Apart from covering them in honey, how can get make your players sticky?

That - formally entitled 'The secrets of player engagement' - was the first panel talk at Mobile Games Forum 2013, in London.

'It's all about the service,' reckoned Struan Robertson, product director at NaturalMotion.

Trying not to talk about his company's games, he argued that is clear to see some very successful games don't worry too much about what could be considered key features.

'Rage of Bahamuth does not reek of quality - it doesn't have any audio,' he said.

'But they've [publisher/developer DeNA/Cygames] worked hard to create a service, with lots of quests etc.'

He also said that while the game throws out a lot of push notifications - almost to spam levels - the alerts are always about the game.

Start well

Of course, first impression are very important.

"[Starting out] We just made a space game we thought was right, but with more data, we've realised we're doing a lot of things wrong, especially early in the game," pointed out Fishlabs' CEO Michael Schade

"But if you have a niche game, you have to stick to your guns to keep your hardcore audience, which is important for a game like Galaxy on Fire."

Looking towards the broad audience which plays free-to-play games, 'The 95 percent of players who don't pay you any money to begin with should be your focus,' reckoned Steve Collins, CTO, of game personalisation platform SWRVE.

"You have to know how your audience wants to play and then provide hooks for them to pay," he said.

Indeed, in terms of where developers should focus their attention, he argued, 'Don't adapt to players who don't pay. Just let them continue to play. Adapt to players who start paying.'

"Your game is a shop," echoed Robertson.

"You need to create value for your items. Our cars in CSR Racing are shiny. People want to buy them. You also should be looking to see what your users immediately spend the currency they buy on."