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Dystopian Text-Based Puzzler 'Blackbar' Arrives in App Store
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Thank you both!
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When you go on vacation you "xxxx xxxx xxxx xxx" from work. Does that help?
I wish they had made the font bigger for ipad... such a waste of space.
Now I wish I had started on my phone instead.
Stuck here. Any help?
Three well known English idioms, each phrase contains a digit where the x, y, or z is in the sentence. The answer is the three digits in order.
(The third idiom is from the bible, the book of revelation, though depending on which translation you look at it may not be phrased exactly like that)
I've gotten stuck on the one with two three letter words censored and a picture of two women in swimsuits.
Thank you both!
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When you go on vacation you "xxxx xxxx xxxx xxx" from work. Does that help?
Thanks, that did it!
Just a general observation -- some blanks can be filled in with different words. I quit the program and restarted and some blanks had different words than I used. So there is some flexibility.
Stuck on:
Starting today my job title is no longer Department Listener, but --------- Department Listener
Something along the lines of junior or deputy, but 9 letters ? Or am I on the wrong track completely?
Starting today my job title is no longer Department Listener, but --------- Department Listener
Something along the lines of junior or deputy, but 9 letters ? Or am I on the wrong track completely?
Stuck on:
Starting today my job title is no longer Department Listener, but --------- Department Listener
Something along the lines of junior or deputy, but 9 letters ? Or am I on the wrong track completely?
Assistant
Looks that way! An example: the word "censored" while an obvious(?) choice in a story about censorship should actually be "redacted". I had some others as well.
Why does the "Stranger and Friend" with an uncensored communication channel have words redacted? And aren't we (as Vi) being stupid to discuss with Kenty about the censorship, which ironically is her job, in violation of article D-1099? Seems about as dangerous as discussing rewriting news articles with Winston Smith.
I thought this game looked fun. I downloaded it and seem to have come to the end within only a couple hours of noncontinuous play...a bit spendy at $2.99 if that's really the end.
A latte at my local coffee shop costs $3.85. That drink entertains me minimally for about 45 minutes.
This game which 2 people put months of work into costs $2.99 and is playable for a couple hours and really tickles your brainparts.
Very good point that should be made over and over again. Or maybe they could have made it free with iAds at the bottom and even filling the whole screen once in a while so you accidentally click one and get taken to Safari.
I know I would likely buy more games and other apps if I could demo them first. It doesn't have to be much of a demo at all; just enough to give me a feel for what I'm paying for that the screen shots and reviews can't do.
But x is the 15 character in the first sentence... and each one has a double digit... you only have 3 digits you can put. What am I not seeing?
I was comparing to other iOS games, not other forms of entertainment. I can count on one hand the number of games I've paid more than $1.99 for on iOS. The other games in this category for me were much more involved graphically and took far longer to play through, and thus would have required far greater resources on the creation side than this game.
That said, I did enjoy the game, but I was simply surprised at the short amount of time it took to reach the end. Based on the description saying "its challenges will keep you searching, thinking, and trying for days," I was hoping for something that I could pick up and play for a while over a longer period of time, and this game did not deliver that.
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In the idioms, "x", "y" and "z" are stand-ins for single-digit numbers.
you probably won't find anyone who will help you with this one it's close to The End.
Here's what i put on reddit about it:
If I put my hours into a piece of work, I charge for it.
the only way to change the 99c glut in the app store is to change it. I charge what I do for my work mostly because that's what it's worth and partly to keep away anyone who would pay less.
Yeah I just got it as well lol I kept thinking its word related to bastard or something
Really???
Will all the oBSeQuiouS reviews, I expected so much more. There is little to no mental imagery in this text game, combined with odd language usage that reads like a Nigerian scam letter and an abrupt ending that gave me the impression the writer did absolutely as little as possible before publishing the app.
Puzzle solutions vacillate between obvious and obscure, rarely causing any more mental challenge than guesswork. Upon figuring the correct answer, my reaction was more often "Really,? That was stupid..." rather than "Wow! That was clever!”.
Total ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ waste of time (and $3).
Author should go play some old-school text games and learn how it’s done…
THE END.
Will all the oBSeQuiouS reviews, I expected so much more. There is little to no mental imagery in this text game, combined with odd language usage that reads like a Nigerian scam letter and an abrupt ending that gave me the impression the writer did absolutely as little as possible before publishing the app.
Puzzle solutions vacillate between obvious and obscure, rarely causing any more mental challenge than guesswork. Upon figuring the correct answer, my reaction was more often "Really,? That was stupid..." rather than "Wow! That was clever!”.
Total ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ waste of time (and $3).
Author should go play some old-school text games and learn how it’s done…
THE END.
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I agree! Having just finished, it fails because it's almost completely linear (only one branch), is inconsistent (messages on clear channels still have censored parts, and censored parts aren't necessarily worthy of censorship based on the explanations given by the Department) and has a weak ending.
Really good text adventures, and you have to back to the 1970's and early 1980's to find them, have vivid descriptions, varied puzzles, and many alternative paths to the finish. They take a great deal of time to craft and debug.
This one? Well, you basically write a story, and remove some random words.
Most of these can be discovered with use of a thesaurus and websites giving quotations. It also helps that the writing style is uniform. Short ones you can figure out by trial and error. Then there is always the ultimate resource, Google search for "Blackbar walkthrough".