When Apple introduced the App Store on July 10, 2008 with 500 apps, it kicked off a new chapter in the creative space, engaging developers. It immediately became a social and economic phenomenon that changed how people work, play, meet and travel. Every year, Apple celebrates some of the apps that inspire developers to mull over fresh ideas. The Cupertino-HQed tech giant has revealed the 2024 App Store Awards winners, celebrating 17 apps and games that helped users achieve new milestones and cherish everyday moments with family and friends.
From solo entrepreneurs to multinational teams, these App Store Award winners were chosen from 45 finalists by App Store editors for demonstrating the highest levels of user experience, design, and innovation.
“The remarkable achievements of this year’s winners demonstrate the incredible ingenuity that can be unlocked through apps,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
t2 spoke to three winners whose lives have changed thanks to their apps.
The Wreck: Finding meaning in life
Loss is a part of life but can you bring meaning to life? Call it a game or a visual novel in the form of a game, The Wreck from The Pixel Hunt depicts the mind’s inner struggles when facing crises.
One of the Cultural Impact Winners of the 2024 App Store Award, The Wreck is a mature 3D visual novel/narrative adventure game about sisterhood, motherhood, grief and survival.
In it, you’ll follow Junon as she attempts to make it through the most pivotal day in her life. “Sisterhood, motherhood, grief and survival are topics typically not talked about in video games. We do because we pride ourselves in doing what we call reality-inspired cases,” Florent Maurin, founder of The Pixel Hunt, tells us over a video call.
The former journalist keeps it as real as possible in the game. “The young girl is having the worst day of her life. She has been called by the hospital because her mother is in critical condition. She goes to the hospital at the beginning of the game,” says Maurin.
She faces the doctor who tells her that she has to decide what to do with her mother. There is too much pressure on her shoulders, so she decides to leave and what happens when she leaves the hospital? She gets into a car accident. Surprisingly, everything turns into slow motion and items start flying around in the car and those items become doors to memories. By looking at the objects you will enter those memories, looking for clues to better understand Junon’s past. The idea is to help her move forward by understanding her life.”
As a player, you can dig deep into her thoughts to unlock new narrative possibilities. The memories you “enter” are important. These define Junon’s life. Each time you understand something new, you access new narrative paths and “say things to people who are important. As you move forward, you will hopefully help Junon become a stronger person”.
“It may sound a little depressing but it’s not the case. What we wanted to do was talk about difficult topics in a very hopeful way. All the stories at Pixel Hunt try to find stories anchored in the real world and that’s the case here,” says Alexandre Grilletta, also of The Pixel Hunt.
The inception of the game was a real-life car accident involving Florent and his daughter. “I was coming back from daycare with my daughter in the back of the car. I took a turn and suddenly I was facing an accident and I couldn’t avoid it. We crashed. Suddenly I leaped through something that I thought was only possible in movies. I saw things move in slow motion. It seemed to me that it took a long time to happen and memories filled my mind. I saw my life flash before my eyes as they show in movies. Your brain parses through memories to find something urgent. It’s a weird feeling. The first thing I did was see if everybody was okay. Thankfully, nobody was hurt,” says Maurin.
The Wreck is also a short game. You can see it to the end in a few hours. It’s designed to be playable by anybody and more specifically by those who are not typically video game players. “We aim to appeal to people who don’t play games regularly. Perhaps they indirectly find things here that they don’t find in other video games,” says Florent. The game will make you think of your life, your relationships and how you interact with loved ones. “It’s some kind of a transformative experience. That’s the catharsis. You start thinking about your life.”
“Also, it’s not a game that’s going to put you down. I tried to put in a lot of colours. There is humour. The idea is to make something mature. When you read a book or see a movie, you expect something mature. That has not always been the case in video games,” says Alexandre.
In action: DailyArt on the iPhone and Lumy on Apple Watch Mathures Paul
Lumy: Sun, moon and stars in your life
Perhaps one of the best-kept secrets many “know about” is Lumy. The app is used around the world and behind it is our very own Indian developer, Raja V.
He is a mechanical engineer by degree but everything changed when he got his first iPhone.
“Like many others, I fell in love with its simplicity. The apps I discovered on the App Store were different from what I saw earlier. They were beautifully crafted. I could literally see them change my day-to-day activities. When I looked up how these apps are made, I came to know about these independent developers around the world, making these apps through the Apple Developer programme. Anybody could join the programme and then start distributing apps to 100-plus countries. There are no pre-requirements. You don’t need to have a college degree, no prior experience… nothing,” says Raja, who is clearly in love with coding and what’s possible through the App Store.
Lumy on Apple Watch helps users embrace the patterns of the sun and find the magic in each day. It is also the Apple Watch App of the Year. “I taught myself to code and since then I have been making apps for Apple platforms.”
Helping him is his wife, who is a photographer and a “creative partner”. “We create apps for ourselves. Once we are satisfied, we put them on the App Store, hoping to connect with people who share our design aesthetics and find value in what we create,” says the young developer.
Lumy was born out of their personal needs when the couple were exploring photography. It started with the simple act of finding the golden hour. Then came feedback and suggestions until it developed into a feature-rich app.
“Today, people around the world use it to track sunlight for their daily routines, wellness practices and creative projects. The app offers a variety of complications in various sizes, allowing users to add them to any workspace. The idea is to provide the needed information without having to check the iPhone all the time. That’s why these complications are presented to be highly customisable. Users can design their own experience to fit their specific needs and users can create several watch spaces to help them with their daily routines.”
App Store Award winners were chosen from 45 finalists by App Store Editors. Mathures Paul
Of course, the app can be helpful to photographers, offering a countdown to the golden hour when pictures become memorable.
“Lumy is not just about sun tracking; it also has moon information. All the experiences are personalised. A person who meditates at sunrise can pin the moment or a hiker who wants to finish his journey can pin the moment of ‘last’ light.”
The interface draws inspiration from nature. “It changes with the time of day to create an experience that syncs with the real world. It also integrates with Apple Weather to plan outdoor activities.” If a user wants to venture out to take a photograph of the sunset, they can quickly check the cloud cover.
This year the app added a number of features, like Smart Stack support, double tap and so on. Each year, the developer works on new features to keep the app relevant.
“Lumy has paid users in over 100 countries and it’s heartening to see the value in what we have created, whether it’s photographers in Japan or runners in Germany. They trust Lumy to deliver.”
Raja V is an example of what’s possible when a person has an iPhone, a MacBook and, of course, good ideas. “I am grateful to the App Store and what it has helped me achieve.”
The developer also has other apps, like Calzy and Currenzy. Calzy won Apple Design Awards in 2018 while Currenzy is a beautiful currency converter app.
“I came into this because I love Apple’s design philosophy. Each year these guys present a lot of new technologies, giving me scope to improve. It has opened a world of opportunities…. I want to bring sun tracking to VisionOS and Apple Vision Pro. That’s my plan.”
DailyArt: Art of the matter
Zuzanna Stanska is the woman behind the DailyArt app and she believes art can make us better people in a world that is experiencing moments of extreme tension in which fear and anger are high and false narratives have taken over the collective consciousness, culture and the arts have an instrumental role in changing those narratives.
What the app does is simple: Every day you stumble upon a piece of fine art with a short story about it.
To her, the self-portrait of Marie-Gabrielle Capet is important. Her name appeared as one of the 21 women who displayed works in the Salon of 1791, soon after the French Revolution. In a self-portrait, Capet is shown holding drawing chalk clasped in a holder as she faces the easel. This was the time when the art world felt a momentum.
“Despite all the success, when she died, her name slipped into obscurity for many years. Looking at the painting, you can see a story,” says Zuzanna.
DailyArt is one of the Cultural Impact Winners. By connecting users to exceptional artwork across centuries and movements, the app fuels intellectual curiosity.
She created the app some years ago and now there are 800,000 unique monthly users. The app can be accessed in several languages. What is interesting is that her team comprises art historians.
“If you travel and like to have that additional art history layer while sightseeing, you can do just that.” For example, if you are in Amsterdam, you can see what’s hanging in Rijksmuseum.
The winning apps and games of the 2024 App Store Awards highlight the endless opportunities across the App Store and the Apple ecosystem The Telegraph
“We know there are parents who read DailyArt to children during breakfast. We know of couples who are discussing masterpieces after seeing it on the app.”
Zuzanna is a historian and 12 years ago she realised that art is not being taught enough at schools. Museums and galleries can be boring for some people, so she set out to make art more accessible. “There is interest in art. People are waiting hours to see the Mona Lisa.”
So what is the importance of art history at a time when AI-generated art is taking over? “In our busy and disturbing times, art remains important. It can help calm down people and make everyone realise talent is everywhere. It makes us realise how important culture is.”
What we want to see more on the app are chapters dedicated to Indian art, be it Jamini Roy or M.F. Husain.
