HOUSTON: Three Indian-American students have created a new game application "Galactic Odyssey" for US tech giant Apple where users try to steer their lost rocket ship home using the gravity of planets.

Rahul Bhatia, Akshay Narayan and Rohan Agarwal, all 17-year-old and students of Irvington High School, California, began brainstorming ideas for the app in June and worked on it all summer.

"Galactic Odyssey" was sent to Apple a week and a half ago, and it became available today. The app can be downloaded from Apple for 99 cents.

The teens used concepts from their physics class to build the app, but they said it doesn't require any science background to play.

Pete Murchison, Principal, Irvington High School said, "This is unbelievably difficult. They (Apple) get a gazillion of these applications, and for these kids to do it, it's absolutely amazing... Now they're dealing with the biggest, most powerful company in the world."

In the game, the player interacts with a variety of objects, including planets, moon, asteroids, black holes, wormholes, and Sun. The timing and strategy are though crucial to return the spaceship to Earth.

The trio study computer science and AP physics together at Irvington.

"We kind of grew up in that atmosphere where you enjoy a challenge. While we use concepts from physics... it's not like you have to know that stuff to beat the game. Lots of people say it's hard but it is addicting," Akshay said.

"We definitely have that science-engineering background. It really is the risk, but risk is the thrill," Rahul added.

"You have to be really interested in it. You have to have a passion for it," Rohan said.