January 21, 2015: Months before the first Apple Watch goes on sale, users get a glimpse at what playing games might look like on the wearable.

Thanks to Apple making the WatchKit API available to third parties, game developer NimbleBit releases a mockup of its simple work-in-progess word game, Letterpad. Suddenly, we get a desire to play games on our wrist that we haven’t had since the days of the Nintendo Game & Watch three decades earlier.

The Apple Watch gold rush

The period between September 9, 2014, and April 24, 2015, was one of frantic activity for developers. Having seen the original App Store make a mint for some early adopters in its first few months, everyone wanted their watchOS app to be ready for Day 1.

Apple rolled out its WatchKit API for the upcoming Apple Watch with iOS 8.2 in November. At that time, Apple also launched a new developer website for WatchKit. It was packed with all the resources developers needed to start making apps, including video tutorials and a lengthy interface design guide.

For many, games seemed to be the category to focus on. Games were the top-performing category in the iOS App Store. They seemed like an obvious impulse purchase that could lure new Apple Watch owners.

In the early days of the iOS App Store, a game called Trism — made by a 28-year-old programmer named Steve Demeter — earned its creator $250,000 in a couple of months. A later entry called iShoot earned its creator $600,000 in a single month.

The Apple Watch faced a key constraint: its limited screen real estate and control mechanisms. To deal with those limitations, Letterpad employed a simple grid of nine letters from which users could create words on a particular topic. It provided an early look at the kind of game many creators hoped would soon sweep the App Store.

Apple Watch games fail to gain traction

Jump forward a few years, and Apple Watch games never really took off. Despite the success of the wearable, the device’s form factor — and the way it only encourages users to look at its screen for mere glances — worked against the kind of interaction needed to make it a gaming platform.

Nonetheless, the first few months of 2015 were an exciting time. Apple fans everywhere struggled to wrap their heads around the possibilities of Cupertino’s latest platform.

Do you play games on the Apple Watch? What is your favorite title? Leave your comments below.