Quantum Computing on Game Development

What was once considered dystopian and sci-fi, is the here and now, we live in the future. As with recent achievements, AI has become an essential tool, directly affecting the way in which people conduct their lives. From personal recommendations to chatbots and self-driving cars, it’s more than evident that technology is transforming reality. Every year, we push technology further and further. Similar to AI, quantum computing is quietly advancing. Quantum computing can potentially affect our lives just as much, if not more, than AI. With the ability to handle complex problems at speeds impossible for normal computers, it could enable us to simulate reality. In nearly every field, quantum computing could provide significant improvements: in medicine, it could accelerate drug discovery; in mathematics, it could solve impossible problems; and in gaming, it could unlock real-life simulation. Imagine a digital world without boundaries, where characters respond to you like real people, and physics mirrors the real world. A world effectively indistinguishable from reality. Quantum computing could provide this change, revolutionizing game development and effectively altering how we view reality. As such, it is essential to explore the direction that quantum computing could lead the gaming world.

Quantum computing is not a new concept but it is not widely explored. To begin understanding quantum computing, we must first review what traditional computers are. Traditional computers encode information through bits or ones and zeroes and process information through manipulating bits; this process of manipulation is called a logical gate. Through a series of many logical gates, computers can solve problems in a linear amount of time, allowing us to utilize traditional computers as we do today. Now that the fundamental process of a computer has been elaborated, we can answer the question of what quantum computing is. In the article “Games, Computers, and Quantum” Wootton explains quantum computing as: Quantum computers are based on the idea of bits that are manipulated by simple logic gates. All quantum programs are just great big piles of these basic operations. The difference is that the evolution of the states is described by quantum physics. This gives us a few extra kinds of basic operation, with which we can find completely new paths from input to output. (30) As Wootton explains, quantum computers use the same logic as traditional computers but utilize quantum physics to induce multiple states into bits, known as qubits. This significantly reduces the number of logical gates needed to solve a problem, providing an exponentially quicker solution and more accurate approximations.

Now, what are games? Games, on a conceptual level, are the composition of graphics, mechanics, and loops. This translates to a game utilizing a computer’s storage, memory, CPU, and GPU to function. Ebrahimi states, “The core task of the game developer is to create games with high-quality, quickly-rendering geometry that’s fun to play” (7). As Ebrahimi has said, this is essential to every developer, but what if there’s a case where geometry cannot be rendered quickly, such as in a high-fidelity environment? This is the key limitation of game development, besides the obvious bottleneck of a computer, traditional computers attempt to process games linearly, contributing to an accumulation of time spent rendering. Ultimately, this results in a sluggish game with unfathomable rendering times and poor optimization. Thus forcing games to regress or delay releases till technology advances. The few games that have been at this point, such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Grand Theft Auto Five, have constructed systems that attempt to mimic the real world. These systems are composed of three aspects: NPC or non-playable character interactions, dynamic environments, and realistic physics.

Quantum computing holds the key to the fundamental issue of gaming by solving problems exponentially quicker than normal computers. It could allow game developers to unlock the ability to create super immersive games that share the likeness of reality. Although quantum computers are in a rudimentary state, games are still being made in applications like Qiskit and Amazon Braket. In fact, in the magazine “A Chronicle of Quantum Technologies in Game and Software Development” Skult provides an excellent example of a game developed with quantum technologies, C.L.A.Y - The Last Redemption (27). C.L.A.Y utilizes quantum technologies for environment generation and character development in-game relationships, narration, and encounters. All of these mechanics rely on quantum technologies for randomness, complexity, and efficiency that a traditional game may not provide as accurately and with as much depth. Furthermore, the success of the game with players indicates that quantum computing may have potential in gaming.

So, how exactly would game developers use quantum computing? In the conference “A Quantum Procedure for Map Generation” Wootton describes major features of quantum computing that could be massive in game development. One of the features Wootton shares is the concept of quantum entanglement in a two-qubit system to define qubits as objects (26). This is important to note as common programming practice deals with object-oriented programming (OOP), which allows programmers to set attributes and define behaviors for objects, which equates to greater functionality. Game developers most often use this programming paradigm to create dynamic systems. So, game developers will be able to utilize common programming practices in quantum computing systems, further enabling game development.

What stops game developers from utilizing quantum technologies in their games now if all this is the case? Well, there are three major issues as of now: visuals, complexity, and implementation. Current triple-A games are graphically intensive, whereas quantum technologies are barely branching into their gaming phase and are not yet capable of matching the visuals of current games. Secondly, quantum technologies aren’t yet able to handle the various tasks that a game requires just yet. And finally, quantum technologies require specific hardware and software as they aren’t widely adopted, making them more niche. These three major issues result in game developers and studios being hesitant to jump into the field, so unfortunately, quantum computing won’t revolutionize game development just yet. However, its adaptation may not be that far off. According to Gambetta from IBM, IBM has achieved “A quantum computer capable of running quantum circuits with up to five thousand two-qubit gate operations” (2). This is massive as it indicates that the limitations of quantum computing are quickly being eroded through advancements in both hardware and software. In fact, in IBM’s roadmap, they estimate that they will be able to do one hundred million two-qubit gate operations by 2029, which is twenty thousand times the performance achieved last year (IBM)!

One of the issues I talked about with quantum computing is that not everyone has access to their own quantum computer, effectively making quantum computers irrelevant. However, many people have access to the cloud. The cloud refers to something being run on a server and distributed to users for access and manipulation. Quantum computers could be hosted on the cloud to provide a greater population of users and grow the popularity of the field. In the book “Quantum Computing by Practice : Python Programming in the Cloud with Qiskit and IBM-Q” Silva talks about how programming may be done in the cloud through Qiskit (2). In the book, Silva demonstrates that Qiskit allows users to develop their own applications on the cloud and run them from there, sending back the results to the user for display. This is amazing as it means that quantum computing could become more readily available with the growth of cloud computing and cloud gaming.

Quantum computing, although theoretically faster than traditional computers, faces massive limitations in its current state for gaming. But, although quantum computing isn’t in an optimal state for game development, the outlook for quantum computing is very strong. Quantum computing is getting consistently better each year and is estimated to grow to a significant degree in the upcoming years. With these advancements, it is possible that quantum computing and game development will synergize in the near future. And, although quantum computing isn’t in an optimized state, games are still being made and provide significant reason to believe in the potential success of their synergy. Ultimately, quantum computing could revolutionize game development, just not yet.