Triple success for Game App “Kitty Q”

The game app " Kitty Q - a Quantum Adventure", the joint project of the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat of the Universities of Würzburg and Dresden and the game designer Philipp Stollenmayer, has been awarded "Best Mobile Indie Game" at the Valencia Indie Summit. In addition, the mobile game with the cute, half-dead kitty Q has been nominated for other prestigious German media awards: for the GOLDEN SPATZ in the "Digital" competition and for the DEUTSCHE COMPUTERSPIELPREIS (DCP) as "Best Family Game". The DCP awards gala takes place tonight starting at 7:30 p.m. and is live streamed. The mobile game, which gets children and teenagers excited about physics through gameplay, has been available in the App and Play stores since mid-October 2021. So far, the app has been downloaded around 100,000 times worldwide. 

"I'm enormously happy that our game has received so much international recognition. Winning the Valencia Indie Award shows that we have managed to convey our fascination in other languages as well," Philipp Stollenmayer comments on the Spanish prize. The mobile game is the first commissioned work of the young app designer, who has so far worked exclusively on his own. The prize for the "Best Mobile Indie Game" was awarded to the English language version of the app "Kitty Q - A Quantum Adventure" during the Valencia Indie Summit on March 12, 2022. Of the nearly 100,000 downloads to date, around 70 percent are from outside Germany.  

"I can hardly believe that our game app 'Kitty Q' is garnering international awards and has now even been nominated for the DEUTSCHE COMPUTERSPIELPREIS! My daily work consists mostly of physics formulas and lab experiments. The fact that we have succeeded in communicating this complex quantum physics with a mobile game makes me proud. And we can see that this crazy idea works very well, especially when children, parents and teachers write to us. The app 'Kitty Q' gives children and adults an opportunity to explore the weird quantum world together," explains the spokesperson of the Würzburg branch on the Cluster Prof. Ralph Claessen, professor of Experimental Physics at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg (JMU).

"We can be incredibly grateful to Nobel Prize winner Erwin Schrödinger for inventing his thought experiment around the famous cat! And to his real great-granddaughter Anna Braunizer and her father Leonard, who have jointly taken on the patronage of the game. They were both immediately convinced by the idea of getting children and families excited about science and physics in this way. Quite in the spirit of their famous ancestor, because he too wanted to teach people about his field of expertise, quantum physics. Anna even gave her first name to the great-granddaughter in the mobile game, who always helps the players on their way through the crazy quantum world. The nomination for the Golden Spatz DIGITAL shows that our family approach is convincing," explains Prof. Matthias Vojta, professor of Theoretical Solid State Physics at Technische Universität Dresden (TU) and the spokesperson of the Dresden branch of the research alliance ct.qmat.

The inspiration for Kitty Q is a popular thought experiment in quantum mechanics by Nobel Prize winner Erwin Schrödinger (1887 - 1961), which became known as Schrödinger's cat. With the animal in the box, which is alive and dead at the same time, he created a vivid example for one of the principles of quantum mechanics in 1935: Objects can be in different states at the same time, which are actually mutually exclusive - called "superposition".

Deutscher Computerspielpreis

The DEUTSCHE COMPUTERSPIELPREIS (DCP) is the most important prize in the German gaming industry. A joint initiative of industry and the German Bundestag, the DCP has been awarded annually since 2009 - for the development of innovative computer and video games "made in Germany". This year, the expert and general jury selected the best games of the year from 456 submissions. There are three nominations in the "Best Family Game" category. The winning game will receive 40,000 euros. The award ceremony gala takes place on March 31, 2022 in Munich and as a live stream. More details at https://deutscher-computerspielpreis.de/ 

Goldener Spatz

The GOLDENE SPATZ is the biggest festival for German-language children's media. Every year, awards are given to the best cinema and TV contributions as well as digital media offerings for children. From May 29 to June 4, 2022, the 30th edition of the German Children's Media Festival GOLDENER SPATZ will take place in Gera and Erfurt. The DIGITAL competition brings together the eight best digital, audiovisual storytelling offerings for children up to the age of 12. The focus is on digital storytelling in its many forms. The competition was looking for good stories told in new, digital, audiovisual ways. The main prize – the coveted GOLDENE SPATZ DIGITAL – Is awarded by the target group itself. Five young experts between the ages of 10 and 12 from Germany and other German-speaking countries make up the DIGITAL children's jury.

More information about the app can be found on the corresponding website: https://katzeq.app

Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat

The Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat–Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter is a joint research collaboration by Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg and Technische Universität (TU) Dresden since 2019. More than 270 scientists from 34 countries and four continents perform research on topological quantum materials that reveal surprising phenomena under extreme conditions such as ultra-low temperatures, high pressures, or strong magnetic fields. If it becomes possible to exploit these unusual properties under ambient conditions, they will serve as a foundation for revolutionary quantum chips and new types of technological applications. The Cluster of Excellence is funded within Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments-as the only cluster in Germany that traverses federal state boundaries.

Contact for journalists

Katja Lesser, Public Relations Manager of the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, Phone: +49 351 463 33496, katja.lesser@tu-dresden.de