Support

Yes — the core game is completely free to download and play with all base features included. Premium add-ons will be available separately in the future.

Ivory Quest is great for anyone learning to read sheet music, typically ages 8 and up. There's no upper limit — musicians of all levels use it to practice and improve their sight-reading speed.

Not at all. The game teaches note identification, not piano technique. You can use on-screen letter buttons (A–G) or a virtual piano keyboard — no prior piano experience needed.

Yes! Connect any MIDI-compatible keyboard via USB or Bluetooth and play notes directly into the game. MIDI support is currently available on macOS and Windows (Steam) only — iOS MIDI support is planned for a future update.

There are two main modes:

• Notes Mode — Identify individual notes on the staff. Choose Treble Clef, Bass Clef, or Full Staff (C1–C8).
• Chord Mode — Identify chords using 7 Roman numeral buttons (I–VII). Includes inversion bonus scoring and MIDI chord detection.

Both modes offer Training, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Insane difficulty levels, plus Black Notes Mode for a 2× score multiplier.

Black Notes Mode (formerly "Demon Mode") replaces all colored notes with all-black notes/chords, removing the color cue so you must rely purely on staff position. It applies a 2× score multiplier as a reward for the added difficulty.

In Notes Mode, if you hit the exact correct note and octave shown on the staff (using the virtual piano or a MIDI keyboard), you earn a streak bonus. In Chord Mode, correctly identifying the chord inversion earns the same bonus. The first correct hit adds +1 to your score (applied before difficulty and Black Notes multipliers). Each consecutive correct hit increases the bonus by +1, up to +4. A miss or wrong answer resets the streak.

Your base score is multiplied by the difficulty you selected:

• Easy: ×1
• Medium: ×2
• Hard: ×3
• Insane: ×4

Black Notes Mode doubles your final score. The Octave / Inversion Bonus adds +1 to +4 per correct answer (applied before other multipliers).

Yes — high scores are saved automatically to your device, organized by mode and difficulty. There is also an in-game username leaderboard to compare scores.

Ivory Quest supports 8 languages: English (A–G), German (A–H), Spanish (Do–Si), French (Do–Si), Portuguese (Do–Si), Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. You can switch languages from the settings menu.

Each note has a unique color to help with learning: C = Blue, D = Purple, E = Green, F = Orange, G = Yellow, A = Red, B = White. In Black Notes Mode, all notes appear black to increase difficulty.

Yes — controller and gamepad input is supported on all platforms.

Yes! The iOS version includes an Apple Watch companion app. Use the Digital Crown to select notes and tap to submit your answer — great for practice away from your phone.

• Make sure your keyboard is connected before launching the game.
• MIDI is currently supported on macOS and Windows only.
• Try a different USB port or cable, or toggle Bluetooth off/on for wireless keyboards.
• Ensure your MIDI keyboard is set to send on channel 1 (or "all channels").
• Restart the game after connecting the keyboard.

• Close other apps running in the background.
• On iOS, ensure Low Power Mode is disabled (Settings → Battery).
• On Steam, verify game files via Steam → Library → right-click Ivory Quest → Properties → Installed Files → Verify.
• Try lowering the difficulty to reduce the number of on-screen elements.

High scores are stored locally on your device. They can be lost if you uninstall and reinstall the game or restore your device from a backup that predates when scores were saved. Unfortunately there is no cross-device score sync at this time — this is planned for a future update.

• Make sure the Ivory Quest iOS app is installed on your paired iPhone.
• Open the Watch app on your iPhone and verify Ivory Quest is installed on the watch.
• Ensure your iPhone and Apple Watch are within Bluetooth range of each other.
• Restart both your iPhone and Apple Watch, then relaunch the app.

• Make sure your OS is up to date and meets the minimum requirements.
• Try deleting and reinstalling the app.
• If the issue persists, please email us at caketime3264@gmail.com with your device model, OS version, and a description of what happens.