Apple has recognised 16 apps and games from across the globe as part of the 2022 App Store Awards Winners, including the Australian-made game Wylde Flowers.
Five apps and six games made this year’s list of winners, in addition to five Cultural Impact award recipients. Alongside the local hit, others to receive awards included the photo-sharing app BeReal, popular Battle Royale game Apex Legends Mobile, and the vibrant hydration tracker Waterllama. Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned that the class of 2022 represents a diverse range of creators and experiences.
“This year’s App Store Award winners reimagined our experiences with apps that delivered fresh, thoughtful, and genuine perspectives,” Cook said. “From self-taught solo creators to international teams spanning the globe, these entrepreneurs are making a meaningful impact, and represent the ways in which apps and games influence our communities and lives.”
2022 App Store Awards Winners: Apps
iPhone App of the Year: BeReal (BeReal)
BeReal took the world by storm, offering an authentic photo-sharing alternative to Instagram. Unobstructed by social media algorithms or pivots to video, BeReal encourages users to share whatever they’re doing at set intervals each day. Other apps have since emulated some of its major features, such as the timed notification to take photos, and using both the front and rear-facing cameras simultaneously.
iPad App of the Year: GoodNotes 5 (Time Base Technology Limited.)
GoodNotes 5 is a notetaking and PDF markup app made for easy access between Apple devices. You can search your notes, whether they be handwritten, typed, or embedded within PDFs, and back up to various cloud services. Also, unlike many other apps, it offers a once-off full version unlock purchase, instead of an ongoing subscription.
Mac App of the Year: MacFamilyTree 10 (Synium Software GmbH.)
For the family historians, MacFamily Tree 10 has plenty of features to display your family tree. It has 3D views, various publishing options, plus secure local and cloud backups. You can even colourise and enhance old family photos using the app.
Apple TV App of the Year: ViX (TelevisaUnivision Interactive, Inc.)
Taking out the Apple TV category, ViX is a Spanish-speaking streaming service. However, it’s not currently available in Australia.
Apple Watch App of the Year: Gentler Streak (Gentler Stories LLC.)
A workout tracker with a twist: Gentler Streak takes an overall wellbeing approach to your health, as opposed to optimising every inch of each waking moment. It uses data to encourage you to rest when needed. It also works seamlessly with Apple Health, ensuring everything stays with your device.
2022 App Store Awards Winners: Games
iPhone Game of the Year: Apex Legends Mobile (Electronic Arts)
Already a popular PC and console game, Apex Legends Mobile brings the fast-moving Battle Royale game to mobile devices. Its diverse cast of characters who wield unique abilities is one of the main drawcards, alongside an overall fun gameplay experience.
iPad Game of the Year: Moncage (X.D. Network Inc.)
A unique puzzle game where you explore cleverly designed dioramas, Moncage is well suited to the larger display of an iPad. It plays with perspective and vignettes to reveal story snippets along the way.
Mac Game of the Year: Inscryption (Devolver)
Inscryption, one of the 2021’s best games, made its way onto Mac this year. The less you know about this unsettling, mind-bending genre mashup before playing, the better.
Apple TV Game of the Year: El Hijo (HandyGames)
A non-violent stealth game played from the perspective of a playful child, El Hijo is a spaghetti western-inspired experience about a boy finding his bravery in the face of danger.
Apple Arcade Game of the Year: Wylde Flowers (Studio Drydock Pty Ltd.)
Available on the Apple Arcade games subscription service, Wylde Flowers is a story-driven take on the farming life simulator genre. As Tara, you befriend the diverse residents of a rural island, many of whom have secrets they’re hiding. There’s magic, animals, and an excellent voice cast that truly brings the game to life.
Made by Studio Drydock, based in Melbourne but with a team of international collaborators, Wylde Flowers won an Apple Design Award earlier in the year for Inclusivity. It’s a gorgeous game filled with wonderful messages to impart based on real-life experiences.
More content is coming soon to Wylde Flowers as well, so we have more witchy farming goodness to look forward to.
China Game of the Year: League of Legends Esports Manager (Shenzhen Tencent Tianyou Technology Ltd.)
Esports, particularly League of Legends, is massive among Asian countries, so it comes as little surprise to see a game about managing an esports team popular with Chinese audiences. It’s not available here in Australia yet, but we do have a burgeoning esports scene that would no doubt enjoy a themed management sim.
2022 App Store Awards Winners: Cultural Impact
Selected by the App Store editors, the Cultural Impact awards celebrate those who made lasting impacts on people’s lives and influenced culture. Here are the Cultural Impact winners, a description of each, along with more details about a couple of apps that caught our eye.
How We Feel from (How We Feel Project, Inc.)
By prompting users to tap into their emotional wellbeing with the ease of daily check-ins, How We Feel helps users put difficult emotions into words and presents strategies to address these emotions in the moment.
Dot’s Home (Rise-Home Stories Project)
Dot’s Home spotlights systemic housing injustices and the subsequent impact within communities of colour through a compelling and thoughtful time-travelling tale. It’s a single-player narrative game following the experience of a young black woman who faces issues of race, place, and home.
Headed up by a couple of US-based filmmakers making their first game, Dot’s Home resonated with a global audience, including many people of colour who have faced similar inequalities. Plenty of diverse voices brought the game to life, from multimedia storytellers to housing and land justice advocates, delivering a poignant message.
Locket Widget (Locket Labs, Inc.)
Allowing users to send live photos right to family and friends’ Home Screen, Locket Widget drives intimate connection between loved ones, free from traditional social media pressures.
Waterllama from (Vitalii Mogylevets)
With its colourful design and gentle guidance, Waterllama makes meeting hydration goals fun, using creative challenges, reminders, and cuddly characters to keep users on track.
Designer Vitalii Mogylevets started Waterllama as a project to address his own issue of not drinking enough water. Now, it’s a vibrant reminder system backed by research to help you stay hydrated. With iOS widget and Apple Watch functionality, the app also cleverly allocates different levels of hydration depending on what you consume. If you drink beer, for example, you’ll be less hydrated than before, and need to drink more water to compensate!
Waterllama also offers premium customisation options for a one-off purchase, which is a wallet-friendly monetisation model for those of us who need help with hydrating.
Inua – A Story in Ice and Time (ARTE Experience)
Inua – A Story in Ice and Time provides an engaging, mystical adventure for users to explore historical events that weave in elements of Inuit traditions, folklore and breathtaking tales.
