Thanks for the reports.
I can confirm the speech issue here, though I’m going to have to think through how to fix it. Unfortunately, turning off TalkBack stops the game’s TTS, but it doesn’t trigger any of the callbacks that let the game know that speech is done and it can continue. All I can think to do is add a 10-second timer that starts the game even if speech is active, or maybe delaying the screen reader message until after the game starts. Unfortunately, the initial focus on the Start button also stops speech, which would terminate the notice as well, so I can’t just queue it up and let things go. Let me take the weekend and think it through. I’m leaning toward the timer solution right now, though that would unfortunately add a delay for anyone who turns off their screen reader without being prompted.
I’ll also try to get a keyboard hooked up to my phone. In the meantime, do you have any way of simulating the Back button? Back should get you out of menus. TalkBack binds that to Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. I do agree that Escape should work too, and will investigate why it doesn’t.
Thanks again.