Hostile Volume – A game about adjusting volume with intentionally bad UI

by Velocifyeron 3/14/2026, 6:39 PMwith 16 comments

by jonathanlydallon 3/14/2026, 8:13 PM

My favourite bad volume control was in Real Player around 1997 where changing the volume in the application actually changed the global volume of Windows.

by graypeggon 3/14/2026, 7:43 PM

This is not an issue at all, but when ever I come across something like it, I like to poke at the frontend in dev tools a bit. You can pass most levels with `setVolume(25)` in the web console, since that function is just sitting in the document object. That feels like the ultimate volume UI puzzle heh.

by anwar_nairion 3/14/2026, 7:56 PM

Had a lot of fun cool idea! Make it a PWA so I can list it on https://korru.app

by xnxon 3/14/2026, 7:42 PM

The worst volume control UI in the world (2017): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27819384

by TheLNLon 3/14/2026, 7:40 PM

Finished the game. It was fun to play. I got stuck for a while on the opposite level where the display doesn't update, but was able to go through the rest just fine

by jimkleiberon 3/14/2026, 7:22 PM

Got an error on Level 17, just a heads up.

Love the game, btw.

by Retr0idon 3/14/2026, 7:11 PM

There are two types of volume slider I've encountered thus far, "too logarithmic", and "not logarithmic enough".

by jupinon 3/14/2026, 7:06 PM

Laughed out loud but gave up at level 5

by DrSiemeron 3/14/2026, 7:50 PM

Plenty of annoyance in here for sure. Looks like 17 cannot be finished on mobile though. Switching to desktop view resets progress.

by tobron 3/14/2026, 7:21 PM

Meanwhile, iPhone is still using this design https://xkcd.com/1884/

by Findecanoron 3/14/2026, 7:03 PM

When clicking on this topic, I had anticipated it to be about GTK 3.x's messed up sliders.

This was more fun, in a dystopian kind of way. I have sure encountered the rate-limited spinner and the self-resizing slider in real UIs. Perhaps GTK's behaviour is on a level that I have not reached.