These are the best apps and games of the year, according to Apple (AAPL)

Apple chose a photography app for creating long exposure photos as its iPhone app of the year, while a sketching app made the cut for Apple's iPad app of the year.
Apple also highlighted a selection of games that range from 16-bit RPGs to artistic puzzle and platform games.
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Apple has been positioning products like the iPhone 11 Pro and iPad Pro as creative tools for artists, filmmakers, and photographers in recent years, and that message has come through yet again in the company's compilation of the year's best apps.

Each year, Apple pulls together a list highlighting the best apps and games. For its 2019 iPhone pick, it selected an app that uses artificial intelligence to help iPhone owners take long exposure photos, while it chose a drawing and sketching app for the iPad Pro.

Here's a look at Apple's best apps and games of 2019.

Best iPhone app: Spectre Camera

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Lux Optics' Spectre Camera uses AI to create long exposure photos. The app can remove unwanted background content like crowds and can draw light trails to create a river-like effect, according to its App Store listing.

Best iPad app: Flow by Moleskine

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The maker of the popular notebooks has a sketching app for the iPad that offers dozens of combination options for paper styles, colors, and tools.

Best Mac app: Affinity Publisher

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The $35 digital publishing software Affinity Publisher was Apple's top pick for the best Mac app of the year. Affinity Publisher lets you create layouts for publishing magazines, books, brochures, posters, and reports.

Apple TV app: The Explorers

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The Explorers lets you view photos from all over the world captured by a network of photographers, videographers, scientists, artists, and more.

Best iPhone game: "Sky: Children of the Light"

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" Sky: Children of the Light " invites you to explore seven "dreamlike realms" in the kingdom of Sky. It comes from the same company that created the video game "Flower," which was known for its artistic scenery and was even showcased in the Smithsonian Museum of Art.

Best iPad game: "Hyper Light Drifter"

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Other than being named as Apple's iPad game of the year, this 16-bit action adventure RPG also won the Audience and Excellence in Visual Arts awards at the Independent Games Festival in 2017.

Best Mac game: "GRIS"

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GRIS centers on a young girl grappling with sorrow, and as her journey progresses she is granted new abilities through her dress. The game is filled with puzzles, platforming sequences, and skill-based challenges, according to its App Store description . Apple is recognizing it as a "work of digital art."

Best Apple TV game: "Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap"

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Cursed by an entity known as the Meka-Dragon, your character has been turned into a half-human, half-lizard and is in search of a cure. It's a revival of the classic platforming adventure game from 1989 that features hand-drawn animations and a re-orchestrated soundtrack.

Best Apple Arcade game: "Sayonara Wild Hearts"

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"Sayonara Wild Hearts" bills itself as a pop album in video game form that's a "dreamy arcade game about riding motorcycles, skateboarding, dance battling, shooting lasers, wielding swords, and breaking hearts at 200 MPH."