Welcome to PocketGamer.biz's weekly rundown of the stories clocking up the hits, picking up the click-throughs and generally keeping the advertisers happy by serving up page views.

Or, if you'd prefer, the top five stories currently dominating our readers' attention.

Each week, we'll be counting down the biggest news from the previous seven days, giving just a glimpse of the industry's big issues, from five to one.

Nicholas Lovell: Free-to-play gamers are tired of Skinner Boxes, and that's a good thing

Fresh off the stage at GDC Next in Los Angeles, last week author and consultant Nicholas Lovell took to the pages of PocketGamer.biz to talk all things free-to-play.

Well, namely the changing nature of F2P gamers, and where some developers are getting things drastically wrong as a result.

"Honestly, I'm delighted that the audience is saying 'we're bored, give us something new'," detailed Lovell, in reference to the fact that consumers are moving on from games that act as Skinner Boxes, coaxing players into parting with their cash after being treated to enticing rewards.

"That's a good thing. I don't think Skinner Boxes drive heavy spenders. My view of heavy spenders, or 'superfans', is that you've got to allow those people who love what you do to spend lots of money on things that they really value.

"So, what are the alternatives to operant conditioning? Make people love your game."

Breaking down barriers: iOS devs launching Objective-C games on Android

Developers may be being told time and time again that multiplatform is the future, but when you're a one-person band coding in your bedroom, branching out beyond your base platform can be too much to take on.

Apportable, however, claims to have the solution. The firm's tool gives developers the ability to convert iOS games to Android automatically, without extensive changes to the original Objective-C or C++ code.

It works by cross-compiling Objective-C code for iOS to machine code that runs directly on an Android device's processor.

One convert is Pocket Gems, with engineer Jeff DeCew claiming the platform is "so far ahead and so much more complete than anything we've ever seen."

"We've had to make very few compromises on the iOS side to make our game great on both platforms," he added.

"With the help of Apportable, Pocket Gems is free to focus on creating and improving the gameplay experience instead of rewriting code for Android."

How Google startup Niantic plans to open up new portals to location-based play this December

Aren't location-based games dead? Apparently not. Indeed, Ingress by Google startup Niantic Labs is creating quite a stir.

The free-to-play game tasks players with getting out into the real world, meeting up with one another, and 'hacking' pieces of public art with their Android smartphones and tablets for control of the global playing field.

"If you want the full experience, you need to get out into the real world, move, see this great artwork that's out in your community, and get out into parks – and that takes some effort," said Niantic's Brandon Badger at GDC Next.

"So, we see some quite long play sessions, as you'd expect. It might take you five or ten minutes to walk from one portal to the next closest portal, and in some of the more rural areas you might – unfortunately - need to get into your car to drive to the next portal.

"It's a game that takes a good chunk of your day, but it's still casual in a sense that you can interact with a piece of art in a park and the game frees you when you're walking to the next one so you can enjoy the experience of walking and do other things."

Opinion: Has the rise of games-as-a-service killed the successful indie?

Has the era of big hits from relative unknowns – Angry Birds, Cut the Rope and Fruit Ninja to name but a few – come to a close?

Does the rise as games-as-a-service mean small teams no longer have the resources to pop up overnight and take the world by storm? Editor-at-large Jon Jordan thinks so.

"Successful paid games - at least in the form of 99c paid games - are over," detailed Jordan.

"Free-to-play games now rule the charts. Not only do such games generate much more than 99c per player, they require longer development times pre-launch, and they are much more complex in terms of post-launch operation; both in terms of the server expertise, and the ongoing development resource required.

"This is beyond the scope of start-up developers, unless they are very experienced and/or have raised investment. Even in these cases, you need more than the handful of people that's our typical shorthand reference for an 'indie developer'."

Ready to pop: How to survive once the 'indie bubble' has burst

So, if the indie bubble has burst, how can those studios still wrapped up in mobile hope to survive? Jake Birkett, owner of Grey Alien Games, thinks he may have the answer.

"My tactic will simply be to not give in and to keep getting better," detailed Birkett.

"Most indies fail badly with their first game and – dare I say it – often their next few games, as well. This is not to say that you shouldn't gun for success with your first game, but you need a decent backup plan in case it doesn't work out. Because, chances are, it won't.

"The trick is to stick at it and not give in. This increases your chance of success with each game you ship as both your skills and contacts grow. Luck is definitely a factor, but it can be optimised over time by making multiple, better attempts."