Download our revolutionary mobile game to help speed up cancer research

Played 2 games and deleted it, didn’t understand what I was doing couldn’t find a tutorial. On my first attempt I put loads of markers down, are these supposed to be what you fly through?
The spaceship flight bit seemed pointless and tedious, are you supposed to run out of bullets and fly into the white bits? I ran out of bullets and kept hitting asteroids.
How do you sift out little kids or simple adults like me who haven’t got a clue what they are supposed to be doing and tapping the screen like mad from useful data?

Thank you all for playing Genes in Space and helping to beat cancer sooner! We’re aware of the problem on the Route Mapping screen and are working to fix this as soon as we can. In the meantime, you could try another way of analysing cancer data at http://www.cellslider.net while we get this fixed.

Nick Peel, Cancer Research UK

I loved playing the game but now all I get is a blank screen on the route mapping & I can’t go any farther

I emailed the developers about the blank screen problem. They said a number of people have reported it too. They’re working on a fix, so don’t give up just yet. :)

I like playing genes in space,but now it won’t let me route map.Can you please fix this.

My map is also coming up blank :(

Now v frustrated because I can’t play as Route Mapping screen is blank – help!

Need a support page….When I get to the route mapping page, the window remains empty, I hear some beeps when I touch the screen, but the route mapping screen remains empty, touching play a second time and the game crashes. Playing on an iPhone 5S. I have deleted it the app and reloaded several times.

i have tried many times to play; i get the route mapping screen , push play , here a beep, then NO CHANGE. reset or back close the game.

Brilliant idea but I do agree with better instructions and also it is not running right on the Galaxy Tab 3 – asteroids don’t show, is clunky and hard to do the flying bit – but love the idea and will continue to crunch data :)

Is there a support page? My game seems to have stopped downloading new DNA data. When I get to the “Route Mapping” page, the window remains empty, and the game crashes a short time later… Playing on an iPhone 5S.

It’s OK but I have two serious questions. A human can see a peak and trough, a computer can be programmed to recognise more or less white space. So why don’t you just program a computer to do that? Secondly, Just give us the array to plot for you, we don’t need a game in the way slowing us down. Remember SETI’s app? Make a Desktop app that crunches the numbers for you. Millions would leave their Machines on to crunch the numbers if you’re lacking computing power.

Honest Question. Why cant a computer program be written to automatically draw these lines?

I’ve really been enjoying this game, and is an oncology nurse I really appreciate it even exists. If I were asking, I would request two things:

1) unless it plays some actual role in you crunching data I would like the option to turn the asteroid fields off. I enjoy the harvest much more, even if that means slower leveling.

2) the stability is very bad if the game is interrupted by any messaging or phone interruptions and usually requires logging all the way back in.

I am loving this game! However, I would like to know the benefits of each upgrade and what a second ship does so I can weigh up the options of my purchases

This needs to be on Windows phones too!
The idea is just too amazing

I spend too much time playing mobile games and this one is fun. It’s nice to know that my time wasted isn’t actually wasted when I play this.

Hello! This is a great effort – well done!

I’m actually more interested in drawing lines through the data instead of flying my spaceship and shooting asteroids, etc.

Is it possible of publishing an app that features just the Route Mapping screen? It’ll be much quicker and gentler on my phone without the game portion!

Thank you!

It would be cool if you could improve the instructions on app, needed to google this page so i could find that the valuable things were the peaks and changes on the route mapping/dna microarray, and maybe a way to re read the improved instructions, but well, the effort is great, love you guys.

Well port it for PC or develop something equivalent (probably better) and i will play the heck out of it. I guess the progress of research could be significantly increased in this way since calculations can be done much faster on for example CUDA architecture or even a simple dual/quad core processor.

Why cant this game be on blackberry world as i have playbook shame really none for windows or mac shame lugia kane

Cool idea to use gamer’s energy to develop science! :-)
Can you add some more description of what does upgrade of different parts improove? And add some numbers characteristics of upgrades (like 1st lvl gun – 1 shots/sec, 2nd lvl gun – 1.5 shots/sec)
And add, pls, “are you sure?” dialog when pressing Reset button on the mapping window. (Had pressed it several times ocasionaly)

This is a great idea, the game is fun and looks good.
My only recommendation is that if it were possible, bring out a non ‘game’ version, allowing the microarray data to be scanned even faster. It is my believe that although the game is enticing , the ship upgrades and asteroid field is time consuming and unnecessary.

Too difficult for me to figure out how to play it from the instructions given.

Can you make it available on normal pc running windows

Could you make it available on Windows Phone?

Do you plan to make it available at the App Shop of Amazon?

Great idea!

Is there a possibility to even just analyse the data without even playing the spaceship game?
I guess there are people who would like to volunteer but don’t like that kind of spaceship adventure (like me). :-)

I want to download this, but do not want to have to create another way for google to harvest my data by having to create an account with them. Any chance of putting this on Microsoft games for Windows Phone? Or at least make it so I do not have to register.

It doesn’t download. It plays a video, but doesn’t download the game. I gave up. You need to make it easy to access, or give better instructions.

This seems to be a great idea!

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Will there be a BlackBerry version? Bb10 devices can run most android apps but this one doesn’t work. Says it can’t download required data.

I would just like to be able to zoom in at stage 1 when I am mapping (big fingers, inaccurate screen) because I rarely can put my “dot” exactly where I want it

At the second stage, I just have lag with the gyroscope and cant work the other style of control so perhaps I would rather do this on a PC rather than a smart phone.

The good, points-2-ponder and a free offer.

1] the Good
The game is a good idea ~ it helps me fight a disease that has blighted my family.
I am using an iPad for this game – but it is slow and jerky!

2] points-2-ponder
I agree with most of the comments in the Blog. I have some queries about the interface and why the fins?
When I change ‘ships’ I am returned to level 1 in all the components. after achieving level 5 for all components in both ships?

More importantly I notice the following pattern of areas of interest in the samples ~
More common at the top half of the route planner than the bottom;
More common at the start of the route than the end;
Nearly always a small narrow ribbon along the very bottom of the route planner.

So, is this a function of the original sampling, or the presentation of that sub-sample in the game, or is this something worth exploring further?

Have you considered ~
a] Getting different players to analyse the same sample then compare their results?
b] Getting the same player to analyse the same sample but at a different time then compare their results?
c] Overlapping samples from different areas of interest from different players?

3] Free offer
I am a retired computer lecturer willing to donate my time and (computer) skills to help the fight against cancer.

…. and finally keep up the good work and encourage people to keep trying this fight ongoing.

Dr J Christie

They should really use deep learning to detect the pattern. Convolutional neural network is very good from my own experience. Besides, you cannot trust the label from regular people too much if you don’t give them feedback and tell them what is wrong or not. you guys also need some reinforcement learning. I played few trials and I think my labels are not good in the first few rounds.

I agree with the comments here that more detailled informaton about route plotting would be very helpful. Due to the concept of the game (collect Element Alpha) I would not have drawn the route in the above example like you did but rather put a more or less straight route at the top of the image from left to right. I would like to map it as accurate as possible but without more insight in this it´s just guessing.

Also, does it matter how much markers I place in the route planning?

To be clear, I really like this approach, but it needs more information either within the game or on a website.

I can’t get this to work on my phone, it would be great if you could make a version for laptops as well!

Nobody likes Windows phones do they :(

The very obvious info the is missing from the ‘What ‘Genes in Space’ is all about and what to do to use/play it is – what kit and system requirements are needed to use the game. YES, buried in the text ‘smartphone is mentioned – if you read it all! This needs to be under a heading of its own and in a very obvious place. Shame it can’t be used on a laptop (I think that’s right)

The game idea was a good one, but the game is sadly not very good.

It is repetitive, never changing and once you’ve made a few credits and bought upgrades for the ship, becomes incredibly tedious. There is absolutely no depth and after a few levels, the replayability tends rapidly towards zero.

If you wish to people to help with the data analysis through the medium of a game, then the game needs to last long enough to keep people interested in playing it. In essence, you need a good game and this isn’t it. The concepts of a ship flying through space is great and the mapping element is interesting, but doesn’t last.

This means I won’t be helping any more. I would happily mark up your DNA data, do a few each day, but not if I have to run through the whole space game thing.

So I would recommend you allow people to download an app (or add functionality to the existing app) which allows people simply to work on the DNS microarrays if they want. Alternatively, you’ll need a game with much more replayability.

Very good idea though and I hope you will be able to refine it. Don’t give up!

Have you ever thought about using the World Community Grid? ( http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ )

I cannot control the spaceship so when it is close to the planet I cannot do anything about this . Am I missing something?

Great concept, you need a user forum next and more details on what a good plot looks like. Not impressed by a few naysayers here, I doubt many of them can turn a problem like this into a game. Developers need serious positive feedback about things they have control over.

I do not posess a ‘fancy’ mobile phone and am to able to download the game,so please
desist from sending me e-mails!

Ive just tried to play this game and it seems you can only exit form the game by turning your mobile phone off!

Information regarding route plotting is a must, I’m kinda concerned I may be wasting data..on the other hand I suppose it must be fool proof.

Having examples of different data sets and information on what you desire would be great.

Asteroid field is quite frustrating at first, maybe reduce the density at first as some people may be put off by the difficulty Curve.

Any chance of changing the particle effects to something more manageable for old hardware?. Other than the above, it’s great to see a simple way to aid the cause.

I’ve been playing this game for a short while now, picking it up for a few minutes every now and then. I nearly achieved seeker rank (lvl 13). I’m impressed with the concept, but I have some remarks about the execution.

The route plotting is a clever analogy to the data arrays, and I see what you were trying to do with the space ships to let it make sense, but I must say that I’m playing this despite the flying game, not because of it. The flying is a very basic and brainless chore and is not fun. It feels like it’s wasting my time when I could be plotting more graphs.

The fact that the game is lagging quite badly (on iPhone 4) is a big downside. I can barely steer my ship without it over-steering way too far. If you want to reach a big audience, the game should run smoothly. Also on older devices.

The only upgrade that is worth saving for is the first shield upgrade, so that you have a chance of surviving the asteroids (are those really necessary anyway?). Beating the asteroids allows you to keep your cargo, which only allows you to get more upgrades that you don’t need. All in all, there’s no incentive to collect cargo.

I think it’s important to realize that the people who play this game want to help with the research. I’d prefer to get meaningful feedback about how my actions make a difference, even if it’s a small difference. I’ve seen it mentioned that this game notifies the scientists when interesting patterns form, so a measured level of ‘meaningfulness’ is already there. If the player gets a notification that the route he plotted just now meaningfully corresponds with a certain number of other routes, that would be far more rewarding than receiving some arbitrary amount of useless alpha dust.

In conclusion, this is a great initiative, but playing the game is currently not fun and doesn’t give the player the knowledge or even the illusion that he’s making a difference. Giving specific feedback about each flight would make playing this feel much better. I hope this short review is helpful.

Good game, good concept, but I concur with other posts about the guidance for mapping.

And who said gaming was a waste of time?

I think this is a great idea, but i would like more support/feedback to help make sure that the mapping data we are providing is the best quality it can be, eg i am wanting toknow whether the main aim is to highlight the outliers such as in the screenshot above, or to map as closely as possible the ‘bright spots’ even if the route is then so zig zag you can’t actually follow it. I searched in vain for a forum where we could get good feedback loops with the scientists evaluating the data, this the best i have found. Would love more guidance!

Nice to see this post thanks for sharing this informative post…

Freezes on graph screen after ship selection on galaxy s3 running cm

I don’t know why, but I can’t download the game on my phone, it says it is not compatible… I’m really sad cause I really wanted to help the researchers … Is there anything you could do ?

need kindle version.

I’ve downloaded the game and it’s a little unclear on how to correctly map the route.
Even the example route mapping screenshot given above has the line between the 8th and 9th dot not passing through any data.

I really like the concept but the interface to map the route and a more detailed explanation how you want the mapping to be completed I think would help.

I for one would play a more adult targeted game where it was just the mapping element
and you could still be scored and shown how many maps you’d drawn and what the % score was on each completed map vs other players.

Level 40 and still going!

@Josh – the asteroid field sucks when you’re first starting out, but if you can save up enough credits from missions without the asteroid fields you can upgrade your weapons and shield which makes it a LOT easier!

The game is okay but please get rid of the stupid asteroid field thing, or make it a bit easier because the game is useless not that every time I play i loose all my cargo and i have tried it like 10 times and thee field is just too dense to navigate and the guns run out really quickly so although I want to help the lack of credit or progression im getting makes the game worthless to me

I want to play but i have a windows phone. Will you be making a compatible version?

what about ppl who don’t use smart phones ??

We really need a PC version of this. There are hundreds (thousands?) of retired people like myself who have laptops just waiting to be used for something worthwhile and I suspect that
many youngsters would have a try at something they suppose is
easy-peasy if some sort of score was included!

Please may beginners have stepwise details of how to get started? And the terminology explained please. Basis of the game isn’t understood! It’s isn’t self explanatory yet and I must be putting in more errors than is useful as I try to work it out.

Does this game for Windows Phone???

OK a few more plays, reading the blog and noticing the ? symbol have been very useful. I’m starting to get the hang of it. Hope my contributions are helpful to the project. Do I need to be on Wifi/internet to be able to play?

I think this is a great idea. I have participated in similar projects such as zooniverse that process real data. If you would really like to get public collaboration, it would be nice to publish the game as free software and put a link to the sources repository in the description.

My first 10 or so plays have set you back I fear! I have been going through the darkest bits not the whitest! Sorry about that. Rules for beginners would be really useful!!

I really want to help but find it too complicated, it would be helpful if you could have examples or at least help fir the common man with simple instructions if that is possible.

I think this is absolutely fantastic, and kudos to you guys. With this and fold it, addicted gamers will soon be solving all of science’s data crunching problems!

very nice idea indeed. as i don’t own neither an android not apple smartphone – would there be a pc version as well?

First of all, thank you all for checking out our new game! We’re thrilled that you’re keen to join in and help beat cancer sooner.

We’re hearing from a lot of you that you’d like the game to be available on different phones and platforms. At the moment, Play to Cure: Genes in Space is a prototype, and we only had limited resources to develop it. We need to test whether the concept works as we hope it will before we can consider launching any further versions for PC, Windows phone, Kindle or other platforms. But if there would be a benefit in making the game more widely available we can look into this at a later stage. If you don’t have a smartphone you can still join the fight by logging onto our other citizen science project http://www.cellslider.net

Some of you have been asking about whether we need both the navigation plotting and the flight path for the data analysis. The answer is – we don’t know yet. We decided to include both because we thought that the navigation plotting would give us the most accurate analysis, while the flight path would be more fun for people to play. But we won’t know for sure until we’ve looked at the outputs from thousands of people playing. Your feedback on this is really important so please do continue to let us know how you’re getting on. This is only the beginning of our citizen science story and you’re all playing a key role in how it unravels.

We don’t want anyone to worry about making mistakes; your time spent playing the game is invaluable to us. Data analysis accuracy comes with volume, so the more people who play the game, the better the results will be. Each person will have a unique journey through our datasets, and each set of data will be viewed multiple times by lots of different players. There are plenty of checks in place to ensure that each person’s journey accurately contributes to speeding up our scientists’ analysis times.

Thanks again for supporting our new venture – we hope you get great enjoyment out of it and are spurred on by knowing you’re helping to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.

Jo Owens, senior science communications manager, Cancer Research UK

A PC one – IS A MUST !!!!!!!!
You would get way more exposure and results
if the game is any good !!!

Could you release one for PC gaming…I hate using such a small screen…><…

Its look cool, and i really like this new genre of scientific-assistance games that have started to crop up. But when is this coming to Amazon, as I want to participate but have a Kindle.

I think it’s wonderful! But I’m a little nervous about what happens if I’m really bad at this game. Will that screw up all the research?

The asteroid belts are too difficult for me due to processing speed difficulties, and that annoys me too much to keep playing, even if the rest is I’M

Should really make PC versions of this, not everyone can afford smart phones

windows phone exists too you know

How do you know what the test subject demographics are? What are you plotting against? How do you know who has cancer and who doesn’t?

I love this game. I would like to say that the “mark your route” is kind of complicated because you can’t be very accurate when pinpointing (i have big hands D=). I’ll love to see a Browser (Pc) version of this game.

Thanks so much for this.

PLEASE MAKE A PC VERSION OF THIS!

how about windows phones?

I think this is a pretty cool idea. As science grows on experiments. Trial and error. I believe that this app could be improved, as it does have potential, but the idea overall is pretty neat.

This might seem a bit odd but could you release a second app, or maybe an option in this one, to just help do the plotting? I’d love to help and I could get twice as much done if the arbitrary game elements could be removed. Thanks!

I wish there was an option to only do the plotting. The gameplay isn’t fun and takes a while, both especially when there’s an asteroid field, so both Cancer Research and I would be better off if I could just quickly do some plotting without the fluff.