Apple announced the winners of the Design and Innovation Award for 2024: an Israeli game among the outstanding
Lost in Play by Happy Juice Games wins the innovation category alongside top apps from around the world
There is no other technology company that invests in design, interfaces and aesthetics like Apple. This policy, which began in the days of Steve Jobs and Sir Jony Ive, continues today and is evident in all aspects of the company’s activity – from the design of the products and packaging to the interfaces.
As every year, shortly before its developer conference WWDC, Apple announces the winning applications of its design and innovation award. The awards are given in various categories, such as enjoyment, diversity and inclusion, innovation, interaction, social impact, design and graphics, as well as in a new category of peripheral computing, which includes AR/VR/MR. The common denominator of the 14 apps and games for Mac and iOS that won the award is an emphasis on aesthetics and interface.
This year, among the winners is also an Israeli representative: Lost in Play, a classic and beautiful Point & Click game by the Israeli company Happy Juice Games, founded by Yuval Markovich, Oron Rubin and Alon Simon. In the game, the players accompany the brothers Toto and Gal in an imaginary world, as they try to return home using a magical map. Along the way they meet imaginary creatures such as a giant stork, goblins, a flying grandfather and giants. The animation in the game is reminiscent of classic animated series such as Gravity Falls.
In an interview with Haaretz, the creators said that the gameplay of Lost in Play drew inspiration from old quests such as “Monkey Island” and “Day of the Tentacle” by Lucas Arts, as well as newer games such as “Samorost” by Amanita and “What Remains of Edith Finch” . In the explanation for the selection, Apple noted the game’s hand-crafted animation and the fact that it is full of charming characters and fun mini-games, and emphasized that the gameplay ignites a “childhood-like sense of discovery.”
In addition to Lost in Play, other apps such as the Australian diary app Bears Gratitude, the New York Times mind game app, the Crayola coloring app, the animation creation tool Procreate Dreams, the Crouton recipe app, the French game The Wreck, the app- Game-enter Rooms, and in the peripheral computing category: the DJing application djay pro – DJ App & AI Mixer and the drawing application Blackbox. For more information about the winners, you can go to the Apple website.