Apple goes 'behind the design' of Apple Award Winner Gibbon: Beyond the Trees

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Gibbon Beyond The Trees Artwork
Gibbon Beyond The Trees Artwork (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Apple has profiled Broken Rules, the team behind Gibbon: Beyond the Trees.
  • The game won an Apple Design Award at WWDC22.

As part of an ongoing series of pieces that looks at Apple Design Award (ADA) winners from this year's WWDC22 event, Apple has taken a look "behind the design" of the popular game Gibbon: Beyond the Trees.

The title, which is available as part of the Apple Arcade game subscription service, is playable on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. It also won an ADA and is one of the most gorgeous games available today. In a new profile, Apple speaks to the team behind the game about what went into turning it into an App Store hit.

Developer Felix Bohatsch is co-founder of Broken Rules, the outfit behind the game.

Gibbon: Beyond the Trees turned out pretty well. Developed by Broken Rules, of which Bohatsch is a co-founder, Gibbon casts you as an ape who flings, swings, and slides their way through a beautifully realized landscape. The flinging-around-trees mechanic is unique, but easy to learn — even for earthbound humans.

Bohatsch says that "the goal was to create a flow state with the gameplay, where players get into the swinging and jumping without thinking too much about it." It's that flow that makes Gibbon: Beyond the Trees so fun to play while managing not to become frustrating.

The full profile is well worth a read and it's fascinating to see the thoughts that went into making such a title. Apple Arcade subscribers can see what all the fuss is about for themselves by downloading Gibbon: Beyond the Trees for free today. Those who don't yet have Apple Arcade should consider fixing that, either via the $4.99 per month subscription or as part of the Apple One bundle.

If you want to upgrade your Apple Arcade gaming experience, check out our list of the best game controllers for mobile gaming.

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Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.