The Cupertino-based company gives developers Apple Design awards each year to promote creativity and innovation.
The majority of this year’s contenders and winners are independent applications and companies; generative AI apps, in contrast to the general trend, are conspicuously absent from the list. For the second consecutive year, Apple has excluded AI-focused apps from its awards.
However, the business did recognize a few AI-enabled apps, such as the venture-backed startups Moises and Speechify, which both won in the Inclusivity category and are used for creating and editing music.
Not surprisingly, Apple places more emphasis on how developers have improved experiences using its tools.
In six categories—Delight and Fun, Innovation, Interaction, Inclusivity, Social Impact, and Visuals and Graphics—the firm selected 12 winners, one app and one game in each. Apple featured numerous apps and games from small developers worldwide in its list of finalists this year.
With subcategories like applications and games, it is available in a variety of areas, including inclusivity, social effect, delight and fun, innovation, and more.
The medal in the social effect category went to Watch Duty, which assisted in disseminating information during the wildfires in California. In the meantime, Play, a developer prototype tool supported by M13, won the prize for best app in the innovation category.
In terms of inclusivity, Speechify was voted the best Apple product. Speechify can convert any written content, including websites, papers, scans, PDFs, and more, into audio. It has hundreds of voices and supports over 50 languages.
Other candidates for the Apple Design Award for Apples in the inclusion category were the Canadian firm with the same name, Train Fitness, and the Indian company, GTA Solutions, with the Evolve: Daily Self-Care Coach.
Austria-based artist Fauna The inclusion category’s finest game was Klemens Strasser. It is a distinctive puzzle game that places equal emphasis on ecological and inclusivity. It is influenced by science texts from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Rearranging the image on the front of the cards or rearranging the text description on the reverse will solve Art of Fauna’s vintage-style nature puzzles.
The other nominees for the Apple Design award for games in the inclusion category were Land of Livia by Split Atom Labs (Australia) and Puffy by Lykke Studios (Thailand and Cyprus).
Zhejiang Taobao Network (China) created the Vision Pro-only software Taobao, which took home the Apple Design award for Apples in the Interaction category. It provides amazing 3D models with seamless interactions, transitions, and user-friendly controls that are on par with their real-world equivalents. Taobao considers location, position, controls, size, and function for every 3D object. It also provides the incredibly helpful feature of side-by-side item comparison.
Additional contenders for the Apple Design prize for apps in the interface category were Silvio Rizzi of Switzerland and iA Writer of Information Architects AG.
The New Zealand-based Black Salt Games’ DREDGE game took home the Apple Design Award for interaction games. Dark and significant mysteries lie beneath the surface of this slow-paced horror adventure game, which takes place in a seaside town.
Other candidates for the Apple Design award for games in the interaction category were Skate City: New York by Snowman (Canada) and Gears & Goo by Resolution Games AB (Sweden).
Play created by a US-based Rabbittt, innovation category, took home the Apple Design Award. Using native SwiftUI frameworks, this Apple assists designers in producing interactive prototype mobile applications that can be uploaded to Xcode and used to publish final Apples.
Music moistens. Additional candidates for the Apple Design Award for Apples under the innovation category were AI (Brazil) and Capybara AI Meeting Translator, created by UK-based Digital Workroom Ltd.
Philipp Stollenmayer, a German, developed the musical, The PBJ. Animated snack condiments use paper cutouts and a catchy soundtrack to play this snack-based musical reimagining of “Romeo and Juliet.”
Other nominees for the Apple Design Award for games in the innovation category were Gears & Goo by Resolution Games AB (Sweden) and Pawz by Singapore-based Bootloader Studio Holdings.
This year, HappyPlan Tech’s CapWords, a product from China, took home the Apple Design Award for Apple in the category of delight and fun.
Other finalists are Denim – Playlist Cover Maker (Feel Good Tech, India) and Lumy (by Raja V, India).
LocalThunk, a Canadian company, created Balatro, which took first place in the games category. This game combines deck-building, solitaire, and poker. Players must construct unique decks while negotiating a constantly changing variety of variables, including power-up jokers and “Boss Blinds,” which may turn even the most painstakingly constructed deck into a pile of rubble, in order to beat a score in this card game.
Other candidates for the Apple Design award for games in the delight and fun category were Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown by Ubisoft Montpellier (France) and by Panic (USA).
The South Korean company Sketchsoft’s Feather: Draw in 3D was the recipient of the Apple Design award for apps in the visuals and graphics category. With the help of this modelling tool, artists can quickly convert their 2D drawings into completely immersive 3D works.
The other contenders for the Apple Design award for apps in the visuals and graphics category were Timothy Davison’s (Canada) CellWalk (unique to Vision Pro) and Monkey Taps’ (USA) Vocabulary-Learn Words Daily.
For games in the images and graphics category, Infold Game (Singapore)’s Infinity Nikki took home the Apple Design award. The open-world game, which asks players to gather clothing rather than weapons, is filled with intricately realistic textiles, exquisitely rendered lighting, and effects from cutting-edge shading methods like Global Illumination.
The other nominees for the Apple Design award for games in the visuals and graphics category were Neva by Devolver Digital (USA) and Control Ultimate Edition by Remedy Entertainment PLC (Finland).
In the social effect category, Sherwood Forestry Service’s (USA) Watch Duty: Wildfire Maps took home the Apple Design Award for Apples. It is a volunteer-run, non-profit software that provides users with real-time information on wildfires, resources, and advice throughout the United States.
The other nominees for the Apple Design award for apps in the social impact category were Opal by Opal OS (USA) and Ground News by Snapwise (Canada).
The Apple Design Award for games in the social effect category went to Neva by Devolver Digital (USA). The plot of Neva centres on a girl and her wolf as they navigate a deteriorating world; the seasons are used to show not only the difficulties of their situation but also the development of their bond. It is the responsibility of the players to guide the couple through the game safely.
The other candidates for the Apple Design award for games in the social effect category were Daniel Jones (USA) and Klemens Strausser (Austria) with their works From Picardy and Art of Fauna.
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