Apple honors the achievements of some of its most creative and talented developers every year at its Worldwide Developers Conference and 2017 was no different. The winners of this year’s Apple Design Awards comprise a variety of games that use the company’s hardware and rendering technologies in unique ways, as well as productivity apps with impeccable user experience design that also work across Apple’s other products.
Among the 12 games and apps is Splitter Critters, a puzzle title originally built in just 72 hours with a revolutionary gameplay mechanic. After seeing favorable reception to the original version, developer RAC7 games went back to the drawing board to finish the project. In Splitter Critters, your goal is to help wandering aliens back to their space ship by slicing and dragging the level around until they are able to reach it.
Apple also honored Drinkbox Studios, the developers of Severed, an action-adventure game. The judges were impressed by the title’s intuitive touch controls for sword swinging, critically-acclaimed soundtrack, and the vibrant graphical presentation optimized for iOS through Apple’s Metal API.
If you have had enough fun killing time and you are ready to get to work, Apple suggests you check out Things 3, the latest release of the long-running task management app. Things 3 integrates with iOS and iCloud services like Calendars and Reminders, and supports a wide range of gestures to accelerate certain actions. The app also integrates with Apple Watch for unique watch face complications and comes alongside a MacOS version that even supports the Touch Bar in the new MacBook Pro.
For the photographers out there, Lightricks’ Enlight was made to harness the full power of the CPU and GPU in Apple’s devices to deliver one of the iOS’s most powerful photo editing tools. Enlight takes advantage of the wide color gamut of the iPhone 7’s display and features an extensive roster of customizable filters and special effects, allowing you to create even more amazing things with the device’s capable camera.
There were many more apps recognized at this year’s WWDC, including virtual coloring book Lake, currency converter Elk, and cooking app Kitchen Stories. For the full results, check out Apple’s Design Awards site.
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