
We are building Quander, a game world that contains five QIS-themed mini-games and collectable rewards. The mini-games integrate QIS concepts including superposition, probabilistic outcomes, entanglement, measurement, and quantum circuits. All of the main characters have a superposition aspect, featuring vampires (bats + people), zombies (dead + alive), and a werewolf. You are a young vampire, Molly Cule, whose genius cat, Tangle, has had an explosion in her lab while experimenting with her quantum computer. Parts of her quantum computer have landed throughout the village, and you are helping her get back her parts. This is complicated by the fact that others found the parts! Her archnemesis next door, Byte the dog, is holding onto parts just out of spite, requiring you and Tangle to beat him at the QueueBits game. In Buried Treasure, Byte also buried the parts in a cemetery, which your friend Wolfie is willing to help you find, but he's afraid of the cemetery in the dark (which is unfortunate, because he is only a wolf at night once a month), so you can't waste his efforts. Other parts were found in the yard of the local vampire blood bank, and villagers put them in their secured vaults navigated by the entangled twins (Twintangled) Fran and Ken. Across the village, an absent-minded chef has been using quantum gates to fix his cupcake orders in Qupcakes. Finally, in Tangle's Lair, you search Tangle's vaults for spare parts but using simplification rules to accelerate quantum circuits being used as pass codes to locked rooms.
You can play our experimental game here: https://quander.cs.uchicago.edu
Cast of Characters
Tangle
Molly Cule's beloved, genius cat. "The basement is my lair, but quantum is my flair," she says! In order to focus on her work, she moved to the basement to remove herself from the temptation of sleeping in warm sun spots. She has been working hard on various implementations of quantum computers, but she drew so much power that it caused a surge and blew up her equipment. She needs your help to gather the computer components around town.
Fran and Ken
Raised from the dead, these twins have a special connection - when one steps forward, the other does, too, even if there is a wall in from of them! This skill makes them uniquely qualified to guard specially-constructed dungeons that no other creature can navigate. Control the twins to search for the computer parts that are secured within the vampire blood bank!
Chef Scatter
The chef at the local Qupcakery is the nicest guy you'll ever meet - but accuracy is not his specialty. This absent-minded chef makes delicious chocolate, vanilla, and mystery cupcakes, but always seems to give the cupcakes to the wrong customers. Imagine his delight when he found some of Tangle's quantum devices, allowing him to quickly fix his mistakes and deliver the customers what they want. He just wants to get far enough ahead to fund his own purchases. Help him by fulfilling his orders fast enough to purchase the new devices, and he'll let you give the parts back to Tangle.
Mini-Games

UChicago
David Maldonado
Irina Lee
Tianle Liu
Grace Williams
Jonathan Liu
Shivani Puli
Liuhao Wu
UCSB
Danielle Harlow
Devon M Christman
Liliana Garcia
Matthew Bennett
Kaylee Laub
Collin Lejano
Charlene Patenaude
William Huang
Edwin Yee
Raina Kakani
UIUC
Emily Edwards
Filament Games
Funded by National Science Foundation
2115780 and 2115843