Blackbox 4+
Think outside the box
Shapes and Stories LLC
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- Free
- Offers In-App Purchases
Screenshots
Description
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.)
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What’s New
Version 2.2.10
■ Updating a tutorial difficulty experiment
Ratings and Reviews
Editors’ Notes
The most ingenious thing about Blackbox’s puzzles isn’t that you solve them without tapping or swiping. It’s that you’ll happily spend hours figuring out the game’s subtle clues. Do you need to tilt your iPhone, shout into the speaker or do something a lot trickier? Thinking creatively and finding the answer feels deeply rewarding, even profound—earning Blackbox an Apple Design Award.
My personal thoughts - below
This game is... what I’ve always though to be the “only meaningful kind of idea for a mobile game” - as it just simply doesn’t try “to be like anything else” - it doesn’t even attempt to be like anything else...
It’s just something completely unique - and the most important thing is that it utilises what a “smartphone” is in a way I’d call “ultimate”... It utilises all the unique features of a “smartphone” - and I mean the “smartphone” as a platform! Because no matter how much more powerful a computer (a PC) or a gaming console could be - you could never ever “interact” with a PC or a console in the same way in which you could interact with your phone. Yes - for example, a phone can never beat the sheer power of a PC or a console, and especially it can’t beat the simple fact that a console always comes with a game pad, an that the PC always comes with a keyboard and a mouse - but at the same time - no PC, nor a console come pre-equipped with all these “sensors and features” that a smartphone comes with! This “game” called Blackbox - I think is the only game in the world that gets the ordinary “smartphone” very close to the realm of it being equal to the Rubik’s cube - making it unique and also making it “on another level”!
I’d go as far as to say: “This is the ONLY meaningful idea for a mobile game in the world!”
And now for something completely different...
Totally unlike anything I’ve played before, I was hooked pretty instantly. The puzzles are challenging but not impossible & the set-up means when you get stuck you can try a different puzzle while you wait for inspiration.
My daughter (10) wanted it as soon as she saw it & it was interesting seeing her approach to puzzles I’d already solved & how some she got way faster than me, while others took longer - clearly different people are going to be better at different levels. We also discovered that playing the same level together can reveal differences in our settings etc that me may not have noticed solo, so try comparing with friends of you’re stumped.
So far I’m really impressed and I fully intend to buy the developer a burrito come payday!
In-App Purchases
App Privacy
The developer, Shapes and Stories LLC, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics
- Other Data
Privacy practices may vary based on, for example, the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
- Provider
- Shapes and Stories LLC
- Size
- 119 MB
- Category
- Games
- Compatibility
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- iPhone
- Requires iOS 13.0 or later.
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 13.0 or later.
- iPod touch
- Requires iOS 13.0 or later.
- Languages
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English, Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Georgian, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2023 Grow Pixel
- Price
- Free
- In-App Purchases
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- Tiny Hint Pack £0.99
- Erudite Pack £2.99
- Basic Pack £6.00
- Push Pack £2.99
- Small Hint Pack £1.99
- All Knowing Pack £9.00
- Medium Hint Pack £5.00
- Large Hint Pack £10.00
- Coffee for Ryan £2.99
- Extra Large Hint Pack £20.00
Supports
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Wallet
Get all of your passes, tickets, cards, and more in one place.
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Game Center
Challenge friends and check leaderboards and achievements.
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Family Sharing
Some in‑app purchases, including subscriptions, may be shareable with your family group when Family Sharing is enabled.