May 2025 saw a major release by MOTH: a quantum-powered generative music tool designed to give musicians a new way to compose tracks, launched in collaboration with the artist ILĀ. This uses quantum reservoir computing (QRC) as a form of generative AI system, one which only needs to train on the artist's own samples. It was used by ILĀ when creating their single RECURSE, and is used to infinitely remix the same samples in our RECURSE [Infinite Mix].
This was our first public experiment in using quantum software to empower creativity. It offered a glimpse of how we see the future: quantum computing not just as a theoretical pursuit, but as a practical tool for artists, musicians, and developers. However, there was a catch: though we ran the process on real quantum hardware to help create the single, our on-demand Infinite Mix actually uses simulators. Our next step was therefore clear: we needed to demonstrate on-demand generation on real quantum hardware using our QRC system.
Now, at Gamescom 2025, we’re taking that next step.
Introducing Space Moths: A Quantum-Powered Roblox Game
This August, MOTH will unveil Space Moths, a prototype Roblox game built on our QRC system and powered in real-time by a quantum processing unit (QPU). On the surface it’s a playful, procedurally generated racing game. Under the hood it’s so much more: Space Moths is a demonstration that the quantum computers of today can serve real games for real player., It is the first demonstration of how quantum algorithms can be integrated directly into a live game experience to supply content for a massively multiplayer game.
Specifically, we use a quantum process to generate levels uniquely and on demand, so that a player will never see the same course twice. This isn’t just procedural generation as we know it; it’s quantum procedural generation, supplying a unique mix of randomness and structure that comes from our quantum reservoir computing system, with results coming from actual quantum circuits running on real hardware.
Why Roblox? Why Now?
Roblox is not just a game, it’s one of the world's largest platforms for interactive experiences, a social and creative ecosystem with millions of users. If you know a 10 year old, then you know a Roblox user. This makes it the perfect place to bring a quantum-powered tool, to show that quantum computing is no longer constrained to the labs of academia and industry. It can exist where people play, build, and explore every day.
By making a game that runs on-demand with quantum hardware, Space Moths offers developers a concrete example of how quantum generation can slot into their existing pipelines using a simple, secure API. For players, it offers endless new challenges - regenerating levels, each shaped by the unique behaviour quantum reservoir computing. More than that, as the first massively multiplayer quantum-powered game, this is the first time the public will ever have the opportunity to play a game that is running on a quantum computer.
Now is the time to do this, because now is the time we can! It is no-longer 2016 where only one tiny QPU was available online. Not only are QPUs now 10x bigger or more than that first cloud offering, there are also many different vendors with many different forms of hardware, from the superconducting qubits of IQM and IBM to the trapped ions of Quantinuum and IonQ.
Our game will be primarily powered by Finland’s quantum computer, on the cloud system run by our partners at VTT. We also plan to use IQM hardware, just as we did before with the RECURSE project. We’ll also see how our on-demand system fares with the queues of the ever-popular IBM Quantum hardware.
What You’ll See at Gamescom
MOTH will be exhibiting at Gamescom from August 20-25 in Cologne (Hall 10.2, Stand F052g to be specific. We’ll be sharing a booth with our friends at the Finnish indie studio MiTale. There you’ll find tablets running Space Moths live, and a dashboard showing how quantum circuits translate into actual gameplay. We’ll also showcase visualizations of our quantum backend, offer MOTH-branded merch, and demo additional QRC experiments - including music-based ones that nod to our RECURSE project.
Repeating History
Quantum gaming today feels a lot like digital gaming in the 1950s and 60s: playful, experimental, and filled with possibility. This started with games like Tennis for Two in the 50s, reimplementing old experiences on new technology. This was followed by Spacewar in the 60s, the first unique new game that gave the first hints of this unique new medium. Then came Pong, the first commercial success and the beginning of a new industry, justifying the presence of computers in the arcade and the home.
With this in mind, we believe that Space Moths is the quantum answer to Spacewar. By using quantum hardware to provide on-demand content generation in a massively multiplayer game, it provides a significant step beyond any other quantum game demo to date and allows us to imagine a future in which creativity is empowered by quantum tools. On the other hand, though our generative technology provides interesting and useful results (as described in our paper on the subject), it doesn’t constitute a quantum advantage. And without that, we aren’t quite ready to declare our Pong moment yet.
Making History
In some ways I am tempted to go even further than this about the impact of our new project.
Quantum hardware was once confined to the lab, only ever touched by experimental physicists. This changed in 2016 when IBM put the first quantum computer on the cloud to be used by anyone. Nevertheless, the main use of these devices over the last decade has been research: Either scientific research, or companies experimenting with what quantum computing might one day do for them. In addition, today’s QPUs are not the fault-tolerant form of quantum computer that we know will offer exponential speedups over conventional computers. They are prototype devices plagued by imperfections, which makes using them often feel more like doing an experiment than using a computer.
So at what point does quantum hardware cross the line between starting as an experiment and becoming an actual computer? I would guess that most people will be convinced only when they can start using it, or using something built on it. Something like a consumer product built on on-demand quantum content generation. Something like Space Moths! So for me, Gamescom 2025 is when QPUs finally become quantum computers.
Join us
Whether or not quantum computing is fully industry ready, with Space Moths we show that it is nevertheless here. And at MOTH, we believe that games and creative tools are the best way to explore what it can really do - not someday, but right now.
Come visit us at Gamescom. Play the game. Talk to us about what comes next.
Let’s build the future together.