Call for Applicants – Readers’ App Awards 2013!

Get ready for our Reader’s Apps Awards for 2013!

Get ready for our Reader’s Apps Awards for 2013!

The end of the year draws near, and around here that means hot cocoa. But not the delicious chocolate stuff – I mean the code you’ve been learning all year!

Instead of my normal reviews, December is a time for us to look back on ALL the apps you’ve made this year and highlight the really special ones.

Just like last year, I won’t be alone in this mission. We’ll be recruiting some judges to help us out:

• Site administrator Ray Wenderlich
• Tutorial Team member Tammy Coron
• Forum SME Bear Cahill
• Translator Przemysław Rembelski
• Employee #1 Brian Moakley
• Editor Chris LaPollo
• Special guest Dustin Bruzenak (co-founder of IdeaSwarm, which makes our favorite iOS analytics tool: AppViz)
• and myself, Ryan Poolos

Ray

Tammy

Bear

Przemek

Brian

Chris

Dustin

Ryan

Ray

Tammy

Bear

Przemek

Brian

Chris

Dustin

Ryan

Ray

Tammy

Bear

Przemek

Brian

Chris

Dustin

Ryan

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 2013), obviously.

Each app is eligible for every category but can only win one category. I’ll be selecting the 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 $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. 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!

Honorable Mentions

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

• raywenderlich.com T-shirt: $25 value
• 1 free PDF book or starter kit from raywenderlih.com of your choice

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, I remember all! ;]
• If you haven’t submitted your app yet this year: You can do so right here!

Note to be considered for this year’s Readers Apps Awards, you must submit your app before next Friday, December 6th. If you don’t make it, I’ll be here all year. ;]

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