Apple Design Awards announced for eight developers

Apple Design Awards are awarded every year to developers who create outstanding applications. This year, eight developers have won this award, each one selected for being thoughtful and creative.

“Every year, app and game developers demonstrate exceptional craftsmanship and we’re honoring the best of the best,” said Ron Okamoto, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “Receiving an Apple Design Award is a special and laudable accomplishment. Past honorees have made some of the most noteworthy apps and games of all time. Through their vision, determination, and exacting standards, the winning developers inspire not only their peers in the Apple developer community, but all of us at Apple, too.”

Apple Design Award Winners: Apps

Darkroom, made by Bergen Co., a powerful photo and video editor comes with beautiful interface and is very easy to use. Darkroom also has layout that appeals to pro and casual editors and has super intuitive controls.

Looom, from iorama.studio, can be used to create hand-drawn stop-motion animation. Available for iPadOS, you can do wonders with Looom if you have Apple Pencil. The app’s deep functionality and intuitive interface are complemented by novel custom controls.

Shapr3D, by Shapr3D Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, is a powerful CAD app for iPad. Shapr3D allows you to create 3D designs without logging in to a desktop or laptop. Using only an iPad and Apple Pencil, technical designers have access to a robust modeling toolset to easily create complex 3D models. Designed exclusively for iPad, Shapr3D takes advantage of ARKit and drag and drop.

StaffPad, from StaffPad Ltd., can be used to convert handwritten musical notations into a digital sheet music. This application makes it super easy fr music composers to export hand notes to digital medium. This applcation can also be used to compose and edit music notes.

Apple Design Award Winners: Games

“Sayonara Wild Hearts,” from developer Simogo and publisher Annapurna Interactive, has been lauded for outstanding design since its launch. A pop album video game that is hopeful, gorgeous, and unique, “Sayonara Wild Hearts” gets players’ adrenaline pumping and makes their spirit soar. The game delivers vibrant and surreal landscapes, mesmerizing visuals and motion, and thrilling and kinetic gameplay. It makes extensive use of Apple technologies including Metal, Game Center, spatial audio, and game controllers.

“Sky: Children of the Light,” from thatgamecompany, has players flying across sweeping landscapes in a magical kingdom to help celestial beings find their way back to the heavens. With its clever multiplayer integration and adventurous graphical showcase, “Sky: Children of the Light” is a groundbreaking social quest. The team used Apple technologies including a custom Metal engine, haptics, Game Center, and spatial audio.

“Song of Bloom,” from indie developer Philipp Stollenmayer, is a unique game with a nonlinear tale packed with clever puzzles. Players explore a story told in rapidly changing art styles as they progress though the game. “Song of Bloom” delivers an innovative, handcrafted gameplay experience with great design.

“Where Cards Fall,” from developer The Game Band and publisher Snowman, is a slice-of-life adventure game in which players build houses of cards to bring formative memories to life. The game takes advantage of Apple technologies, including Metal, haptics, Game Center, and iCloud, to bring to life its dreamlike spatial puzzles, immersive audio, and unique miniature-art style.

More than 250 developers have been recognized with Apple Design Awards over the past 20 years. The recognition has proven to be an accelerant for developers who are pioneering innovative designs within their individual apps and influencing entire categories. Previous winners such as Pixelmator, djay, Complete Anatomy, HomeCourt, “Florence,” and “Crossy Road” have set the standard in areas such as storytelling, interface design, and use of Apple tools and technologies.

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