Readers’ App Reviews – June 2012
This is a post by Reader’s Apps Reviewer Ryan Poolos, an iOS Developer and founder of Frozen Fire Studios. Checkout his latest game, Cyborg Livestock. Checkout his latest website, iHelp. Guess what – it’s time to check out another great batch of games and apps from fellow readers! I enjoyed playing with every single one […] By Ryan Poolos.
Egg Hunter
Mr. Puff needs your help dealing with a bunch of eggheads.
Some eggs are good, others are rotten. Catch the good ones before they fall and break, let the evil ones plummet to their demise.
I absolutely love the graphics in this app. The style is unique, the eggs are hilarious, and the cat may be the cutest I’ve ever seen.
- Author: Dmitry Los
- Most useful tutorial: How To Create Dynamic Textures with CCRenderTexture
- App Store Link: Check it out!
KHET 2X
This awesome strategy game combines lasers with a chess like board game. Each players turn ends with a powerful laser bouncing around the board until it hits the back of a piece and destorys it.
Plan out your moves carefully so your opponent can’t use your pieces against you. Excellent AI engine, competitive online game play, and lots of combinations of difficulty and board patterns all come together to make a solid game.
- Author: Sreeprakash N @schogini
- Most useful tutorial: Apple Push Notification Services Tutorial: Part 1/2
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Last Time
This app has earned a permanent place on my iPhone because its incredibly simple, yet powerful.
Just fire up the app and log the last time you did something infrequent, like floss your teeth ;p. It will keep a history of that event. It will even do some quick math and estimate the events next instance based off your prior history. Best of all you have full control over the lists and events.
If you’re always forgetting the last time you got your oil changed or washed your sheets, you need this app.
- Author: James Moore @foozmeat
- Most useful tutorial: Core Data on iOS 5 Tutorial: How to use NSFetchedResultsController
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Scared!
Scared is a very cool app about a brave little boy named Thijn.
Thijn was afraid. Afraid of burglars, dragons, ghosts, and aliens. But Thijn conquered his fears by drawing them. This app turns his drawings into an interactive story book so other children can learn not to be scared too.
- Author: Gijs Bannenberg @Acronical
- Most useful tutorial: How to use UIView Animation Tutorial
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Shaman Doctor
Not all healthcare comes from know-it-all doctors, sometimes you need your Shaman Doctor!
Like whack-a-mole except you’re whacking evil viruses attacking your tribesmen. Viruses are color coded so you’ve got to make sure you tap the right ones. There are powerups along the way.
I hear 10,000 hours of something makes you an expert. So start practicing now and soon you’ll be the best shaman on the planet! You hear that mom?
- Author: Matias Pan @ntmonkeys
- Most useful tutorial: How To Create a HUD Layer with Cocos2D
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Singing Star
Singing Star is a unique game with mechanics crafted perfectly for iPads and iPhones.
Using simple drag based controls you have to launch stars at gliding planets. But you have to match your stars color to that of the planet in by carefully releasing your star in from the right direction. Its like simon in space meets multitouch.
With gorgeous graphics at your finger tips and addicting game play you’re not likely to put this one down anytime soon.
- Author: Scott Garner @scottgarner
- Most useful tutorial: How To Make a Space Shooter iPhone Game
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Shaderific
If you’re learning to write your own OpenGL vertex and fragment shaders this is a must have tool.
This OpenGL based app will allows you to write shaders on your iPad and see them in action instantly. It even comes with a ton of prewritten shaders to learn from and preloaded 3D objects to try them out on.
Swap out your textures, change up your surface material, take full control of your lighting, tweak your rendering, and more. This powerful app is a great addition to any OpenGL programmers tool chest.
- Author: Gotz Robner
- Most useful tutorial: Beginning OpenGL ES 2.0 with GLKit Part 1
- App Store Link: Check it out!
Honorable Mentions
Here are the apps that didn’t get reviewed. Remember it wasn’t a popularity contest or even a rating contest. Forum members got priority among other factors. Your apps were great and I’m sorry we didn’t have time to review them all!
DreamZ – Lucid dreams simplified
A Jazzy Day – Music Education Book for Kids
Where To Go From Here?
That’s it for June! Looking forward to the apps you make next month! Since we’re getting so many responses to better your odds, please make sure you include all the requested information the first time around.
If you are a reader of this site and would like to be considered for this column, click here!
I hope you enjoyed this column, and I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with this month! :]
This is a post by Reader’s Apps Reviewer Ryan Poolos, an iOS Developer and founder of Frozen Fire Studios. Checkout his latest game, Cyborg Livestock. Checkout his latest website, iHelp.