Hi AppleVis community! My name is Ryan McLeod and I’m the designer and developer of Blackbox: an outside-the-box collection of over 70 mind puzzles that generally don’t require touch to solve. Since the game currently relies on minimalistic colorful visuals and animations to play it's never been very accessible to anyone with visual impairment. Over the last month I’ve worked closely with my friend in sound engineering to re-think all 71 current puzzles to design ways for them to be playable via alternative sonic interfaces and Voice Over (and haptic feedback on devices that support it). These sounds compliment the current visuals but hopefully serve as their own stand-alone and satisfying way to figure out and solve the puzzles. With your help and feedback I hope we can make them even better!
A word of warning: these aren’t fast, casual puzzles but they are extremely satisfying to solve. The game is tough to describe without spoiling its “ah ha!” moments so I won’t say too much but I would love to hear what you think and get your feedback (nothing is too small!) so I can make my game as accessible as possible. Feel free to reply here or email me at a11y@growpixel.com.
Note: 75% of the game is free but there are two paid expansions and hint credits, which can be bought or earned by referring friends via sharing in the game (helps keep things ad-free). That said, please email me at a11y@growpixel.com for promo codes and I'll provide as many as I can!
Comments
Excellent, Ryan!
Congratulations, my friend, for one more excellent achievement. An award very well deserved. Thank you for creating such an incredible game. Really ingenious. I have to say that I truly love Blackbox.
blackbox is not opening
Dear friends yesterday I was downloaded blackbox and compleet almost 13 chalanges but now when I am doubal tap on game voiceover stop speaking and game did not open. I am using iPhone 7 with letast update of IOS.
Re: Drummer Guy
Thank you!! Can't wait to make more challenges for ya'll :)
Re: Shaby
Sorry to hear this Shaby, sounds like you might be running into a bug I'm currently working on fixing. As a workaround please navigate to Settings and then Blackbox and turn off the toggle labeled "frozen water" (holiday snow effect). Please let me know if this doesn't fix up the issue! (you can always reach me at ryan@growpixel.com too).
Version 1.4.10
I released a new version last week that should improve performance of the game on many older devices. This should also improve any Voice Over stuttering or lag that might have been happening before (especially when toggling Voice Over on and off while the game is running). Please let me know if you notice any improvements or if it's still problematic on your device.
IMHO, By so far, Blackbox is the best.
Greetings all.
Although I know the AppleVis website a long time ago, I Just registered here.
I downloaded the game since 4 days, and I can say it's epic.
I am in games since my childhood, been in many consoles, Atari, Sega, and with nowadays games, in my humble opinion, there's no compare.
As for mobile gaming, I did tried lots of them but, alas, I lost interest, because, most of them are either easy/simple, whether are time consuming, or trying to clone other games, well in fact, so many reasons.
But, as in Blackbox, I found myself swiftly and psychically thrown in a very astonishing, rare, unique experience on it's own.
I didn't been in such a great enjoyment long, long time ago.
Really, at least for me, I think these "thanks/thank you" words aren't even going to express how much I value you, they aren't even enough for what you did for us, I think that you deserve more for how you cared, for how much you gave us and spent lots of your precious time for us.
I rated it with a 5 stars.
So far, I got 62 of 75 challenges solved.
Sorry for making it so long, but facing some issues here.
Did shared the app with 2 RL brothers of mine, first is just like me, blind, and other is sighted.
When the first one installed it, I waited a little, then I got what I have been Promised, 3 creds.
As for the other one, nothing at all.
He thought that he have to do some action and he rated 5 stars, still, didn't got any.
For the 5th challenge, I think there was some kind of audio, continuous tone, just before the latest update, if I am not mistaken.
Now, I can't hear it anymore.
Not sure if this's got broken, or you might meant to do it in purpose though.
I think there is more but Im keeping them for later posts since this's already kinda long to read.
BTW, I already emailed you about some stuff, still waitting for the reply, just saying, can't blame you though.
Please, excuse my English, it's not my native, still trying though.
Peace.