Hot Five

Finnish devs reveal the secrets to their success, 18 supercharged monetisation tips, and why shunning Windows Phone is a huge risk

Last week's top five stories

Finnish devs reveal the secrets to their success, 18 supercharged monetisation tips, and why shunning Windows Phone is a huge risk

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.

Handy for you, each headline in the list also allows you to click through to the article in full, so you can make sure you've not missed out on any of last week's big stories.


Click here to view the list »
  • 5 Helsinki happenings: 10 things we learned at Pocket Gamer Connects

    Helsinki happenings: 10 things we learned at Pocket Gamer Connects logo

    Last week the majority of the Pocket Gamer team, along with mobile moguls from every corner of the globe, descended on Finland for our very own PG Connects conference.

    As expected, over the course of the two day event we barely had time to catch our breath, and while the whirlwind of work, networking, and talks was undeniably good fun, it did tend to cause fatigue.

    That's why it's always important to look back after the dust has settled to find out what lessons you've learned, and, more importantly, which lessons you can share.

    So, until we go again when PG Connects heads to London in January, here are the 10 things we learned in the eternal twilight of Helsinki.


  • 4 The Ruzzle puzzle: How to hit 50 million downloads with virtually no UA budget

    The Ruzzle puzzle: How to hit 50 million downloads with virtually no UA budget logo

    How can you bring in 50 million downloads without pumping a ton of cash into your UA budget?

    That was the question David Hasselberg, CEO of MAG Interactive, asked the PG Connects audience in Helsinki.

    MAG's popular puzzle game, Ruzzle, accomplished that extraordinary feat, because, according to Hasselberg, the company seized every free growth opportunity it could lay its hands on.

    “Adding the ability to challenge your Twitter followers wasn't big in Europe, but in the US, it was a catalyst for really exponential growth,” said Hasselberg.

    “Initially it was concentrated to one small city in the US, but Twitter helped the game explode, and it quickly spread across the entirety of the US.

    “That explosion never stopped and eventually it helped us grab the number one spot on Google Play and the App Store.”


  • 3 18 top F2P monetisation tips and tricks to supercharge your business

    18 top F2P monetisation tips and tricks to supercharge your business logo

    12 months after he stunned, and generally baffled, audiences with his original Monetiser talk, PG.biz editor-at-large, Jon Jordan, was back in Helsinki to do it all again in the name of PG Connects.

    This time, however, the stakes were raised. After his talk at GMIC Beijng, which squashed 10 supercharged monetisation techniques into a 10 minute talk, Jordan attempted to squeeze 23 supercharged monetisation techniques into a 15 minute talk.

    The session, entitled '18 top F2P monetisation tips and tricks to supercharge your business,' was a mighty undertaking, and, luckily for you, it's now available to view on PG.biz.

    "Revenge is a powerful emotion - once. The 99th time our base is trashed, we don't care," said Jordan.

    "If you want a player to care about revenge - which is an emotional response to something that they own (which has value to them) being destroyed - then you have to make that thing actually have value.

    "If you let the enemy desecrate my prized possessions, I'm going to get really mad, and track them down and kill them. That's a really powerful - and dangerous - emotion."


  • 2 How one screenshot shot Oceanhorn to more than 1 million players

    How one screenshot shot Oceanhorn to more than 1 million players logo

    Oceanhorn has lots going for it. It's an enormous 15 hour adventure game with glorious visuals, a sprawling story, and a compelling original soundtrack.

    However, Cornfox & Bros., the team behind Oceanhorn, has explained that the game wouldn't have been half as successful had it not been for one screenshot.

    The ability to capture the essence of the title in one image was the difference between attracting 1 million players, and falling into App Store obscurity.

    "It was very easy to see what the game was about in one single screenshot,"explained Heikki Repo, CornFox creative director.

    "[Because of that] we will try to make games in the future where people know what kind of experience they will have from one single shot."


  • 1 Skipping Windows Phone? You're missing out on an extra 10% of users

    Skipping Windows Phone? You're missing out on an extra 10% of users logo

    Windows Phone often gets ignored by developers who perhaps feel they're covering all bases by simply targeting iOS and Android users. 

    That could be a costly mistake in the long-run though, and, according to Fortumo's Andrea Boetti, developers need to start thinking 'a little bit forward' about what's coming next.

    "It may surprise you, but there are many countries – to be precise, 24 countries worldwide - where Windows Phone is selling better than iOS," offered Boetti.

    "If you have a cross-platform application, 10 percent of your users might be lost if you're not porting your game to the Windows platform as well.

    "Microsoft is very friendly, and if you have an application that's already on iOS and Android, it's very easy to port it to the Windows platform now."


What do you call someone who has an unhealthy obsession with video games and Sean Bean? That'd be a 'Chris Kerr'. Chris is one of those deluded souls who actually believes that one day Sean Bean will survive a movie. Poor guy.