Winners – Reader’s App Awards 2013!

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

1. AppViz 6-month subscription ($60 value): The best tool for monitoring your iOS and Mac App Store sales.
2. ParticleDesigner ($50 value): Create amazing particle systems for your games with a visual editor!
3. GlyphDesigner ($40 value): Design beautiful fonts for your iOS games!
4. Tower Git ($60 value): The most powerful Git client for your Mac.
5. 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.
6. Paint Code ($75 value): PaintCode is a vector drawing app that generates Objective-C code in real time. Mentioned in our PaintCode tutorial series!
7. 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

9. iOS Apprentice 1-4 Bundle ($54 value): Learn how to make iPhone and iPad apps via epic length tutorials – for complete beginners!
10. 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!
11. 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!
12. 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!
13. 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

12. Space Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a full side-scrolling space game with Cocos2D!
13. Platformer Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a side-scrolling platformer game (like Mario)!
14. Beat ‘Em Up Game Starter Kit ($129 value): Learn how to make a beat ’em up game (like Double Dragon)!

Swag

15. raywenderlich.com T-shirt and magnet set ($25 value): Sport a stylish black t-shirt with a colorful mosaic iPhone design!
16. 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!