Get ready for our Reader’s Apps Awards for 2013!
It’s that magical time of year again, we’ve been revisiting the entire archive of 2013 Readers’ Apps and picking the best of the year!
This is a huge deal, so I had some help: a team of 8 judges including Ray. Together we voted on the best apps of the year for 7 categories:
- Most Addicting: The app that made time fly.
- Most Hilarious Idea: The app that had us on the floor.
- Most Surprisingly Good: The app that surprised us all.
- Most Technically Impressive: The app that made our inner programmer jealous.
- Most Visually Impressive: The app that dropped our jaws.
As well as two grand prize winners, who will walk away with an epic prize pack of over $1000 in value:
- Best Reader’s Game: The overall best game of the year from a reader like you.
- Best Reader’s App: The overall best app (non-game) of the year from a reader like you.
Drum roll please… keep reading to see the best reader’s apps of 2013!
Most Addicting
Sky Hawks
Sky Hawks has been a go-to game on my iPhone for months now. In Sky Hawks, you take off for fun and frantic dogfights in the sky.
I love its retro look and feel, and there are plenty of planes to unlock for the competitive advantage and endless swarms of enemies to battle in the sky.
“A fun, easy to play twin stick shooter, that keeps you coming back for just one more round. Get your Top Gun on without having to play volleyball with Tom Cruise afterwards.” – Brian Moakley
“Sky Hawks took me back to my early days of gaming. A well implemented, entertaining trip into the past.” – Dustin Bruzenak
“Seriously, who doesn’t want to fly a fighter jet? I loved this game so much that before I realized it, I was making ‘Pew! Pew! Pew!’ sounds while I was playing.” – Tammy Coron
- Author: Tate Allen @AllTheWayApps
- Most useful tutorial: Trigonometry for Game Programming: Part 1/2
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Most Hilarious Idea
Mutton for Punishment
What do you do if you want the addiction of missile command but with a hilarious twist? Add some Mutton of course!
Mutton for Punishment pits the wolves against the sheep in this missile command style arcade game. The wolves have learned to use bow and arrows but the sheep have an ace up their sleeve, You! Fling rocks to deflect the wolves attacks and defend the flock!
“Brings the love of Missile Command to… mutton. Protecting sheep is more fun!” – Bear Cahill
“Fairytale graphics, nice music and challenging levels, you need to have an eye like Robin Hood and be able to anticipate to keep playing. – Przemek Rembelski
- Author: Greg Heasley
- Most useful tutorial: Space Game Starter Kit
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Most Surprisingly Good
Teggle
Teggle looked like a game too simple to be fun, but it turned out to be quite addictive. Born of multitouch, Teggle has you frantically tapping and swiping to win before long.
Teggle is simple, but its also hard to master and surprisingly addictive as you try to extend your combos and boost your score.
“I don’t know what “teggle” means, but if I had to guess, I’d say, “Slick, flat design, intuitive controls, and fast-paced gameplay that’s so shockingly simple and addictive that you can’t stop kicking yourself for not thinking of it yourself.” – Chris LaPollo
“If the design and elegance of iOS 7 was distilled into a game … this would be it. It’s both simple to play yet very addicting.” – Brian Moakley
- Author: Joseph Van Der Wee @PlayTeggle
- Most useful tutorial: How To Make A Simple iPhone Game with Cocos2D
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Most Technically Impressive
ECHO
ECHO takes iPhone gaming to a new level. ECHO uses directional, stereo audio to give you cues where obstacles are at as you fly through space. But don’t think you can play this game on mute, for once you’d better trust your ears not your eyes. ECHO dims the screen as you advance until you’re flying in almost pitch black sky. Your only hope is to listen to your ears.
ECHO was designed before the iPhone and iPad had stereo speakers so you’ll have to grab a pair of headphones to really get into it unless you’ve got the latest tech, but its well worth it to give this impressive game a try.
“Whoa! Don’t play this game in the dark. It’s creepy… and mesmerizing. I could play this game forever (except in the dark, which I think we established already)” – Tammy Coron
“Truly rewarded for putting the headphones on – I might just listen to this as my coding soundtrack. :)” – Bear Cahill
- Author: Alexander Damhuis @iphonedation
- Most useful tutorial: Space Game Starter Kit
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Most Visually Impressive
Wide Sky
Wide Sky is a game with stunning graphics and animations that doubles as a chance to hurl hedgehogs through the sky.
Wide Sky takes 2D to the extreme with crisp retina graphics and fast, fluid animations. And who doesn’t want to sling hedgehogs into aerobatic feats of agility?
As you collect stars and orbs you can unlock new power-ups and more springy ropes to push the limit on how high you can sling your hedgehogs.
“I am totally in love with graphics in this game. At the beginning not the easiest game to understand but absorbing enough to get the picture quickly.” – Przemek Rembelski
“Wide Sky is absolutely beautiful. The art style rivals the best that the app store has to offer. I’m abysmally bad at the game itself, but the wonderful graphics kept me playing long past the point of frustration.” – Dustin Bruzenak
“This game has an amazing sense of humor and a great sense of design that must be seen to be believed. I see great things in Marcus’s future.” – Ray Wenderlich
- Author: Marcus Eckert @marcus_eckert
- Most useful tutorial: How To Create Dynamic Textures with CCRenderTexture
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Grand Prize Winners
Finally we make it to our two Grand Prize winners! Lets take a look at what they’ve won!
The “Best Reader’s App” and “Best Reader’s Game” grand prize winners will win a massive prize pack with over $1,000 in value!
Tools
- AppViz 6-month subscription ($60 value): The best tool for monitoring your iOS and Mac App Store sales.
- ParticleDesigner ($50 value): Create amazing particle systems for your games with a visual editor!
- GlyphDesigner ($40 value): Design beautiful fonts for your iOS games!
- Tower Git ($60 value): The most powerful Git client for your Mac.
- Pixelmator ($30 value): An inspiring, easy-to-use, beautifully designed image editor built to help you create stunning new images and edit your existing photos.
- Paint Code ($75 value): PaintCode is a vector drawing app that generates Objective-C code in real time. Mentioned in our PaintCode tutorial series!
- New! PixelKit Designer 1-Year Subscription ($39 value): PixelKit is a high quality set of reusable icons and other UI elements to help your app look great!
Books
- iOS Apprentice 1-4 Bundle ($54 value): Learn how to make iPhone and iPad apps via epic length tutorials – for complete beginners!
- iOS 5 by Tutorials Second Edition ($24 value): Learn about the new APIs that were introduced in iOS 5 like ARC, Storyboards, and Core Image. Now fully updated for iOS 6!
- iOS 6 by Tutorials ($44 value): Learn about the new APIs that were introduced in iOS 6 like Auto Layout, Collection Views, and Passbook – over 1,500 pages of high quality content!
- iOS 7 by Tutorials ($54 value): Learn about the new APIs that were introduced in iOS 7 like “flat” design, UIKit dynamics, and NSURLSession – over 800 pages of high quality content!
- iOS Games by Tutorials ($54 value): Learn how to make your own iOS games using Apple’s brand new game framework, Sprite Kit.
Starter Kits
- Space Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a full side-scrolling space game with Cocos2D!
- Platformer Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a side-scrolling platformer game (like Mario)!
- Beat ‘Em Up Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a beat ‘em up game (like Double Dragon)!
Swag
- raywenderlich.com T-shirt and magnet set ($25 value): Sport a stylish black t-shirt with a colorful mosaic iPhone design!
- 2013 Reader’s Apps Awards Plaque (Priceless!): Show off to your friends and family that your app has been recognized as the best Reader’s App of the year!
And without further delay, here are your 2013 Reader’s App Awards Grand Prize Winners!
Best Reader’s Game
Whirl the Squirrel
Whirl the Squirrel is a fantastic side scrolling, level based, adventure runner. You’ve got to help Whirl get back his treasures from the evil ‘Nenemies. Its got some hilarious animations as you jump and roll, go through hoops and under electric fences, and blast through with powerups.
Its got all the necessary components of a great iOS game including retina graphics, universal support, and GameCenter leaderboards & achievements.
Whirl the Squirrel is a polished, beautiful game thats fun for hours. It should be the benchmark for everyone hoping to make a great game! :]
“There is no question that you should try this game. Impressive visuals and great gameplay.” – Przemek Rembelski
“This fast-paced platformer confirms what I’ve always suspected: it would be fun to strap a rocket to a squirrel! Great levels that are difficult to beat on your first try, but doable with some practice. The art looked great and the gameplay was smooth. I don’t usually like virtual buttons on touch devices, but these didn’t bother me at all.” – Christopher LaPollo
“This game brings back fond memories of sitting in front of my TV with starry eyes playing Sonic the hedgehog. The artwork is amazing and the gameplay is crisp – well done!” – Ray Wenderlich
- Author: Donovan Vice @dioxismining
- Most useful tutorial: How To Create a Simple iPhone App on iOS 5 Tutorial: 1/3
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Best Reader’s App
Amaziograph
You’ll never be bored with Amaziograph! Amaziograph is an iPad drawing application like none other.
Amaziograph turns your simple drawings into complex works of art with one of six symmetry templates straight from your favorite kaleidoscopes. But it just keeps getting better from there, because you can change templates mid drawing and layer your strokes to create truly one of a kind artwork.
All the normal drawing features you need are present from brush sizes, to full RGB color support, to transparency, and more. You can even drag you line of symmetry to bend the templates to your will.
Amaziograph is certainly the most unique drawing app I’ve seen, and its also a well made, polished iPad application that we all should strive to match.
“Quite easy to create dynamic beautiful images. It’s one of the few drawing programs that I found the actual creation of an image to be just as hypnotizing as the end product.” – Brian Moakley
“This app makes me feel like an artist – and believe me, with my drawing skills that is quite a feat! This can easily keep you mesmerized for hours – it’s the kind of app I wish I had when I was a kid.” – Ray Wenderlich
- Author: Hristo Staykov
- Most useful tutorial: How to Submit Your App to Apple: From No Account to App Store, Part 1
- App Store Link: Check it out!
That’s It!
Congratulations to our winners! If you are a grand prize winner, Ray will be in touch to get your prizes to you. :]
Thanks to all our judges for helping me pick! And a very special thanks to Dustin Bruzenak for being an awesome guest judge again.
And a huge thanks to our our amazing sponsors who donated their great apps and resources for our prizes. Be sure to check out the sites for all of our sponsors, we wouldn’t be able to do this without them!
Don’t forget, if you’ve made an app or game using our tutorials, we’d love to review your app too! Please submit it for next month.
As always, it was a load of fun playing with your apps and getting to see our tutorials in action! Its been another terrific year for apps and we can’t wait to see what you submit next year. Have a Merry Christmas!
Winners – Reader’s App Awards 2013! is a post from: Ray Wenderlich
The post Winners – Reader’s App Awards 2013! appeared first on Ray Wenderlich.