This is not for the faint of heart, so if you're not a real hard-core game
hunter it might not be for you.
It's a game called Sphere, by Jerik. It's a bit tricky getting it to start,
because you can't use Voiceover at all. However, if you do get it going you'll
know it because you'll hear the level generation sound.
the game has only two buttons: start and create. The create button is locked
until you complete the sixth level, so if you press it you'll get a click and
that's all. However, if start is the one you press, the music will change and
the level up sound will play.
The game is, visually, in landscape mode. However, as far as audio goes it's
easiest just to play in portrait mode--otherwise you'll find that down is left
and up is right.
Even if you won't want to try completing levels, you can do things with the
sphere. try bouncing it off the walls without hearing the spark sound. Hold it
still for ten seconds and hear it explode. Stretch it, spin it, slam it around.
It's a stress ball! Sighted players get the added benefit of watching it all,
including the sphere being riddled with cracks the closer it is to exploding,
but that's not necessary.
The real challenge and fun is the puzzle itself. the first level or two are so
easy that, as you bounce around, you'll probably complete them by mistake. You
might even complete the third level on accident, but after that you'll really
have to put on your thinking caps.
The idea of the game is that there is a sequence of walls you have to touch
with the ball, and in the right order, kind of like a code buster game. You can
touch the sphere and drag it around, but that takes time. It's a lot easier to
touch outside of the sphere and push it away. You'll really have to be careful
though, because it can go quite fast. Touching the sphere, by the way, sounds
quite different from touching anywhere else in the field. The field sound stays
constant, while the sphere sound changes for every level or so.
You won't know, unless your ears are better than mine, if you've touched the
right wall. You will know if you got the first one or more right though,
because when you touch a wrong one after getting some right, you'll hear a
buzzing sound and have to start from scratch. Once you complete the level,
you'll be taken to a much harder one. The first level only has four or five
walls to hit, but the number increases rapidly.
A hypothetical example: You start on level 1. You hit the bottom, and nothing
happens. You hit the side, and nothing happens. You hit the top, and you hear
the spark-like buzz. Wrong move. Wanting to see if hitting the bottom was
needed, you hit the side, then the top. you get the buzz, so you know that the
right side is the first wall of the sequence. Of course, you can hit fifty
walls before that, and it won't count against you. The sequence is only
recorded once you hit the first correct wall.
Walls can be hit more than once. I'm on level 4, and it goes something like:
top, left, bottom, left...
I haven't completed it yet, but you get the picture I hope.
Jerik has a facebook page. Tonight I'm going to write on his wall and tell him
how much I love this game, and ask him to improve it some. I'll ask that the
ball bouncing sounds never climb the scale unless it's part of a sequence--or
maybe that we get completely different sounds. I'll ask for accessible buttons
at the beginning, or perhaps audio cues all the way through. Who knows how far
the dev will go toward making it more accessible for us, but even if not at
all, it's quite playable.
So you think games like Robo-e are hard? Well, they are--but this is even
harder... way harder... but quite fun, even just to mess around with. It's free
for now, so hit the app store and pick it up before the price returns to normal.
---
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