Apple Crowns Best-In-Class Apps & Games At its 2024 Design Awards
By Mikelle Leow, 07 Jun 2024
Image via Apple
Apple has, at last, named the apps and games that are pushing the right buttons when it comes to design, innovation, and putting users first across various categories as part of the annual Apple Design Awards.
2024’s winners demonstrate a diverse range of experiences. Highlighting the ‘Delight and Fun’ category, for example, are Bears Gratitude, a charming app that fosters a gratitude practice, and the ever-popular NYT Games, where you can find a delightful collection of puzzles and crosswords. Inclusivity remains a priority, with oko, an app that empowers users with visual impairments to navigate the world, and Crayola Adventures, a game designed to spark children’s creativity regardless of ability, taking home awards.
Procreate Dreams, a stunning animation tool that expands the capabilities of the beloved Procreate app, and Lost in Play, a captivating puzzle game that seamlessly integrates with the physical world, were recognized for their innovative features. The focus on user interaction is also evident with Crouton, a powerful yet intuitive note-taking app, and Rytmos, a game that transforms simple gestures into beautiful music. Social impact is addressed by Gentler Streak, a fitness tracker that promotes a mindful approach to exercise, and The Wreck, a game that raises awareness about ocean conservation.
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For the first time ever, the Apple Design Awards has introduced a ‘Spatial Computing’ category to recognize exemplary efforts in enhancing the Vision Pro experience. Taking the immersive crowns are djay, a deejaying app in a spatial environment, and Blackbox, which brings puzzles to the world around you.
Finally, the category of Visuals and Graphics is beautifully represented by Rooms, a 3D room design app, and Lies of P, a visually stunning action RPG.
The titles’ talented creators will receive their trophies at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which will take place from June 10 to 14, 2024.
“It’s inspiring to see how developers are using our technology to create exceptional apps and games that enhance the lives of users,” says Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “This year’s winners have demonstrated how apps can create powerful and moving experiences—and we’re excited to celebrate their hard work and ingenuity at WWDC this year.” Check out all 14 “best-in-class” apps and games below.
Delight and Fun
App: Bears Gratitude by Isuru Wanasinghe (Australia)
Bears Gratitude is a journaling app designed to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. It uses adorable bear illustrations and a pastel color scheme to create a welcoming atmosphere for daily reflections. The app offers prompts and inspirational quotes to help you focus on the positive aspects of your life, and rewards you with virtual stickers for completing entries. It's a simple tool for building a gratitude habit and fostering a more optimistic outlook.
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Game: NYT Games by The New York Times Company (United States)
The New York Times Games app offers a daily dose of word and logic puzzles, including the popular Wordle and Sudoku. It caters to various skill levels with new content daily.
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Inclusivity
App: oko by AYES (Belgium)
The oko app is an accessible navigation tool for people with visual impairments. It cleverly relies on artificial intelligence to provide turn-by-turn directions and can inform users about the state of pedestrian traffic signals at intersections through audio cues or vibrations, empowering them to navigate their surroundings more confidently and independently.
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Game: Crayola Adventures by Red Games Co. (United States)
Crayola Adventures is a creative app for children that lets them turn coloring into interactive storytelling. The little ones are encouraged to design their own characters and worlds, choosing from different themes like real life, fantasy, or even science fiction. They color and draw scenes, then use their imagination to decide how the story unfolds, creating their own unique adventures.
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Innovation
App: Procreate Dreams by Procreate (Australia)
A strong option for artists and animators looking to take their work to the next level on their iPads, Procreate Dreams is a 2D animation creation software with a powerful and user-friendly interface that allows you to bring your illustrations to life with animation effects, audio, and even video integration. You can leverage the vast brush library from Procreate to create beautiful hand-drawn animations, and the app provides a revolutionary timeline for intuitive frame-by-frame editing.
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Game: Lost in Play by Happy Juice Games (Israel)
Lost in Play is a puzzle adventure game where you control a brother and sister on a whimsical journey home. Their adventure takes them through fantastical landscapes filled with creative puzzles and quirky creatures. The game’s hand-drawn art style resembles classic cartoons, making it perfect for families to enjoy together.
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Interaction
App: Crouton by Devin Davies (New Zealand)
Crouton is a recipe manager app available for iOS, iPadOS, macOS and other Apple devices that focuses on simplicity and ease of use. It allows you to save recipes from various sources, including websites and cookbooks, with features like recipe scanning and web importing. Crouton helps you organize your recipes, plan meals for the week, and even guides you through recipes step-by-step while you cook, making it a handy tool for both browsing recipes and following them in the kitchen.
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Game: Rytmos by Floppy Club (Denmark)
Rytmos is a relaxing puzzle game with a musical twist. It combines solving maze puzzles on unique cubic planets with creating music. As you solve them, you’ll create short musical loops that layer together to form complete compositions. You can explore music from various cultures and even unlock instruments to add your own touch to the planetary melodies.
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Social Impact
App: Gentler Streak Fitness Tracker by Gentler Stories (Slovenia)
Gentler Streak is a fitness tracker app designed to prioritize your well-being. Unlike other trackers that focus on pushing you to your limits, Gentler Streak uses data on your activity and rest to suggest a personalized workout plan that balances exercise with recovery. It integrates with Apple Health and the Apple Watch, and gives you daily feedback on whether you’re pushing yourself too hard, maintaining a good balance, or need to be more active.
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Game: The Wreck by The Pixel Hunt (France)
This narrative adventure game follows Junon, a 36-year-old woman dealing with a failing career and strained relationships, as she rushes to the hospital after her estranged mother’s critical accident. Through reliving this traumatic day, you help Junon confront her past, make choices that shape the present, and potentially mend broken bonds.
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Visuals and Graphics
App: Rooms by Things, Inc. (United States)
Imagine a mix of a creative canvas, a game, and a retro vibe. That’s Rooms, where you can explore and build the 3D spaces of your mind. You can browse user-generated rooms, which can be anything from tranquil escapes to quirky games. The app also lets you unleash your own creativity by building your own rooms with a variety of objects. There’s even the option to edit existing objects or code your own creations from scratch.
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Game: Lies of P by NEOWIZ (South Korea)
In this dark action RPG rendition of a classic tale, you play Pinocchio, but in a grim and twisted world where the once-lively city of Krat is overrun with monstrous machines and crazed puppets. Choices you make about honesty can impact the narrative.
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Spatial Computing
App: djay pro - DJ App & AI Mixer by algoriddim GmbH (Germany)
Designed for both beginners and professional DJs, djay Pro integrates with your local music library and streaming services like Apple Music, giving you access to millions of songs via a spatial environment. Its Neural Mix technology allows you to isolate parts of a song like beats, instruments, and vocals in real-time for creative remixing. With its advanced mixing tools, four decks, and video mixing capabilities, djay Pro provides a powerful and flexible platform to take your DJ skills to the next level.
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Game: Blackbox by Shapes and Stories (United States)
Blackbox, crafted for the Apple Vision Pro, throws brain teasers at you from all angles, prompting you to think literally out of the box and explore every possibility. The world around you comes alive with beautiful details, and solving each puzzle feels like mastering a magic trick. The more you indulge your curiosity, the more the game rewards you with mind-bending challenges.
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[via Apple]