The making of Disco Zoo, looking back at GDC, and are mobile devs leaving mobile en masse?

Last week's top 5 stories

• 5 The making of Disco Zoo

  

  You might have seen the pixel powered zoo simulator, Disco Zoo, roaming around the App Store of late.

  As the name suggests, Disco Zoo tasks you rescuing animals and rehousing them in your zoo: a place where they can dance to earn eternal adoration, and heaps of cash.

  But, how exactly does one go about building a disco zoo?

  Friend of the PG.biz family, Kirk Mckeand, spoke to developer, Milkbag, to find out.

  "Disco Zoo took about three months total. We started work in mid November, took a couple of weeks off at Christmas, and finished mid February," explained Rix.

  "The game was published by NimbelBit, and actually feels a lot like a NimbelBit game, but the funny thing is, [NimbleBit] didn't even know it existed until a large amount of the core gameplay and art had already been done.

  "I think because of the fact we wanted to make a cute free-to-play game with pixel art, the game naturally felt similar to [NimbleBit's]."

  
  

• 4 Rovio's Icebreaker and Gameloft's Asphalt 8 run away with the Pocket Gamer Awards

  

  At this years Pocket Gamer Awards, which are voted for by Pocket Gamer readers, there were three games that simply outshone the rest. 

  You see, taking home one Pocket Gamer Award isn't easy. Taking home two is a huge undertaking. Walking away with three is a feat worthy of song.

  That, however, didn't stop Rovio's Icebreaker, Gameloft's Asphalt 8, and Nintendo's Fire Emblem: Awakening from defying the odds and going home with three awards apiece. 

  Congratulations are definitely in order. 

  
  

• 3 Ben Cousins: Anti-F2P movement is this generation's 'Disco Sucks'

  

  One of the more interesting talks at this years GDC was Ben Cousins' presentation on the ethics of monetisation models.

  At the heart of the talk, titled Is Your Business Model Evil? The Moral Maze of the New Games Business, was a discussion about the antipathy currently surrounding the F2P model.

  While the presentation was brimming with potency and passion, it also left us with a few unanswered questions, so, naturally, we chased down Cousins after GDC to try and get some answers.

  "We are talking people in the millions. The establishment characterises an attitude - one of literal conservatism, a desire to conserve things as they were pre-Facebook, pre-free-to-play, pre-App Store," explained Cousins.

  "Anyone who has expressed, for instance that Facebook games aren't 'real games', or wished that more people play Tearaway than Candy Crush Saga, would be expressing conservative establishment ideas.

  "Think of the 'disco sucks' movement as analogous."

  
  

• 2 The problem with VR, gays in gaming, and learning to kill your games: 7 things we learned at GDC 2014

  

  Ah, GDC. The weeks leading up to it are filled with excitement, while the weeks following it are filled with post-conference blues and severe bouts of jetlag.

  The week itself will likely brush you, standing there in your caffeine fuelled haze, right aside, and by the time you're on the plane back home, you might find yourself wondering how on earth you missed that one thing. 

  That being said, you'll still probably find yourself taking home more information than you know what to do with, which is why it's a good idea to collect your thoughts and put them down on paper before you succumb to sleep deprivation.

  Thankfully, PocketGamer.biz editor Keith Andrew did just that, and you can find out what he learned from this years GDC right here.

  
  

• 1 I'm a mobile developer that isn't making mobile games, and here's why

  

  Russ Clarke is a extremely unique breed of mobile developer, mainly because he isn't actually making any mobile games.

  Yes, you heard that right.  

  Before you work yourself up trying to figure out what that revelation means exactly, you might want to check out Clarke's recent PocketGamer.biz guest column where he reveals why he's taking such an unorthodox stance.

  "[There's] a question I've been asked more than once recently and expect to hear several times this week: 'you're a mobile developer, why aren't you making a mobile game?'" revealed Clarke.

  "We all know by now, you can't just push an app to the store and expect it to rise to the top on sheer awesomeness alone.

  "Last week at GDC, many hours of conference sessions, masterclasses and free-beer-fuelled ranting were devoted to that problem.

  "The subject of how to make it in mobile often devolves into a debate about the best revenue model. I think that's a red herring."