The idea of EMC was conceptualised while reading a book about the architecture of atoms and being inspired by the complexity and simplicity of the nuclear world in operation:

The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense, central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The electrons of an atom are bound to the nucleus by the electromagnetic force.

Each atomic orbital corresponds to a particular energy level of the electron. The electron can change its state to a higher energy level by absorbing a photon with sufficient energy to boost it into the new quantum state.

Spectacular matter. The parallels between atomic structure and to classic game architecture were obvious to Etter Studio, and therefore it was common sense to attempt creating a game based on these rules. Physics is the catalyst and we wanted to return this inspiration by attributing science and adding some fun and interaction into this often abstract and theoretical world.

We then joined forces with game designer Mario von Rickenbach to translate the theory of atomic structure into a game prototype. During the development stages we realised that the gameplay worked better than initially thought; it is simple, beautiful and addictive – therefore we decided to push the game beyond prototype stage and to release it on Apple's app store.

EMC has won the FWA award for mobile content. With five million site visits per month FWA is the most visited award program in the history of the internet. It has also earned an honorable mention at the iDA, the international design awards.

If you would like to know more about the creation of EMC please read The Science of EMC, an interview about its development process.