Haha I'm already stuck on the 4th level, but I'm happy that it's not an easy game
One comment about the sound. I have noticed this phenomenon in multiple apps before, so I assume it is not entirely deliberate but just a result of constructing the app a certain way.
The sound will not play through the speakers unless the hardware silent/vibrate toggle is switched off. I use my phone in a constant state of silent/vibrate. But I can still listen to music/videos through the speakers without toggling the switch.
iOS volume control is confusing af as it is, what with 5 separate volumes we must keep track of:
1) Standard speaker volume. Applies to regular app sound, like music, videos, game sound/music.
2) Headphone volume. Same as above except for the headphones.
3) Ringer and Alerts volume. Applies to system sounds such as lock SFX, keyboard taps, notification sounds, and ringers used for calls, alarms, timers, etc.
4) Speaker Siri volume. Applies to Siri w/o headphones and I think VoiceOver.
5) Headphones Siri volume. Same as above but for headphones.
The added bit of silent/vibrate toggle makes it all even more confusing.
It basically only affects:
Ringer and Alerts volume,
Speaker-side only when dealing with Ringing,
Alerts/SFX play through the headphones only (if applicable), so the toggle will silent them everywhere,
Alarms just don't give a (!) and play on BOTH speakers AND headphones no matter what the switch is set to.Here's another summary:
www.macworld.com/article/2030115/how-to-control-the-volume-in-ios.htmlSo the volume in your game is currently behaving like an
phone ring in the volume family #3,
Ringer and Alerts volume AND an
alert (without headphones). It exhibits partial behaviors of both: toggle affects speaker volume like phone ring or alert with no headphones, but once headphones are plugged in, the toggle has no effect as with a phone ring.
HOWEVER, the volume LEVEL that affects the game sound is determined by either #1 or #2 depending on whether headphones are plugged in. So it uses standard game volume levels, but it behaves like a strange ringer/alert.
Again, this is 100% NOT unique to your app. My dad was using a non-game app on his phone one time and he (and I after I looked at it) thought that his speakers had died on him. Turns out we had to unmute his phone for the sound to play without headphones.
In any case, I have no idea what developmental process leads to sound handling like this.
I also wonder if this is mostly Apple's fault for leading devs into causing this peculiar effect.
Do you think you can modify how your game's sound is presented to the OS? Like make it go through the music pipe instead of the system sound pipe?
All that gibberish about sound and volumes is actually aimed a lot at ME just so I can personally understand how my phone works better, so don't be intimidated by it
