Apps Springing up everywhere!
April has arrived and that means more apps from readers like you!
Just like every month, you’ve packed my inbox with great new apps and games. And as expected, I’ve got a handful to share with you to give you a snapshot of what the community is building.
This month we’ve got:
- My new favorite word game
- An anonymous social network
- Our first Apple Watch app
- And naturally, much more!
Keep reading to catch a glimpse of what the community has built this month.
Lettercraft
Lettercraft is a fresh new game from the team that brought you GREG that makes word searches fun again.
Lettercraft has a time sensitivity that makes word searches unique. Every few seconds the board advances a level of heat. When tiles get too hot they burn up and can’t be used. Each time you use a letter to make a word, that tile drops a level of heat.
In addition to survival mode, Lettercraft has 70 levels of challenging constraints to keep things interesting. Things like only making words that contain the letter A or 5 letter words only.
And to support the statistics nerd in all of us, Lettercraft a full stats page showing your favorite words, average correct, average length, most used letters, graphs, scores, and much more.
Lettercraft tops it off with GameCenter leaderboards and challenge modes to see how among you is the Lettercraft champion.
- Author: Stefano Figurelli & Marco Torretta @lettercraft
- Most useful tutorial: How to Save your Game’s Data: Part 2/2
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Countdown
Countdown is a minimal countdown timer that looks great on the retina display.
Countdown is clean and simple showing any metric you’d like for each countdown you schedule in a variety of popping colors. You can import countdowns from your calendar or birthdays. Schedule notifications for when a countdown finishes. And iCloud synchronization keeps your countdowns in sync on all your devices.
How many devices? Well you classic iPhone, powerful iPad, and now the convenient Apple Watch! Countdown is our first app to support the brand new Apple Watch. You’ll be able to check your countdowns anytime quickly and easily from the Countdown Apple Watch app.
- Author: Yves Tscherry @feerglas
- Most useful tutorial: How To Make A Simple Drawing App with UIKit and Swift
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Feed the Snake
Feed the Snake is a beautiful modernization of a classic favorite.
Feed the snake has cute graphics to breath new life into the retro Snake genre. The rules are simple, don’t hit the edges and don’t hit yourself. But with the addition of a few powerups the game gets a bit more interesting.
Theres a special tongue powerup that lets you snatch up your prey from farther away. Then there is a magic skin powerup that lets you pass through obstacles unharmed and come out the otherside. Then there is a special degeneration powerup that helps you shrink slowly so you can live just a little longer. All this helps you put the combo multiplier to work to climb the GameCenter leaderboards and compete again your friends.
- Author: Tung Nguyen
- Most useful tutorial: How To Make A Simple iPhone Game with Cocos2D 3.0 Tutorial
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Gifts Planner
Gifts Planner helps with one of my biggest problems, remembering what to get someone as a gift.
It happens to us all, we think of something perfect for that special someone only to forget by the time an occasion comes around. Or worse we get that someone the perfect gift, only to find out we’ve given it to them before!
Gifts Planner is here to make it simple and easy to keep track. You can add gifts for any of your contacts marked as given or planned and include prices and occasions to make sure you don’t forget.
Next time you need a gift for someone, open up Gifts Planner and you’ll be quickly reminded of your great ideas for the perfect gift.
- Author: Daniel Witte
- Most useful tutorial: Beginning iCloud in iOS 5 Tutorial Part 1
- App Store Link: Check it out!
ChypIn
ChypIn is a new social application that lets you share your two cents on photos posted for all to see. Its the first social network you can hear, and its surprisingly nice to just listen to people’s thoughts on various photos.
ChypIn is unique in that it builds a soundtrack for each photo made up of the voices of the entire social network. Anyone can listen and add to the banter. A variety of feeds let you browser for photos of anything you’d like to listen or contribute to.
Of course it wouldn’t be complete without the ability to upload your own photos and push notifications comments on them.
- Author: Raja Narayanan
- Most useful tutorial: How To Use Blocks in iOS 5 Tutorial Part 1
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Track My TV
Trying to keep up with all your favorite TV shows can be hard. There are so many, all on different networks, with different schedules, and different seasons.
Track My TV is a new app that will help manage some of that for you. You can choose from a database of 20,000 TV shows and add them to your list. Upcoming episodes will be presented and you can get notifications for them if you’d like.
You can pick a show and mark older episodes as watched to keep track of what you’ve seen. You can get cast lists, descriptions, lengths, and other meta data right inside the app.
There is no easier way to keep track of what you’ve seen and whats coming up. Looking forward to iCloud syncing and widgets in the next update.
- Author: Krzysztof Deneka @KrzysztofDeneka
- Most useful tutorial: How to Write An iOS App that Uses a Node.js/MongoDB Web Service
- App Store Link: Check it out!
One More Roll
One More Roll is an addictive, fast moving game all about pushing your own luck.
Roll the dice and see a number. Roll up to three times each round. The next round you’re trying to get higher than the previous number. After each roll you’ve got a chance to bank your points or double down so to speak for more. Its a game of odds with a twist of greed pushing you over the edge. If you fail to roll higher all three rolls in a round, you bust and miss out on any points.
Roll the dice is definitely addictive. And with three game modes it will certainly stay that way. You can play against friends locally and remotely with GameCenter.
- Author: Jim Grosch @jimgrosch
- Most useful tutorial: iOS 6 by Tutorials Second Edition Now Available!
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Hedge Loves to Ski
Some bears hibernate during the winter, but Hedge loves to Ski.
Hedge heads to one of his favorite peaks, straps on his Skis, and rides effortlessly down the mountain. Well not quite effortlessly, Hedge needs your help to steer. Help guide Hedge through the endless gates down the mountain.
Helping Hedge is easy, just tilt your device and Hedge follows suit. As you get further down the mountain things get faster and more challenging. But I promise helping Hedge Ski is quite fun and worth the repeated attempts. ;]
- Author: David Fairhurst
- Most useful tutorial: Sprite Kit Animations and Texture Atlases in Swift
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Birdies
Birdies is a unique challenge on the never ending scrolling dodge style game.
Birdies has not one but two characters that must move in unison to dodge obstacles. You spin them on a circle clockwise or counter clockwise as you maneuver both birds through a variety of stationary and moving obstacles.
After you think you’ve got the hang of this challenging game, compare your highscore with Facebook friends and players around the world to see how you stack up.
- Author: Mojtaba Komeili @LinaraLabs
- Most useful tutorial: Cocos2D-X Tile Map Tutorial: Part 1
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Airhoot
Airhoot is an encrypted, private and anonymous social network right on your iPhone.
Airhoot leaves you anonymous when chatting in globally, commenting and annotating photos posted by anyone around the world. You can also find anonymous messages from those nearby.
You can doodle on images and comment on messages to share your creativity or make a point. Or you can draw a unique creation all your own. Anonymous others can make comments and redoodle your creation with their own spin.
Airhook also supports private chat rooms where you can invite only a select group of friends. Your messages here are securely encrypted between parties.
- Author: Craig Cronin @airhoot
- Most useful tutorial: How To Make A Simple Drawing App with UIKit and Swift
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Blox 3D World Creator
Box 3D World Creator is a sandbox of 3D creativity where you can build original cityscapes or wholly new creations.
Box 3D World Creator makes it easy for children to be creative with simple tap and pinch controls as they move around and build their own world. They have a variety of colors, objects, and characters to choose from. Build anything you’d like with the basic object provided, then drop in characters to watch them interact with your world. They walk up your stairs, through your door.
You can adjust the environment from day to night and even add rain. Its like being in control of your own miniature world.
- Author: Karthik Raghu @KarthikRaghu6
- Most useful tutorial: What’s New in Unity 5
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Honorable Mentions
Each and every month I get more submissions than I have time to review. I download every app and see what its about, but I can’t write about them all. I love seeing all the apps submitted by readers like you. Its no a popularity contest or even a favorite picking contest. I just try to get a glimpse of what the community is working on through your submissions. Take a moment and checkout these other great apps I didn’t have time to showcase properly.
Lethal Lasers
BlackJack Saloon
Loops
Boletim PMPB
iNVESTaCALC
Coin Eater
Total Image Effects
3076 3D
100 Spots
My Food Storage
Bestiolis Recue Saga
Checka
Counta
Where To Go From Here?
Each month, I really enjoy seeing what our community of readers comes up with. The apps you build are the reason we keep writing tutorials. Make sure you tell me about your next one, submit here!
If you saw an app your liked, hop to the App Store and leave a review! A good review always makes a dev’s day. And make sure you tell them you’re from raywenderlich.com; this is a community of makers!
If you’ve never made an app, this is the month! Check out our free tutorials to become an iOS star. What are you waiting for – I want to see your app next month!
Readers’ App Reviews – April 2015 is a post from: Ray Wenderlich
The post Readers’ App Reviews – April 2015 appeared first on Ray Wenderlich.