Old Man's Journey, Severed among Apple Design Award 2017 winners

Apple has named the latest winners in its annual Design Awards, which recognise "outstanding design and innovation" in apps and games released for iOS.

The winners were announced during Apple's latest Worldwide Developers Conference, and encompass all types of software release on the App Store. Five of this year's 12 winners were video games.

The triumphant titles included: Blackbox, by Ryan McLeod; Splitter Critters, by Rac7 Games; Mushroom 11, by Untame; Old Man's Journey, by Broken Rules; and Severed, by Drinkbox Studios.

Here's what Apple had to say about each of the winners

Blackbox
"Blackbox is a refreshingly stimulating, engrossing, and clever puzzle game that breaks through the "fourth wall" of iPhone to take you beyond the screen and make your world a part of each solution. Designed and developed by one person, Blackbox was chosen as an Apple Design Award winner for being fully accessible, and offering unique and ingenious gameplay, deep iOS integration, and clever innovations."

Splitter Critters
"Selected as an Apple Design Award winner for it's touch-centric gameplay, absorbing sound design, and minimalistic paper-craft aesthetic, Splitter Critters uses a clever tearing effect and scene re-arrangement technique to help players solve puzzles in new ways."

Mushroom 11
"Selected as an Apple Design Award winner for its intriguing alien landscapes, rich hand-painted levels, and incredibly unique, tactile, and immersive gameplay on iPhone and iPad. Details matter in great games, and Mushroom 11 delivers by providing a clever helper that appears when needed, an original sound score, interesting posters to investigate, and a left-handed mode which mirrors the game and provides an optimal experience for everyone."

Old Man's Journey
"Old Man's Journey is a captivating puzzle adventure about life, loss, and hope. We picked this game as an Apple Design Award winner because of its immersive and meaningful game play, beautiful, hand-drawn art style, and whimsical, exceptionally crafted landscapes. Old Man's Journey conveys universal truths that transcend cultures and the many stages of life, and delivers an experience focused on originality, simplicity, refined game mechanics, and rich interactivity."

Severed
"Severed is a challenging touch and swipe-based adventure with deep, detailed, and psychedelic gameplay that masterfully melds macabre themes with vibrant color. [It's] a unique and memorable game with original style, finely-honed game play, an award-winning soundtrack, and numerous optimizations for iOS. We were impressed by Severed's sword-swinging mechanic that's both intuitive and effective, the thoughtful approach taken for touchscreen-only controls, and the Metal optimizations used to create its high fidelity graphics and effects."

You can find out more about this year's winners at Apple's website.