Readers’ App Reviews – January 2015

Rain Shaman

“In a land not far away lives a mighty Shaman with the power of rainmaking.” But this shaman screwed up and has it raining frogs! You’ve got to help him sort it out, literally. Sort raindrops and frogs into piles with simple swipes.

Rain Shaman has beautiful retro style graphics and 15 uniquely styled characters and backgrounds to unlock.

Its a game as simple as it is addicting. I can’t tell you how many frogs and raindrops I’ve sorted so far.

No game would be complete without GameCenter integration making challenging your friends to beat your highscore easier than performing a rain dance.

• Author: Rodrigo Villatoro @rodrigovd
• Most useful tutorial: How to Create a Game Like Cut the Rope Using Sprite Kit
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Swirly

Swirly is a symmetric drawing app that makes it easy to be creative on your iPad or iPhone.

Swirly gives you four symmetric quadrants to draw in with an array of colors and stroke sizes. You can swap the background if it suits you. Its very addictive and fun to create an endless number of unique creations, each as cool as a snowflake.

Of course Swirly wouldn’t be complete without the ability to share it with your friends over your favorite social networks.

• Author: Nathan Dries @nathan_dries
• Most useful tutorial: Swift Tutorial Part 2: A Simple iOS App
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Blocks for iPad

Blocks is a sort of Tetris style game that ignores everything you know about directions.

Blocks don’t just fall from the sky, they bombard you from every direction. You’ve got to match colors, shapes, and more as the pace quickens. There are three modes to choose from: Survival Mode, Match Mode, and Relax Mode.

Survival mode pits you against time, sending faster and faster blocks at you until you can’t handle it.
Match Mode gives you a specific shape to build which can be challenging as the blocks appear at random directions.
Relax mode is never ending like survival mode but without the speed increase so you can play for as long as you like.

And its got GameCenter leaderboards as you’d expect from a top notch iPad game.

• Author: Glen Bourgonjon @GlenBourgonjon
• Most useful tutorial: Learn To Code iOS Apps With Swift Tutorial
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Honorable Mentions

Every month I get more submissions than I can handle. I give every app a shot, but I can’t write about them all. These are still great apps made 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.

Premium BlackJack
Christmas Santa
FlapThatBat
Fall Down 100
Santa Run
Kids Tiles
Fishland Adventures
Indian-World
All In One Calculator
YAGOL – Yet Another Game Of Life
Spaces Races
Lunate
Task Focus
Make The Match!
Rock Blasters

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 Ray Wenderlich, 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!