Apple Design Awards 2017 winners announced at WWDC

Apple has announced the winners of its annual design awards at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in California. Awarded to software and hardware designs produced by independent developers for Mac and iOS, the accolade was this year given to 12 apps, including five games.

The winners are games Blackbox, Splitter Critters, Mushroom 11, Old Man’s Journey and Severed, and apps Lake, Bear, Kitchen Stories, Things 3, Elk, Enlight and AirMail 3.

Lake is a colouring app developed by a small company of the same name in Slovenia, with a “simple and playful design” says Apple, and “beautiful illustrations to help anyone create a masterpiece”. It features curated illustrations by local and international artists such as Marcus Oakley, Nelleke Verhoeff and Maja Säfstrom.

Blackbox is a puzzle game with a highly graphical interface, that “breaks the fourth wall of iPhone to make your world a part of each solution”, says Apple. The game includes functions that don’t involve touching the screen. It was designed and developed by Ryan McLeod. 

Old Man’s Journey is an adventure puzzle game “about life, loss and hope”, developed by Broken Rules, a five-person team in Vienna, Austria. It was selected for its “beautiful, hand-drawn art style, and whimsical, exceptionally crafted landscapes”.

Read more about the winners and download the apps here. The WWDC ends tomorrow 9 June.