iFanzine Presents: The 2011 iOS Developer Achievements

Achievement for Outstanding Visual Presentation
Co-Winner: Madfinger Games
, for Shadowgun
Related Article: iFanzine Review

The old adage goes, “graphics aren’t everything.” But hey, let’s face it: being drop-dead gorgeous doesn’t hurt either. We’re not sure how Brno-based developer Madfinger Games feel about their game constantly being judged on looks alone – it is a must-have just about any way you slice it – but Shadowgun takes the cake as the game that made us think to ourselves, Wait. This is an iPhone I’m holding in my hands and not a PlayStation 3. This shouldn’t be possible. It’s games like Shadowgun that remind us just how eclectic a platform iOS is: one day we’ll be reviewing something that would have fit right in with the Atari 2600 library, and the next we’ll be playing something that’s this cutting-edge. If you’re a Shadowgun fan already, don’t forget to update with the latest content expansion!

Co-Winners: IronMonkey Studios and E.A., for Dead Space
Related Article: iFanzine Review

Before Shadowgun came along, this iOS-exclusive installment of E.A.’s Dead Space franchise reigned supreme as the most visually stunning game we had seen on an iDevice up to that point. It’s no wonder iFanzine Editor Ruan Shiels noted that Dead Space “…nails that almost unbearable, cloying sense of dread that is too often lacking from horror games,” what with the crafty dynamic panning that happens every time the player has a close encounter of the life-threatening kind. Not to mention, building part of the HUD right into the character model is an incredibly slick move on a platform where touchscreen real estate is so critical.

Runner-Up: Image & Form, for Anthill
Related Article: iFanzine Review, Developer Interview

“Lush” must be a horribly overused term to describe game visuals by now, but we really mean it when we describe the utterly lush units and environments of Anthill, Image & Form’s sophomore iOS effort! The crisp and ultra-colorful graphics in this Real-Time Strategy game are really impressive when you consider the fact that the whole package weighs in at just 17.1 MB. Think about this for a second: many a retro game with noticeably tiled graphics occupies more space than that. Like army ants carrying way more than their own weight, Image & Form’s artists and technicians figured out how to maximize storage efficiency for high-res 2D graphics. Having a robust but non-intrusive user interface on top of that certainly didn’t bother fans if our experience was any indication.

Runner-Up: The Game Bakers, for Squids
Related Articles: iFanzine Review, Developer Interview

Whether it be the vibrantly animated and personality-packed sprites, the uncannily humanized mollusks in its character art, or the hewn stone of its wide-open arenas, Squids bears an organic charm that sets it well apart from other 2D titles on iOS. Check out the developers’ blog post detailing the game’s visual evolution — you’ll be amazed how it started compared to the level of sparkle it released with!