Tomas Chlebek As at every WWDC, this year Apple honored the applications of independent developers that it found to be the best of the past year.
Apple has been announcing the Apple Design Awards since 1996, although the name was different for the first two years. Since then, hardware has rather stopped appearing among the awardees, and this year the awards were given to applications for all platforms that Apple offers, i.e. iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS.
In the past, the ceremony traditionally took place on Monday evening and was open to the "public" (accredited WWDC attendees), but this time the ceremony was closed and significantly smaller, but the winners were able to meet Craig Federighi and other Apple executives. The whole event could thus focus more than just on the awarding of prizes on a more comprehensive rendering of the reasons for the winners' successes and their journey.
A fairly comprehensive one serves the same purpose section of the Apple Design Awards on the developer section of Apple's website. Each application is described here in several tens of words, while the descriptions focus not only on explaining the functioning of the applications, but on their aesthetics, benefit to the user, innovative work with the possibilities of operating systems and the hardware on which they run, etc.
Award-winning apps and games
Blackbox (iOS, freemium) is a clever puzzle game that encourages players to find creative solutions that go far beyond just swiping and tapping the screen. The game is minimalistic and has a quick to understand concept, but the ways of interacting with it change from puzzle to puzzle.
Ve Splitter Critters (iOS, CZK 89) the player has to tear apart the game world and thereby change its layout in order to help the cute monsters get back to their ship. Apple particularly appreciated the audiovisual processing of the application and the game mechanics.
The game Mushroom 11 (iOS, CZK 149) is as polymorphic in terms of genre as its main "character", who is a kind of green lump. The player cleans it up and lets it regenerate and grow so that it can successfully make its way through the complex environment.
Old Man's Journey (iOS, CZK 149) is an audiovisually rich adventure game with themes of life, loss and hope. It tells its story using only images and sound. The game mechanics are mainly based on transforming the complex environment and going through the memories of the protagonist.
As the name suggests, on an adventure game Severed (iOS, CZK 89) will first attract you with its unconventional morbid but colorful aesthetics. It is also clear from the name that, in addition to solving puzzles, the important thing in the game is to slash with a sword in the hand of a one-armed warrior who goes through a psychedelic world in search of his family.
Brine (iOS, freemium) is a virtual coloring book full of beautiful pictures from local artists, created by a five-member development team from Slovenia. In addition to its visual processing, Apple praised the comprehensive use of the latest available technologies, led by excellent compatibility with the Apple Pencil.
Under the obscure name "Bear" (iOS, MacOS, freemium) hides an application for making notes as well as writing longer prose. It combines a visually interesting minimalistic environment based on sophisticated typography and advanced features for working with text.
Kitchen Stories (iOS, watchOS, tvOS, freemium) is a comprehensive cooking application that wants to teach anyone to cook well. It uses many means to do this - recipes are accompanied by videos, photos, tips and articles, with the main focus being inspiration, convenience and efficiency of execution. Available languages are: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Turkish
Things 3 (iPhone, iPad, MacOS, watchOS, CZK 299, CZK 599, CZK 1) is a very capable task manager that we at Jablíčkář reviewed extensively.
Elk (iOS, watchOS, free) is one of the best currency conversion apps according to Apple, as it cleverly uses scrolling, swiping, haptics and a digital crown for simple and fast control
Enlight (iOS, 119 CZK) is a very sophisticated image editor that is simple to use, functionally and technologically, capable of results comparable to professional graphic software. In addition to 2D effects, it can also create 3D objects simulating various surfaces, lighting, etc.
AirMail 3 (iOS, MacOS, CZK 149, CZK 299) are among the best email clients for iOS devices and Mac. Jablíčkář already talked about him reported earlier.
What does the name Severed suggest? What is this nonsense? Who among you does this title suggest that the game will attract the unconventional morbid but colorful aesthetics? Who among you can tell from this title that sword slashing is important in the game in addition to solving puzzles? What were you doing???
Someone can find everything in one word, including the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything. :-)
Well, when the game's name is Cut Off, I get head-slashing, too, which is both morbid and has something to do with a sword. And I'm not kidding. :) It's called association, and it's quite individual.
:-))) He didn't defend... :-D