I totally agree with Monument Valley. One of the most beautiful and unique games I've played in a long time, it's also a great example that you don't need to push a lot of pixels if you have good artists.

Have you tried Echochrome[1]? From the images, it seems like a pretty version of the latter. Does it have more to it?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echochrome

The game has the same mechanics as Echochrome, but can you interact with the environment in Echochrome, or can you just rotate the scene? Monument Valley has a lot of switches and wheels to turn that open up new pathways.

It's also super beautiful, not just black and white (not that that isn't beautiful as well!)

I agree it looks pretty but it took me 40 minutes to complete all ten levels. Thats not very good value for money.

40 minutes for a couple of bucks, you ever been to an amusement arcade?

Not good value for money!! AN APP!!! And on HN as well. Unbelievable

I get your point but I think this is more about potential. After 40 minutes you feel slightly deflated that it was the end of the game.

If you compared it to Cut The Rope for example there's a lot more potential realised there.

Duration is not the most important metric for value of an experience for me.

Would you compare the quantity of food received at a fast food joint vs fine dining?

If I had to go to McDonalds after the fine dining so I don't starve then yes.

That’s where the metaphor falls flat, I guess …

Look, you can’t expect a game like that that’s sold for a couple bucks to last more than a few dozen minutes. People who make games have to eat, you know. Either you like that or you don’t. If you don’t like that, no problem, there is more than enough information out there to gauge that beforehand.

Takes me 3 minutes to down a cup of cof-- you know what let's not go down this road.

One reason I make my own coffee. Why go out and pay £3-4 for some slack to do it when you can take a 5 min timeout and do it yourself for £0.20 a hit. Plus you get some thinking time which is more valuable than the coffee.

Agreed!

Nice to see an appearance for Threes - the developers deserve a bit of recognition after 2048 went crazy, and Threes is a really nice user experience.

So happy about Threes. Such an underrated game. Almost addictive but not quite; slick, classy, fun, kinda cute game. Great work. Well done!

Almost addictive? I disagree. I had to remove it to get anything done.

It is, though it doesn't take long before you start to resent the time you're spending on it rather than enjoying it.

And that was the point where I cheated to see how it ends.

It is, but increasingly I've seen far, far more people playing 2048 than Threes. Which, IIRC, is a wrapped webapp.

Not that it's strictly relevant to the Apple Design Awards, but perhaps a reminder that it doesn't necessarily matter whether you win or not.

2048 is free with ads. Of course more people are playing it.

This award (and all the others given out this year) was nevertheless a nice recovery from Apple (compared to last years’ winners which were pretty crappy), showing what they value and telling the world about it.

I hope they continue to show off these values in the editorial decisions they will make in the App Store in the future (but they have been relatively good about that in the past, with a few missteps).

I have both on my phone. Honestly, I find 2048 to the better game.

It’s an easier game. That makes it a better game for some.

True, but it's nice to be recognised anyway. I'm sure the awards have given them a little bump in popularity.

I think that 2048 is a more accessible game. It takes zero time to figure out how it works. Whereas Threes is a little more complex. I enjoyed figuring out how it works, though.

Good to see Blek on there. One of the most interesting and unique games I've played in a while, and it's absolutely beautifully designed.

I haven't seen too many people talking about it on HN even though it's been near the top of the charts in the app store recently: definitely check it out if you have a chance!

just picked it up and it's quite good. super interesting game mechanic and not one that I have played before.

I love the mechanic and it actually took me a bit of time to fully grasp how it works (although perhaps I'm a bit slow).

Just in case you haven't realized, the line that you draw will continue the exact pattern that you draw, no matter what you draw, until you release or connect the line with a dot. There is a time limit on drawing but you have a lot of time.

I had originally assumed that some kind of physics were applied to the line once you release it but this is not the case.

Once I realized how the game worked, I got really into finding elegant solutions for the later levels. You can "cheat" many of the levels with ugly solutions, but there's almost always a very simple pattern you can draw that will solve the level. Finding these simple patterns is extremely satisfying.

Monument Valley and Yahoo News Digest are both really nicely done. Definitely deserving of the award (not that the others aren't, I just haven't used most of them).

Monument Valley was one of the best mobile gaming experiences I have ever had. My jaw literally dropped a few times at the clever reveals.

Monument Valley is one of the most beautiful and serene games I've ever played.

I definitely recommend checking out the ADA winners if you're an app developer. It's really good to see what Apple deems award-winning, and can be very inspiring for your own work.

Sky guide looks great. Hadn't heard of it before but can't wait to download and give it a try tonight. Anyone else using it?

It’s excellent! The attention to detail is awesome, as is the thoughtfulness put into each and every feature (and the feature selection). Plus, the dev is super nice and friendly when you report bugs to them.

I have gained a much better understanding of what I see in the sky. It’s nice to be able to pull up this app as soon as you see something in the sky and be able to tell what it is. Of course, other apps do that, too, but none do it as nicely.

I recommend going ISS watching with it. (Requires an IAP, I think, but as always app prices are disastrously low.) The ISS is really bright and easy to see, plus the thought of six people soaring by up there is quite uplifting. And without the app this would always be a thing you have to plan for, not a thing you accidentally see after dinner, then walk out to the big town square to see the ISS go by with the people you were eating with.

It's excellent! The background sound is great too (from the musician that did some of Osmos's music).

What's most interesting to me about this is that not a single one of these apps is a free-to-play app. Freemium apps have a lot of room to grow on the design front and this could be a serious differentiator for certain apps.

I'm no Apple fan, but seeing Threes in the list..

I have to admit, thumbs up

Device 6 is amazing. Reminded me of a David Lynch movie.

> Adding further polish are cClever sound effects and a catchy music score add further polish.

Might want to have a look at that copyediting.

Looking at the winners there doesn't seem to be anything massively inspiring and only one dedicated OSX app.

I'm not sure how much of a big deal these awards are.

They're a big deal for a few reasons, such as they set the norm for what the next year's apps will try to mimic, but I agree that it's a bummer to see so few OS X apps (well, app). Hopefully Yosemite will inspire people to get back to writing award-eligible OS X apps.

They're a reasonably big deal, a lot of the developer community look to see who wins and if there's an emerging pattern that links the winners.

I agree, they are kind of like the obvious choices. But then again, you can only innovate in the boundaries of the App Store approval.

Yeah, but they are quite large boundaries, given that it has over 1 millions apps in all kinds of genres and ideas.

If you can't innovate within those boundaries then you might be Frank Zappa or The Residents but you're not Jimi Hendrix or The Beatles. That is, you might be too wild for your own good.