Best of Apple App Store 2022: Winners share their success stories

Recently, Apple announced the top apps and games of 2022 on Apple App Store. Also, it

DH had the opportunity to interact with three of the top iOS app developer winners -- Drydock Studios (Wylde Flowers), X.D. Network Inc. (Moncage) and GoodNotes (GoodNotes 5).

Wylde Flowers
Wylde Flowers was the most popular game on Apple-exclusive Arcade gaming subscription. It has quite a good story origin. Amanda Schofield, co-founder of Drydock Studios, which started the project in 2019, wanted to develop a game that when people play, they should feel happy and relate to the game's characters in a meaningful way.

Also, more importantly, Schofield and the team were able to come up with a good story and even better visual playing experience. The protagonist Tara and other members of the Wylde Flowers, are representations of marginalised people.

Within a short span of launching in February 2022, Wylde Flowers managed to win the top honours this year.

The game revolves around Tara, who moves to a small hamlet to help grandma and the family farm.

As they continue to play, gamers will be introduced to a cast of fully voiced characters with intriguing backstories — find friendship or even romance.

Wylde Flowers game for iPhones. Credit: Special Arrangement

The characters and players have to get accustomed to an active farming lifestyle as they tend crops, care for animals, fish, craft, and more throughout the day.

However, there is a twist in Wylde Flowers. Besides doing the village chores during the day, the player can nurture their interest in witchcraft as they learn to fly their broomstick, brew potions, control the weather and seasons or even transform into a cat.

Yes, there are many farm-related games in the industry, but what makes Wylde Flowers special is that all the characters are voice-acted from beginning to end, and is almost 18 hours of voice-over. And, the characters are well-represented across all types including age, body type, sexual orientation, gender, race, and religion. This is probably why Wylde Flowers was received very well by gamers across Apple iPhones, iPad, and Mac devices.

Moncage
Developed by X.D. Network Inc., Moncage is a fascinating optical illusion puzzle game.

The game is very unique and inquisitive. It has a cubicle that offers multi-view points of objects such as an old factory, a light tower, an amusement park, a church, and more. It makes us use our brains efficiently and make us think. The game takes place inside a mysterious cube, with each side of the cube housing a unique world: be it. At first sight, they may seem random and unrelated, but upon closer look, you will surely be enthralled by the subtle and intricate ways in which these worlds connect.

Co-developed by Dong Zhou and Yijia Chen, Moncage is their first-ever project, and yet, it has garnered huge interest among gamers.

Moncage app for iPad. Credit: Special Arrangement

"We wanted to demonstrate a gameplay that is completely built up on the visuals. We wished to bring a new and a different perspective of looking the world around," they said.

"The Cube is a cage of their (players') minds, the simulation endless gameplay is parallel to the endless suffering of the veterans (army). The ultimate goal of the game is to break out and find redemption. Also, we wish to bring people's attention to PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) among veterans" they noted.

Moncage co-developers did add that feedback from Apple developers helped them refine the user interface and we can see the effect it has in terms of visually pleasing gameplay.

GoodNotes 5
Like the other two winning teams, GoodNotes-maker Time Base Technology Limited, founded by Steven Chan too, credits Apple for the tremendous success and improvements in the app over the last four iterations of the app.

Chan actually said that the idea for the app came after the launch of the first generation iPad in 2010 when he just entered the final year of his college. Chan found the iPad's notebook size perfect to take notes and read. He found writing notes and keeping a track of papers tedious.

With so many papers lying around, there was a chance of them getting misplaced and even if it is found, it is hard to put them back in order.

So, he decided to develop an app and missed several lectures to perfect it. But, over time, he managed to balance the time and finished it alone in 2011.

Things got better with the introduction of the Apple Pencil stylus in 2015, which offered a better real-world experience of writing on a notebook and accordingly made changes to the new iteration of the GoodNotes app.

GoodNotes 5 app. Credit: Special Arrangement

Over the last three years, the app's user base has increased by 10X and now, Good Notes 5 has more than 50 lakh monthly active users. And, on average, their users spend close to 109 minutes per day.

And this year alone, people created more than 1.6 billion notes on GoodNotes 5 app.

Its handwriting recognition algorithm is capable of reading most normal handwriting and this is very important for people to come back and read their notes.

In the coming months, the company plans to bring more value-added features including Full Page Typing, Audio Recording, and Integrate Study Sets that allows user to drag and drop handwritten notes, images, and diagrams into flash card format, which offers a visually pleasing reading experience.

GoodNotes team has plans to bring the transcription feature, but it will take some time, Chan said to DH.

Must read | Best of 2022: Top-rated apps and games on Apple App Store

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