Charging for updates, escaping the trope of violence, India is ripe, and refining, refining, refining
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.
#5: Why Wayward Souls' $1 price increase per update is driving sales
Back when Apple first introduced the concept of updates, a few developers argued that consumers should be charged for the new content.
That didn't last long.
Yet that doesn't mean that some brave developers aren't indirectly doing this.
The prime example is Rocketcat Games, which is increasing the price of its paid game Wayward Souls by $1 every time it drops a major content update.
And according to consultant Adrian Crook, the business model is working.
#4: Monument Valley designer: Games must escape the trope of violence
Ustwo's Monument Valley has been a massive success, so everyone was ears when lead designer Ken Wong spoke at DICE Europe.
He spoke about the decision to charge $4 for game, as well as wider issues such as not making it too long, thinking about making it attractive to people who don't play games, as well as escaping "the trope of violence as the default form of conflict resolution".
#3: Say hello to the Finnish game company you've never heard of, that doesn't exist anymore, and is debuting on Windows Phone
In his new column, our Finnsider revealed mysterious developer No More Pie.
Not only have you never heard of it, but it doesn't exist anymore, and its first game is debuting on Windows Phone.
#2: Why the Indian games market is now ripe for success
India will soon be the world's most populous country, but in terms of providing market for mobile games, the consensus remains that it's a good place to generate millions of downloads but a bad place to getnerate thousands of dollars.
That might be changing, however, at least according to Aswin Sambamurthy.
In his guest column, he argued that thanks to low levels of competition and with local developers picking up international investment, the Indian games market is now ripe for success.
#1: Miniclip's Saad Choudri on defining your brand, remaining flexible, and refining, refining, refining
More Info
Miniclip's Saad Choudri on defining your brand, remaining flexible, and refining, refining, refining »During the recent TIGA's Smartphone and Tablet Conference held in London, Miniclip's CCO Saad Choudri spoke about how the free web gaming portal had successfully moved to mobile.
The rise of F2P business model on mobile helped Miniclip, which already had hundreds of successful and free games on its portal and hence could cherrypick which ones to port.
However, Choudri's key concern was the quality of Miniclip's product.
"We spend a lot of time refining our art, working on the quality, making sure that the game runs smoothly," he said.
"If I was to give you three lessons I'd say: define your brand principles; remain flexible; and keep refining."