Blackbox – brain puzzles

Category

Description of App

So you think you understand this thing you’re holding? Think again. Stop tapping. Stop swiping. In fact, stop touching the screen at all. To crack Blackbox’s
puzzles you’ll need to find solitude and stillness, climb mountains, call on friends, get in tune with the cosmos, and think outside the box.

Minimalistic visual clues make for incredibly satisfying “Aha!” moments, while sonic interfaces provide an extra level of guidance and nuance that makes
Blackbox accessible with or without vision. Thoughtful haptic feedback, Easter eggs on Easter eggs, and solutions that can’t be found beneath the glass
of your screen redefine what a puzzle can be. You’ll never see your device the same way again.

Think you’re clever? Prove it.

(Blackbox is a living game under active development by Ryan McLeod. When not eating burritos or drinking coffee, he’s busy designing and developing new
Blackbox challenges.)

Version

1.5.3

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

No

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

11.0

Accessibility Comments

The latest version adds full VoiceOver support and additional sound effects to help with figuring out the various puzzles. While I haven't tried any of the previous versions, I can definitely say the improvements have clearly been thought out and the game is very enjoyable if you use VoiceOver

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Other Comments

It's kind of hard to explain how this game works without spoiling it. It's very different from any other Game I got to play on iOS. Considering it's free, you should give it a try and support the developer if you can.

Developer's Twitter Username

@blackboxpuzzles

Recommendations

25 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Piotr Machacz 6 months 3 weeks ago

Options

Comments

By Diego Garibay on Saturday, June 3, 2017 - 17:13

How do I change the settings for light type six and eight. I have no idea what it wants. Specially for type eight.

By realman on Saturday, June 3, 2017 - 17:13

I downloaded black box Thursday. Once I got past the initial screen and into the first challenge I was completely stumped, both as to the challenge and how to respond to it. I don't see any buttons to click to enter text and it's not clear to me what the challenge is, much less how to respond to it. If anyone wants to respond to me privately my e-mail address is realman02@verizon.net. I love puzzle challenges, but this seems unfairly frustrating. I'm glad others like it; I'm going to delete the app.

By Karina Velazquez on Saturday, June 3, 2017 - 17:13

I have downloaded the app on my ipad but I can't even start the game because as it is loading it crashes all the time, I have already made the downloading process once again and the same happens each time.

By falcon wings on Saturday, June 3, 2017 - 17:13

Ahoy all,

This game doesn't require much interaction that is touching and tapping with it,because its quite different from all the puzzel games out there.
Read the clues you are given and do something.
spoilers
the puzzels can include anything from flipping your phone upside down, to muting mic,to saying something to anything at all depending on the puzzel you are doing.
Hope this helps people get started with it!

By Teresa on Saturday, June 3, 2017 - 17:13

I'm experiencing extreme reverberation of Voiceover on the introductory screen. I'm using an iPhone 4S with iOS 9. Since I can't understand it, I can't continue. I hope this is easily resolved, because this game sounds like a very intriguing concept to me.

By Teresa on Saturday, June 3, 2017 - 17:13

Got several more but only through sheer strength of will. Truly my iPhone doesn't like this app for some reason, but I love it otherwise. Very inventive stuff. :-D

By That Blind Canuck on Saturday, June 3, 2017 - 17:13

I too had issues originally when trying to load the game. I found that if I turned off my wi-fi and tried it again, it loaded fine, and after the initial issue, I was able to load it again while my wi-fi was turned on. Just needed to turn it off for the first time loading and now it is fine. I haven't gone in depth with all the puzzles, but I do love the concept, you definitely have to think outside the box, which I think it is the reason why the game is so appealing. Hopefully with time, the developper will be able to fix some of these odd glitches and the game will run smoothly for all. Good luck!

By AnonyMouse on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - 17:13

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

What's New in Version 1.4.0

• New Challenge
It's beautiful, it's mysterious, it's ready to solve
(A secret feature that will unlock when the new challenge is completed…)

• New Hint System
You've asked and it's finally here. Not only are hints cheaper they now come in varieties ranging from "less helpful" hints to "more helpful" ones for when you just need a vague nudge or are truly stumped. Can't wait to hear what you think.

• Dynamic Type (iOS 11)
Blackbox now supports the smallest to the very largest accessibility text sizes with grace and in real time.

• Smart Invert Colors (iOS 11)
Blackbox (already being very dark) now intelligently inverts its colors only where need be.

The Fine Print Stuff
(for all you release note aficionados and lovers)
○ Kiss your rounded rectangles goodbye, Blackbox contains even more hyper-ellipses (also know as "squircles" or "squagels")
○ An existing, very vexing challenge has a new visual and mechanic
○ Native rating prompt
○ New social media following options
○ Several new UI sound effects (can you hear them all?)
○ Fixed some anti-aliased edges
○ Improved VoiceOver clues for two challenges
○ Plugged some atomically small memory leaks
○ 3D Touch sharing option now uses your referral link (accrue that hint coin skrilla)
○ Fixed a potential audio related crash
○ Fixed a potential crash when restoring from iCloud (REINSTALLING THE GAME IS NOT A PUZZLE …smh)

By DrummerGuy on Monday, December 3, 2018 - 17:13

This game is awesome!

By hanif naufal h… on Thursday, January 3, 2019 - 17:13

hello everyone, I've downloaded this game about 3 days ago. I've done the first challenge where I need to turn my phone upside down, however when I can get access to the challenge list I tried the type 6 challenge however I can't complete this one, same goes for the type 8 ones. any idea how to solve it?

Hi,
I completed puzzle six! I don't want to spoil it on how to solve it! I used a hint on it when I started playing! Here is a little hint think of the sun!

By That Blind Canuck on Sunday, March 3, 2019 - 17:13

Hi to all,

I was wondering if anyone else might be coming across this same issue. I, like some of you, will on occasion open up the app and play a puzzle or two when I got some free time.

Lately though, I've noticed, when turning the rotor to "Locked Challenges", I have 8 challenges locked, and they seem to be notification based puzzles. I've double checked the notification settings for Blackbox and it does have access to my notification. When I try to unlock these 8 challenges, it claims that access to my notifications are denied and that I need to grant access, which like I mentioned, it has. So I'm left not knowing exactly why this happens.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, and then unlock all challenges, including the 8 notification based challenges, but then after some time, these 8 challenges return to being locked. So I am not sure if this is a glitch with a recent update or something I'm missing, but would appreciate some help trying to figure this out.

Also, when opening up the iOS Settings and then tapping on Blackbox, passed the "Allow Blackbox to Access", there is a heading labelled "Blackbox Settings" with 4 toggle switches. VoiceOver reads the Bullseye toggle relating to Game Center and the Cloud toggle relating to iCloud sync, but what does the "Black Large Square" and the "Snow Flake" toggles represent?

Thanks!

By Teresa on Monday, June 3, 2019 - 17:13

I've always just loved the game concept, and banged my head on the wall trying to use it on earlier versions of iOS. Well, that was just silly. now I have a brand-new device. I'm still trying it on iPod, even though I'm not sure about all the functionality. I have solved several challenges, though. I love games like this. They make me go, hmmmmmm. ...

By Laura on Tuesday, November 3, 2020 - 17:13

I have solved a part of Puzzle 43 by using the screen recording feature, but I am stuck on the other part. Does anyone know how to solve this puzzle orPuzzle 41?