Call for Applicants – Reader’s Apps Awards 2012!

This is a post by Reader’s Apps Reviewer Ryan Poolos, an iOS Developer and founder of Frozen Fire Studios. Check out his latest game, Cyborg Livestock.

I have some exciting news – we’re doing something really special for our Reader’s Apps this December.

Instead of my normal review column, we’re going to be giving away some awards for the best reader’s apps released throughout the whole year!

And this time it won’t just be me looking at your apps. We will have a panel of judges to help me out:

• Site administrator Ray Wenderlich
• Tutorial Team member Andy Pereira
• Forum moderator Brandon Lassiter
• Special guest Dustin Bruzenak (co-founder of IdeaSwarm, which makes our favorite iOS analytics tool: AppViz 2)
• and myself, Ryan Poolos

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Keep reading to learn about the categories, prizes, and how to enter!

The Categories

To be eligible to win, you must be an active reader of this site and the tutorials or books must have helped you in some way to develop your app. Priority is given to active forum members and others we can verify are actual readers of this site.

Also, your app must have come out this year (in 2012), obviously.

Each app is eligible for each category but can only win one category. I’ll be selecting finalists for each category from ALL the submissions and then the judges will select the winners. :]

Grand Prize

• Best Reader’s Game: Best game overall in terms of game play, polish, and graphics. Bonus points for GameCenter, Universal Binary, etc.
• Best Reader’s App: Best app overall in terms of usefulness, polish, and interface. Bonus points for Universal Binary, iCloud, platform advantage (taking advantage of iOS specific features), etc.

Honorable Mentions

• Most Addicting: The App/Game that you can’t stop playing with.
• Most Hilarious Idea: Its got that LoL factor :]
• Most Surprisingly Good: The App/Game you didn’t think would be as good as it is at first glance.
• Most Technically Impressive: The App/Game with particularly cool/impressive tech.
• Most Visually Impressive: The App/Game that just looks really good!

The Prizes

Thanks to our amazing sponsors, we have a huge list of prizes to give away for you guys!

Grand Prize Pack

The “Best Reader’s App” and “Best Reader’s Game” grand prize winners will win a massive prize pack with over $450 in value – plus 4 priceless prizes that you can’t get anywhere else!

Tools

1. AppViz 2 ($49 value): The best tool for monitoring your iOS and Mac App Store sales.
2. TexturePacker ($29 value): The sprite sheet creator that turns chaos into order!
3. PhysicsEditor ($19 value): Edit your physics shapes with ease!
4. ParticleDesigner ($8 value): Create amazing particle systems for your games with a visual editor!
5. GlyphDesigner ($30 value): Design beautiful fonts for your iOS games!
6. SpriteHelper ($25 value): An easy to use sprite packer, with physics shape tracing support!
7. LevelHelper ($50 value): Design levels for your game with a visual editor!
8. CodeHelper ($25 value): Brand new product by makers of SpriteHelper and LevelHelper, soon to be released! A professional IDE for Cocos2d-Html5, Corona SDK and Gideros Mobile!

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 ($44 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 ($54 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!

Starter Kits

12. Space Game Starter Kit ($77 value): Learn how to make a full side-scrolling space game with Cocos2D!
13. Pre-release copy of Jake Gundersen’s upcoming Platformer Game Starter Kit (Priceless!): Get an early copy of Jake’s new starter kit on how to make a side-scrolling platformer game (like Mario)! Check out a sneak peek in this tutorial.
14. Pre-release copy of Allen Tan’s upcoming Beat ‘Em Up Game Starter Kit (Priceless!): Get an early copy of Allen’s new starter kit on how to make a beat ’em up game (like Double Dragon)! Check out a sneak peek peek in this tutorial.

Swag

15. raywenderlich.com T-shirt ($25 value): Sport a stylish black t-shirt with a colorful mosaic iPhone design!
16. 2012 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!

Grand Prize Bonus

17. The Tutorial Team will write a tutorial on a topic of your choice (Priceless!): That’s right, we’ll write a tutorial on whatever you want! (As long as it’s approved by Ray, of course!) :]

Honorable Mentions

And for honorable mentions, you get some epic loot too!

• raywenderlich.com T-shirt: $25 value
• 1 item of your choice from the above list (except for priceless items, those are grand prize only!) :]

How to Enter

Pretty cool prizes, eh?! :] If you want a chance at winning, here’s what you should do:

• Eligibility requirements: Again, to be eligible to win, you must be an active reader of this site and the tutorials or books must have helped you in some way to develop your app. Priority is given to active forum members and others we can verify are actual readers of this site.
• If you’ve ever submitted your app for review on the site in the past: You’re already in the running, you don’t need to do anything! :]
• If you haven’t submitted your app yet: You can do so right here!

Note to be considered for this year’s Readers Apps Awards, you must submit your app by next Friday, November 23. If you don’t make it by then – well there’s always next year! :]

Best of luck to all entrants, and stay tuned for the rewards announcements, which will be out mid-December! :]

This is a post by Reader’s Apps Reviewer Ryan Poolos, an iOS Developer and founder of Frozen Fire Studios. Check out his latest game, Cyborg Livestock.