Blackbox

Does anyone read these anymore? blackbox://meta ■ Just furthering my life’s work of getting people who enjoy Blackbox to please pay for it :)

■ Supporter of Blackbox? You can now put your name and face in the credits :) ■ Not a supporter of Blackbox? You might start seeing banner ads encouraging you to do so ;)

■ Fixed a bug that made it harder for new players to unlock the whole game

■ Added little nudges to help new players out ■ Shuffled when a couple of surprises show up ■ Tuned the wormhole to feel less wobbly ■ Other fixes that help me sleep at night

■ Added some snazzy new little nudges to help new players along ■ Fixed the TikTok share button being choosey about rendering its icon ■ Fixed the screenshot share button being unreliable from inside a challenge

■ Fixed some issues with sharing the game

■ Fixed screenshot to “React on TikTok” flow

■ Share to TikTok! Take a screenshot, react, win a prize? ■ Long press the app icon for a gift ;) ■ A very frustrating red meta challenge got some visual love and now gets easier each time you “die” ■ Fixed a related red meta challenge not noticing you completed it sometimes (sorry!) ■ Smoother wormhole transitions ■ Replaced the old loading spinner with something nicer ■ Fixed a handful of crashes ■ Various store and purchase polish

■ Stuck on the tutorial? Now you can skip and come back to it :)

■ Hot fix for a crash affecting completionists! (Players who have completed every challenge)

3.0! Blackbox turned ten this week! A crazy milestone I never could have imagined when I first hit submit a decade ago. The game has gotten so much nicer in the years since 2.0, so while this release only contains some of that work it still feels like the right time for the big number. So much more to come throughout the year ;) The New ■ Liquid Glass in delightful places ■ Smoother, curvier light transitions ■ The wormhole for leaving challenges is much smoother and now politely dismisses itself if you leave it open too long ■ Tutorial is a bit more forgiving now (for some) ■ Social buttons beg to be tapped a bit more now The Fixes ■ Fixed the hint store button sometimes disappearing when hint credits are rewarded ■ Fixed hint purchasing buttons not showing up after running out of hint credits ■ Fixed a purple challenge not hearing you the first time you opened it ■ Fixed a orange challenge skipping frequencies in its volume steps ■ Fixed camera preview freezing in a couple of scan challenges ■ Fixed a pink challenge stubbornly snapping its lights to the wrong spots on first open ■ Improved accuracy handling for a blue challenge that cares about where you are ■ Fixed push button animation flickering when leaving challenges ■ Better VoiceOver support across several challenges ■ Squashed a handful of crashes ■ Lots of behind-the-scenes polish and performance work

■ Added Traditional Chinese localization! 係時候跳出框框諗吓喇 ■ Fixed a purple challenge that wasn't listening very well ■ Improved an orange challenge that some altitude sickness ■ Fixed some animation issues with the push notification button ■ Squashed a few crashes

■ Now asking important questions at even better times

New challenges are actively in the works, but for now… ■ Squashed a bunch of audio crashes ■ New 3D glass tilt effect on Barriers ■ A certain dark-red meta challenge no longer crashes at the end of the month ■ A dizzying red challenge behaves better if you leave it part-way through solving ■ A certain sticky challenge now has better visual and audio feedback ■ A 6 Light lavender challenge now uses a lot less of your battery ■ Fixed some AirPod audio routing issues ■ Fixed an infinite hint-credit glitch between shared devices ■ Fixed an issue that could cause players to lose progress after reinstalling

مرحبا! Arabic is here! (and full right-to-left support with it) ■ Lights now flash with a subtle HDR effect when they turn on ■ App launches are noticeably faster ■ Fixed an orange challenge that sometimes stubbornly didn’t accept the last signal ■ Fixed an edge-case with the two-part red challenge near the top ■ Fixed QR challenges staying paused after closing the hints screen ■ Fixed credits heart icon not filling when you read all the credits :) ■ Squashed a handful of crashes ■ Arabic & right-to-left improvements: hint text displays correctly, buttons no longer get cut off, credits scroll the right direction

■ Squashed several audio-related crashes (Core Audio, you keep me humble) ■ Reduced CPU usage while VoiceOver is active from "space heater" to "reasonable" ■ Fixed app rotation misbehaving on iOS 26 ■ Tutorial is now a bit more forgiving on iPads ■ Smoother barrier animations ■ Credits names scroll more consistently across devices ■ iPad improvements: better text scaling, nicer store layout, fixed layout on iPad Mini, fixed clipped launch image on those new giant iPads ■ Updated many localizations to be more complete!

■ Fixed a crash for players playing with the grid ■ Fixed wormhole transitions back to the grid (once again buttery smooth) ■ Fixed lots of little delays while moving about the game ■ Attempted to fix another audio crash (when will it end?)

■ Smooth and fun new grid ripple animations (tap, hold, and drag around!) ■ Faster app launch ■ Fixed occasional stutter when opening puzzles and tapping the grid ■ Fixed sound effects sometimes not playing more than once ■ Fixed some crashes

■ Fixed a misbehaving challenge next to the notifications icon (for good this time!) ■ Fixed a bug where the screenshot UI wouldn’t dismiss on some devices running iOS 26 ■ Improved how I ask you for money to support my work (shoutout to Alex and Yo-Wei from Hyperfixed and Proxy who kicked my butt into gear to finish this redesign)

■ Fixed a misbehaving challenge next to the notifications icon (for good this time!) ■ Fixed a bug where the screenshot UI wouldn’t dismiss on some devices running iOS 26 ■ Improved how I ask you for money to support my work (shoutout to Alex and Yo-Wei from Hyperfixed and Proxy who kicked my butt into gear to finish this redesign)

Big little fixes! (or what I like to call “always polishing my little rock”) ■ Fixed an issue where sharing Blackbox didn’t register. ■ Fixed a lot of visual jank when opening the store ■ Potentially fixed a very impossible to track down audio crash (fingers crossed) ■ Fixed delayed audio in the 3-pink-light challenge (one of my favorite soundscapes!) ■ Fixed some broken accessibility labels ■ Hopefully improved ease of the blue magnifying-glass meta challenge

■ Fixed shiny new glass icons on iPad ■ Fixed bug where closed merch store was partially visible on iPad still (RIP) ■ Fixed dynamic island based animations on newer devices ■ Fixed a crash that resulted when sharing to Instagram Stories from non-OLED devices ■ Add cowboy shaking warning to more challenges

Hello shiny translucent newness ■ Glass panels and buttons galore ■ Rebuilt and polished icons ready for your home screen

■ Fixed a misbehaving challenge next to the notifications icon ■ Fixed some misaligned buttons That’s all for now :)

■ Fixed a quirk that occasionally made purchasing the game harder (which was not a puzzle)