Quantum Faultstack: Act I

Operate the visible stack. Never see the hidden truth.

Quantum Faultstack is an operations-strategy game about owning and upgrading a quantum processing unit—and building the visible classical control stack that keeps it operating.

You cannot inspect the QPU’s hidden state. You get packets, timing windows, queues, correction returns, and public diagnostics. Your job is not to make failure disappear. Your job is to keep useful correction work moving when failure is normal.

Configure the machine offline. Run it under pressure. Follow visible evidence through the decoder path, diagnose bottlenecks, change the machine or its operating policy, and retry increasingly demanding workloads.

What You Can Play

• A finite HTML5/WASM Act I campaign starting from a fresh career.
• Mission Control briefing, objectives, progression, and debriefs.
• Workbench hardware commissioning and FPGA configuration.
• Systems Lab component placement, cable routing, runtime operation, and visible diagnostics.
• A player-owned Rep3 QPU with packet-driven evidence and correction timing.
• Route Contrast failures that can be diagnosed from public evidence.
• Multiple recovery strategies, including cadence changes, Field Tuning, and split decoder lanes.
• Upgrades to distance 5 and two logical regions.
• Distinct Bell and CZ/SWAP certification workloads.
• A sponsor choice that changes post-campaign Daily Contracts.
• Browser autosave plus portable career Import and Export.

Technical Notes

• The QPU’s internal state is hidden during operation by design. You work from visible evidence and public service outcomes.
• One displayed runtime tick represents approximately 1 µs.
• The Rep3 decoder forms correction hypotheses from visible parity and syndrome evidence.
• Hardware placement, routing, queue pressure, processing latency, and operating cadence affect runtime behavior.
• The game is built in Rust and Bevy and runs locally in the browser after loading.
• No API key or live AI service is required to play.
• Faultstack models error-correction, control, readout, routing, and timing pressure. It is not a full quantum-state amplitude simulator.

Not Included in This Build

• Native downloads.
• Act II or the complete future campaign.
• A complete sandbox economy.
• Mobile or touch-oriented controls.
• Stable long-term save compatibility.
• Final balance, tutorialization, performance, or interface polish.

Save Compatibility

Progress autosaves to local storage in this browser. Settings also provide portable career JSON Import and Export.

These are prototype saves. They may reset, change, or become incompatible with later builds. New Career explicitly replaces the current browser save.

If the game behaves strangely after an update, starting a fresh career may be the safest option.

Health and Visual Safety

Quantum Faultstack contains animated technical interfaces, bright contrast, rapidly updating diagnostics, motion, and dense runtime activity.

If you are sensitive to flashing or flickering interfaces, high-contrast patterns, motion, or screen effects, please use caution. Stop playing if you experience eye strain, dizziness, nausea, disorientation, headache, visual discomfort, or other unusual symptoms.

This is an in-development build and may contain bugs, unfinished systems, visual glitches, performance problems, and balance issues.

Sharing This Build

You are welcome to share the itch.io page, stream or record gameplay, post screenshots, and discuss the game.

You may also redistribute this exact free prototype build where platform rules allow, provided it remains free, unchanged, and attributed to Quantum Faultstack by Ben Schneider. Linking back to the itch.io page is appreciated because redistributed builds may become outdated.

This permission applies only to this prototype build. It does not grant permission to resell or separately reuse the source code, story material, or included assets. Please do not extract or distribute the assets as a standalone asset pack.

Feedback I Need Most

I am especially interested in where players hesitate, start guessing, or cannot connect the visible evidence to a useful action.

• What did you think the QPU would and would not tell you?
• What evidence helped explain your first failed control-loop run?
• What did you change before retrying, and why?
• Did Systems Lab feel like operating a control stack or arranging parts?
• Did distance 5, Bell, and CZ/SWAP feel operationally different?
• What information, label, diagram, or example would have helped earlier?
• What consequence did you expect from the sponsor choice?
• After Act I ended, could you find and start a Daily Contract?

Recommended Setup

• Desktop browser with WebGPU support.
• Keyboard and mouse.
• Minimum viewport: 1280×720.
• Recommended viewport: 1280×800 or larger.
• Fullscreen or a large browser window for reading the technical interface.
• The first load may take several seconds.

Creator Note

Quantum Faultstack is an independent technical game created by Ben Schneider. It is a personal project and is not affiliated with any employer, institution, or quantum hardware company.