was based on the code here.
Contributors
Apurv Rayate: Game development, Quantum Computing
Hyacinth Weng: Game development, Front-end development, Asset Creation
Shangshang Li: Game development, Sound Design
Tanvi Mishra: Game development, Front-end development
Yiping Dong: Sound Design, Video Editing and Animations