Chinese growth in Korea, Lara Croft's athletic aesthetic and Who is A Thinking Ape?
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.
#5: Kabam restructures studio management as ex-EA exec Nick Earl departs
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Kabam restructures studio management as ex-EA exec Nick Earl departs »It’s a busy time for Kabam.
Not only is it making its move into China with a localised version of its $100 million franchise Marvel: Clash of Champions, but it’s just released its latest big hope RPG Star Wars: Uprising.
Yet behind the scenes there’s been reorganisation, following the resignation of president of worldwide studios Nick Earl.
“Considering the experienced, talented leadership at the Group GM level, I have decided that Kabam is not the right place for me at this point in my career,” he stated.
The Nick Earl-gap in the company has been swiftly filled, with Mike Verdu and Aaron Loeb taking the roles of president of Kabam Studios.
#4: Why Chinese mobile games are growing fast in Korea
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Why Chinese mobile games are growing fast in Korea »According to Korean media agency Nasmedia, Korea is a growing market for Chinese mobile game publishers.
In June 2014, only 10% of the top 50 grossing Google Play games in Korea came from China.
One year later, that number had jumped to 25%.
This growth has been driven by the popularity of genres such as RPG and Three Kingdoms-themed games.
Similarly, the weakening of the once all-powered Kakao Game Platform has provided the opportunity for more core titles to find a paying audience.
#3: An athletic aesthetic: The making of Lara Croft GO
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An athletic aesthetic: The making of Lara Croft GO »One of the best-looking games of 2015, Lara Croft GO is the second in the premium action-puzzle GO series from Square Enix's Montreal studio.
News editor Alysia Judge caught up with the game's lead engineer Antoine Routon to find out more about how the history of Tomb Raider franchise and more importantly the athletic aesthetic of Lara Croft herself shaped Lara Croft GO.
"It was a really fun process to see how we could translate all the Tomb Raider tropes in terms of turn-based puzzles," Routon commented.
#2: Who is A Thinking Ape?
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Who is A Thinking Ape? »Taking a formal decision to set up shop far away from the competitive hustle and bustle of San Francisco, mobile developer A Thinking Ape instead found its home in Vancouver.
New employee Will Luton introduced us to the company that prefers to keep out of the limelight but which is finding success in terms of its incredibly viral chat-focused games such as Kingdoms at War and Party in My Dorm.
"The success of these new titles, and the aggregate growth of our titles under live operations, is down to more than just chat," Luton pointed out.
"It's about thinking of how we build communities and have them interact in passionate ways through the mechanics of games."
#1: 5 unusual observations about the mobile gaming industry
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5 unusual observations about the mobile gaming industry »In a very interesting article, Gur Dotan from analytics outfit SOOMLA drew out some trends from his time spent at DevGAMM Hamburg and Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2015.
These range from how indie game developer do (or don’t) deal with analytics, and the Catch-22 situation that indie developers often find themselves when it comes to gaining funding and finding publishing.
There’s also musings on the value of beards, the falling ages of CEOs, and the growing opportunities in terms of alternative monetisation methods.