Changelog

This is a hotfix! iOS 17.4.1 broke some stuff, but I fixed it (hotly)

■ Fixed a certain double dark-teal challenge that was crashing on launch.

If you lost progress or anything from reinstalling the game trying to fix this, first of all please stop doing that, and second please email me if I can maybe help ryan@growpixel.com

Hey there friend,

It’s been a long time. I’m sorry about that. I’ve been very busy working on Blackbox for visionOS but fret not, I’m still here. Here with a few very important bug fixes that might have been vexing you… If you spent hint credits on either of those they should be credited back to you with this update.

■ The latest yellow challenge with the funny shapes became unsolvable in iOS 17.4.1, now it is not. Is that a hint? Not really unless you work at Apple and can compare API diffs… anyway I digress

■ The orange challenge with the dots and the dashes wasn’t really in the right place on phones with that fancy dynamic island. That’s been fixed and it looks a lot better to boot!

■ The blue meta challenge with the magnifying glass got reallllllly hard to solve due to some OS changes. It should be at least a bit easier again for sleuths… I also updated some of the imagery for when you find the solution…

■ The dark red meta challenge with the power symbol just got a liiitttle easier. Muah

■ Fixed the very subtle background visuals in one of the OG challenges. Whew

■ Updating a tutorial difficulty experiment

■ Restoring the canonical icon for a bit
■ Added a visual hint for the latest yellow puzzle (let me know what you think if you were still stumped or no longer are!)

How are you doing? Still holding stress in your upper back? Roll those shoulders, deep breath. You are the universe thinking about itself and the latest bug fixes in iOS apps.

■ Improved tolerances in the tutorial, It should not only be easier to solve but harder to solve on accident (win, win—I hope)
■ Fixed an untranslated Voice Over string (if you ever find these please email me at a11y@growpixel.com!)
■ Testing out attempting to show the upsell prompt less and only at more opportune times
■ Improved an end game feature slightly

■ Fix a bug where purchasing a family pack would give you and your whole family access to absolutely nothing (Really sorry about this one, please enjoy the truck load of free hint credits as my sincerest apology)

■ If an audio clip is triggered and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? It doesn’t but it also doesn’t if your audio logic is faulty. Anyhow that’s been fixed now. My sincerest apologies to my players who depend on sound to play and to Gus whose beautiful sounds were not gracing your ears as much as they should have been.

■ Added some sounds to the latest challenge
■ Fixed a missing accessibility string
■ Radio buttons got some subtle bounce
■ Preparing to test family plan sharing of some level packs
■ As always, refactoring and minor bug fixes that bring no one but me joy

■ Fixed a bug where sometimes Blackbox would ask for a rating immediately after the tutorial (overeager much?)
■ Fixed missing Chinese translators in the credits!
■ Fixed a rare crash

Previously… on Blackbox…
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
■■■你好 (Hello!)

How have you been? Eating well? Staying healthy? Taking care of yourself and your loved ones? Good. Me too, including Blackbox. This update has one big new addition (Chinese!) and fixes a lot of little issues you probably won’t even notice but Blackbox sure does.

■ 现在有中文版了！(Now available in Chinese!)
如果您发现任何问题，请告诉我，以便我可以解决它们 :) Ryan@growpixel.com

■ Several challenges were rebuilt and spiffied up to look fantastically at home with the Dynamic Island. Can you find all 3?
■ Hide icon picker if all you don’t yet have an icons
■ Made solving one challenge easier for a younger generation that hardly knows what [REDACTED] is anymore
■ Simplified the reset URL: now if you want to reset a challenge just type reset://[challengeID] (see Discord for IDs)
■ Fixed a bug where [CENSORED] wouldn’t visually update after solving
■ Fixed an issue where tapping the dynamic island or top of screen would open a wormhole
■ Improve how two challenges process and understand [BLANK]
■ Crippling ‘sonder’ issue from last version turned out to just be ‘ennui’ but I am working on it

你好 (Hello!)

How have you been? Eating well? Staying healthy? Taking care of yourself and your loved ones? Good. Me too, including Blackbox. This update has one big new addition (Chinese!) and fixes a lot of little issues you probably won’t even notice but Blackbox sure does.

■ 现在有中文版了！(Now available in Chinese!)
如果您发现任何问题，请告诉我，以便我可以解决它们 :) Ryan@growpixel.com

■ Several challenges were rebuilt and spiffied up to look fantastically at home with the Dynamic Island. Can you find all 3?
■ Hide icon picker if all you don’t yet have an icons
■ Made solving one challenge easier for a younger generation that hardly knows what [REDACTED] is anymore
■ Simplified the reset URL: now if you want to reset a challenge just type reset://[challengeID] (see Discord for IDs)
■ Fixed a bug where [CENSORED] wouldn’t visually update after solving
■ Fixed an issue where tapping the dynamic island or top of screen would open a wormhole
■ Improve how two challenges process and understand [BLANK]
■ Crippling ‘sonder’ issue from last version turned out to just be ‘ennui’ but I am working on it

■ Fixed a bug that had broken hint credit pack syncing across multiple devices (Thank you for the detailed report Ruthanne!)
■ Fixed a bug that was preventing link copying and had broken sharing to Instagram stories from screenshots
■ Did not fix that often crippling sense of sonder

■ Fixed a visual glitch when device [REDACTED] was too low
■ Improved the [REDACTED] challenge to give better feedback
■ Cleaned-up the completion animation for [REDACTED]
■ Prevented some potentially laggy sound effects
■ Added the option to continue or restart after reinstalling. You can also visit blackbox://reset to restart while keeping your hints, credits, icons, etc. (THIS IS NOT A CHALLENGE AND NEVER EVER WILL BE)

■ Fixed a crash in a recent challenge related to Daylight saving time
■ Fixed an issue with hint pack quantities in some currencies
■ Fixed a crash when closing some panels using Voice Over
■ Fixed a common audio related crash (maybe, fingers crossed)
■ Tweaked tiny hint coins to have more square holes
■ Fixed some social icons/colors

■ NEW CHALLENGE: mysterious symbols have appeared… what do they mean? What do they want?!? (Requires iOS 15)

■ iMessage Stickers: Finally Blackbox has some amazing animated iMessage stickers! They’re not boring and you might actually want to use them! (Wow, sell them harder Ryan) No but seriously they’re pretty clever, and dare I even say cute.

■ Fixed the previously thought to be fixed but actually broken positioning of a light in a certain orange 4 light challenge

Moderately Above Room Temperature Release
■ Fixed a bug causing the latest meta challenge to crash for some during the solve animation
■ Added some experimental visual guides to the tutorial challenge

Hottest of fixes
■ More bug fixes for crashes in the latest challenge
■ Slightly lowered sensitivity of a certain older blue challenge

Even Hotter Fix
■ The saga to prevent mysterious crashing in the latest meta challenge continues! (okay it’s not mysterious but I’m avoiding spoilers in the release notes) Hopefully this helps many of you, but there are still some even stranger cases yet that I’m working to fix.

Thank you so much for your patience and please never reinstall Blackbox if it’s crashing. You will only anger it and might lose your progress. Email me instead!

Hotter Fix
■ I call this new feature “latest challenge crash no more plz?”
■ Fixed a visual aberration with a different, older red meta challenge… you saw nothing!

Happy Holidays! I hope you and your loved ones are safe and well. I forgot to get you a present but I did whip up these improvements and bug fixes for you. Consider them… stocking buggers? Nvm

■ New purchase screen: buying Blackbox is the best way to support me as a solo indie developer and keep me working on new Blackbox puzzles. Now you have options! Whether you just want the levels or levels and hints at a deep discount, the choice is all yours.
■ Fixed a funny (okay it really wasn’t funny) crashing bug with the latest challenge for users in some European regions. So sorry it took so long to track this one down!
■ Fixed a bug that was causing one of the middle steps in a certain meta challenge to get skipped over
■ Fixed a rare iPad crash when opening the hint credit store
■ Added a new warning for cheaters 0:)

■ Fixes a rare crash for iPad players accessing the hint credit store