A guide for parents and carers

#What is true about OutBrick

OutBrick is a calm slide-and-match puzzle, rated 4+ on the App Store. Players move toy bricks into gates of their own colour, or swap neighbours to make lines, and each board gives a number of moves to do it in. Before you reach for any setting, here is what the game does and does not do.

• There is no clock anywhere. No board, menu or event is timed. The number of moves is the only limit, so nobody is ever hurried.
• No chat, no strangers. There is no chat, no messaging between players and nothing written by other players inside the game. Other players can only ever see a player name and level (more on that below).
• No adverts unless your child taps to watch one. There are no banners and no adverts between boards. A video only plays when a player presses a button to watch one for a reward, each kind is capped every day (39 in total), and a video can always be declined at no cost.
• Lives are used by losing, not by playing. Opening a board needs a life but does not use one. A life is used when an attempt is lost: giving up when the moves run out, or restarting or leaving after making a move, and the game says so before it happens. Winning never costs a life, and lives come back on their own, one every 30 minutes.
• No account to create. Progress is saved on the device and in your family’s own iCloud. OutBrick has no analytics, and the developer does not receive gameplay data.
• Nothing is a subscription. Every purchase is a one-time purchase through Apple, nothing renews by itself, and nothing paid is offered on a board before level 6.

#Purchases: Ask to Buy, restrictions and refunds

Real-money items appear in the Shop and on a few cards in the game, always with a price in your own currency, and always through Apple’s own purchase sheet. Two Apple controls decide whether that sheet can complete.

Ask to Buy (Family Sharing)

If your child has their own Apple Account in your Family Sharing group, Ask to Buy sends every purchase request, including purchases inside games, to you to approve or decline.

1. 1On your own iPhone, open Settings › Family.
2. 2Tap your child’s name.
3. 3Tap Ask to Buy and turn it on.

Turn off in-app purchases altogether

1. 1On your child’s device, open Settings › Screen Time. (For a child in Family Sharing you can do this from your own iPhone: Settings › Screen Time, then your child’s name.)
2. 2Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and turn it on.
3. 3Tap iTunes & App Store Purchases.
4. 4Set In-app Purchases to Don’t Allow. While you are there, set Require Password to Always Require.
5. 5Set a Screen Time passcode that your child does not know, so these choices stay as you left them.

With in-app purchases off, OutBrick still plays every board: coins earned in play still buy boosters, refills and extra moves, and optional videos still work.

If something was bought by mistake

Apple takes every payment, so only Apple can refund one. Go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in with the Apple Account used for the purchase, choose Request a refund, and pick the OutBrick item. Apple decides, under its rules and your local consumer law. We cannot see your payment details or issue an App Store refund ourselves. More on our refunds page and in Lost progress or a missing purchase.

#Time limits, Downtime and reminders

Because no board is timed, OutBrick is easy to put down: nothing is lost by stopping between boards, and lives keep refilling while the game is closed. If you would like a firmer edge to play time, Apple’s Screen Time does it well.

App Limits

Settings › Screen Time › App Limits › Add Limit. Choose the Games category, or OutBrick on its own, and a daily amount. When the time is up, iOS covers the game.

Downtime

Settings › Screen Time › Downtime. A scheduled quiet time, such as bedtime, when only the apps you allow can open.

OutBrick reminders

In the game, Settings › Game › Notifications turns them all off. On the iPhone, Settings › Notifications › OutBrick controls them and the icon badge.

• OutBrick never asks for notification permission when it first opens. After the third clear it asks whether Bloo may keep your place, and Not now waits a week.
• When reminders are allowed, the game sends at most one notification every 20 hours, and never between 22:00 and 09:00.
• The icon badge counts rewards waiting to be collected, up to nine. It is only shown if notifications are allowed, and opening the game clears it.
• A Focus filter can turn off the music, pause reminders and hide the badge while a Focus such as Sleep is on. See Playing calmly.

#What the game and this website keep

This is a summary of our privacy policy, which has the full detail.

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• No accounts and no analytics. The developer does not receive gameplay data.
• Progress is stored on the device and synced through your own iCloud, which the developer cannot read.
• Purchases are processed by Apple. OutBrick never sees or stores card details.
• Game Center is optional and run by Apple, under your Game Center settings.
• Adverts: the only third party in the game is Google’s advertising service, and it runs only when a player chooses to watch a video. Video adverts are limited to Google’s general-audience content rating. If iOS asks whether OutBrick may track, Ask App Not to Track leaves the game unchanged. In the EU, the UK and Switzerland, a consent form appears before the first video, and Settings › Game › Advertising choices reopens it.
• Remove Ads, or holding the current season’s Brick Pass, stops the game asking for adverts at all, and the rewards still pay.
• Delete My Data, at the foot of Settings › Game, resets the device’s progress and asks iCloud to delete the save. See Progress, iCloud and privacy.

On this website

• Reading the website needs no account. Visits are measured with Google Analytics only if you accept it in the cookie banner; until then nothing loads from Google.
• The contact form keeps what you send so we can answer it. A support case is kept for 24 months after it is closed, then deleted.
• A community account keeps a public display name and a private email address, which is never shown to anyone.
• You can ask for a copy of what we hold, or for it to be deleted, through the contact form with the topic set to Privacy.

#Other players and the community

Leaders tab

Unlocks at level 21. It shows player names and levels, with an optional flag. Turn off Settings › Game › Show me on the standings board to be removed, and hide the flag in the Profile.

Races

Village Race and Brick Royale share the player name with the other players in that race, and only when your child joins one. Each can be switched off in Settings › Game › Game features, along with Friend Rescue, Crew Race and offers on the map.

Player name

Set in the Profile (tap the avatar). A made-up name is a good idea.

Game Center

Apple’s service for achievements, leaderboards and friends. Its friend and multiplayer settings sit in Screen Time › Content & Privacy Restrictions, in the Game Center section.

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OutBrick has a Messages app for sending a level challenge or a sticker to someone your child already messages. Screen Time’s Communication Limits apply to it as to any conversation.

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• The community is a forum on this website, separate from the game. Anyone can read it; posting needs an account, and accounts are for people aged 16 and over.
• Its links in Settings open in Safari, outside the game, for exactly that reason. Screen Time’s web content limits apply to it like any website.
• A member’s email address is never shown to anyone. Every post is public and moderated, and anything that breaks the guidelines can be reported.
• If you think a child has made an account, tell us through the contact form and we will delete it.

#A checklist to work through

Ten minutes with your child’s device and your own covers everything. Print this page, or tick the boxes in your head.

#For young players

This part is written for your child. Read it together if that helps.

• Take your time. There is no clock. Think as long as you like before every move.
• Losing is all right. If you run out of moves, you can try again. A heart goes when you lose, and hearts come back by themselves.
• Videos are your choice. A video only plays if you tap a button to watch one. You can always say no.
• Ask before buying. If a button shows a price in pounds, dollars, euros or any other money, it costs real money. Ask a grown-up first.
• Keep your name secret. Pick a made-up player name, not your real one.
• Take breaks. The game waits for you. The friends will still be there when you come back.
• Something feels wrong? Stop and tell a grown-up.

#Questions parents ask