Please disable banners on iPad

[SomersetBen]

I've got the earphones in. I'm fully immersed in the lovely, magical world and then a big, in-your-face iPad banner drops down and in school crayon colours yanks me back to reality telling me I've found an insect or something. I don't want this, I'm happy to explore all on my own. Please can you make the banners go away (or at least make them optional in the notification centre).

It's SO intrusive, I'm almost feeling as if I don't want to play on until it's fixed.

Ben

[Lamkin]

Botanicula uses Apple's Game Center, and that's why you're seeing those banners. To make the banners go away, you'll need to disable Game Center.
If you're not sure how to do this, you'll want to:
1. Launch the Game Center app by tapping its icon on your iPad's Home screen.
2. Tap your e-mail address and sign out of Game Center by pressing the Sign Out button.
3. Launch Botanicula. When Game Center appears, tap the Cancel button. Now quit Botanicula.
4. Relaunch Botanicula and repeat the process two more times until a message asks you if you want to Disable Game Center. Tap the Disable button.

And if it helps, wikiHow has a page that shows these steps with pictures:
http://www.wikihow.com/Disable-Game-Center

[SomersetBen]

I didn't get the option to disable Game Center but it seems to have got the message and gone away: the serene magic of Botanicula has been restored. Many thanks.

Ben

[Lamkin]

I didn't get the option to disable Game Center...

You didn't get the option? Hmm...okay, strange. But good that the banners are gone.

[Alex]

@Lamkin, I have a question about this "Apple's Game Center" you speak of.

I wanted to turn a friend on to Botanicula now that it's on iPad but I don't want to inadvertently ensnare them into some tangle of pop-ups and butt-ins from Apple Corp.

Apart from the steps you detailed in this thread ~ which my friend will probably think of as "too much hassle" ~ is there an option they will have during installation that will allow them to just play the game WITHOUT engaging with the "Game Center"?

[Lamkin]

I wanted to turn a friend on to Botanicula now that it's on iPad but I don't want to inadvertently ensnare them into some tangle of pop-ups and butt-ins from Apple Corp.

Ack....I sort of feel bad a bit for Amanita Design and Apple here, as Amanita intentionally used Apple's Game Center for Botanicula; Amanita could have chosen not to do this, in other words. And basically, the banners are notifications of achievements that Amanita Design made for Game Center, much like how many games on Steam have Steam achievements...which many people like. Below are a couple of screenshots to show what I'm talking about.
First, after clicking on the little Game Center balloons icon from within the game, you will see a list of achievements, which looks like this:


Next...about the banners...although these banners do occur somewhat frequently as there are quite a few achievements, I don't personally find them to be *that* annoying. Here is an example of what one looks like:

Apart from the steps you detailed in this thread ~ which my friend will probably think of as "too much hassle" ~ is there an option they will have during installation that will allow them to just play the game WITHOUT engaging with the "Game Center"?

Though I do agree that those steps are indeed a hassle, if you go through those steps to disable Game Center for one app, you've successfully disabled Game Center for every app on your device—you won't have to keep performing each step again for each and every app on your device that uses Game Center, in other words. Hope that makes sense, as it was a bit confusing.
And I've looked for an easier way to disable Game Center (like disabling Game Center notifications, for example), or a way to disable it just for Botanicula, but I'm not seeing anything that works, so disabling Game Center entirely is the route I would recommend.

Edit: I know the thread is fairly old, but I thought I would post an edit to say that I don't believe Botanicula even uses Game Center anymore in its iOS app, as I'm not seeing any balloon icon when the game is running. ~Lamkin