Your Design Guide to Some of the Most Popular Gaming Apps for iPhone

Mobile apps featuring games have claimed a firm spot in app stores and amongst mobile gaming enthusiasts. With HD pretty much a given and new generation smart phones boasting longer battery life than ever, the way to stick out and make your mark on the scene then is really good design!

The three keywords when it comes to designing applications for iPhone are simplicity, usability and colour. Get all three right and you have got yourself a winner. Get them wrong and your users will struggle to find the funny. We have looked at some popular mobile gaming apps and checked how many of the three boxes they tick. Read our analysis below and see if you agree.

3D Roulette

Making a roulette app look attractive on a small mobile screen is not easy to begin with and a 3D version can easily fall victim to visual overload. The designers at 3D Roulette, however, have managed to find the perfect balance for their iPad app. Easily discernible American, European and French wheels spin smoothly without too much fuss and the table looks clean and authentic. Unfortunately, the look is not quite as real on the smaller iPhone screen but it still gets 4 out of 5 design points. 4/5

Card Shark

One man’s pleasing colour scheme is another man’s nightmare. So to make sure they please everybody, the guys responsible for the Card Shark Collection allow you to choose your own background. In terms of simplicity and usability the app leaves nothing much to be desired, so as much as we managed to make each other’s toenails curl with some of the background graphics on offer, since the choice is completely up to you, we have to give full marks here. 5/5

My Craps Game 2012

If usability and colour are the most important of the two design pillars to you, regardless of what game you are playing, you are going to like this one! The colour scheme takes you straight to a Vegas craps table and the navigation is intuitive and easy. Due to the nature of the game though, simplicity takes a bit of a back seat for the untrained player. Craps enthusiasts will appreciate the depth of detail, for newbies it will take some getting used to. 4/5

Slot Life

Available fully localised in no less than 15 languages, Slot Life is prepared to conquer the world, and so it should, because it’s awesome! There is a lot of information on the screen (showing you how to win bigger with multipliers and details on win lines), but the design is intuitive and clean. You always just know where to click. The colours are never too bold, but used cleverly to highlight screen areas. The rolling of the reels puts you in the proper mood and when you go to the shop to swap your accumulated winnings for a yacht or a sports car, you will salute the designers of Slot Life for their ideas and inspiration. 5/5

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