10 commandments of free-to-play, Mobile Mavens talk Pixel and Daydream View VR, and publishers are already buying up App Store Search Ads
Apple's App Store Search Ads launched recently, allowing app publishers to purchase a premium spot in App Store searches when users are searching for other apps.
There were concerns that big publishers might buy up all this space, so it's no surprise that our most read article of last week was about companies like MZ and Zynga doing exactly that.
Second on the list is our Mobile Mavens' reactions to Google's Pixel phones and Daydream View devices, and how they'll affect the phone and VR markets respectively.
10 commandments, 60 seconds, 150 staff
Third up is Rovio's Reginaldo Valadares giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2016 on his so-called "ten commandments" of free-to-play design.
And finally, we find out more about the making of Robot Gentleman's 60 Seconds!, and Outplay Entertainment brings its headcount up to 150 staff.
Click the link below to find out more about the stories that caught our readers' attention last week.
#5: Outplay Entertainment becomes the UK's largest independent mobile studio, employing over 150
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Outplay Entertainment becomes the UK's largest independent mobile studio, employing over 150 »Way back in February 2011, Dundee-based studio Outplay Entertainment opened its doors with hopes of hiring up to 150 people "over the coming years".
Fast-forward over five years and the studio has finally done it, becoming the UK's largest independent mobile studio along the way.
"When Richard and I founded Outplay Entertainment in 2010, we set out to create the best possible games, build an amazing team and a world-class company," said CEO Douglas Hare.
"Our investment in our people and culture has been fundamental to the success of the company and enabled us to nurture local talent and create jobs here in Scotland."
#4: Three people, 30,000 sales in the first month, and played by PewDiePie: the making of 60 Seconds!
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Three people, 30,000 sales in the first month, and played by PewDiePie: the making of 60 Seconds! »Fans of darkly-comic post-apocalyptic titles have probably already heard of Robot Gentleman's 60 Seconds!, which gives you just one minute to pack up your belongings before a nuclear bomb drops.
It's an intriguing constraint, followed by a much longer survival mode that tasks you with sticking out the apocalypse in a bunker, so we decided to find out more about how the game came into existence.
"As much as we enjoy the nuclear apocalypse theme, we thought there was one thing that was usually left out in other titles: the moment of the apocalypse itself and what happened just before it," explains founder Dominik Gotojuch.
"This thought drove the development of the design for 60 Seconds! from August 2013 to May 2015, when the PC version of the game was released."
#3: The 10 commandments of free-to-play game design
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The 10 commandments of free-to-play game design »At Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2016, Reginaldo Valadares, Head of Production at Rovio Entertainment, gave a talk on the "ten commandments" of free-to-play design.
He started by stating that free-to-play is not just a fad, saying "if you think about 'free', it's everywhere, it's not only on mobile platforms", pointing to PC title League of Legends and other non-gaming free tools.
"It's up to you whether you want to go free-to-play or not," said Valadares. "But there's one thing you should never do. You should never try to fix it."
He then went on to talk about treating your game as a service from the beginning, implementing an involved metagame and finding the fun.
#2: Mobile games industry experts react to Google Pixel and Daydream View VR
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Mobile games industry experts react to Google Pixel and Daydream View VR »Google's Pixel phones and Daydream View devices were leaked months before they were officially revealed, but now that Google has confirmed their existence, we can talk about them safe in the knowledge that we have all the facts.
And we can ask people like our Mobile Mavens about what they think of the devices and what it means for Google's future - so we did.
In terms of the Daydream, Harry Holmwood thinks that while it looks great, "I don't think it'll bring VR into the mainstream - that still feels like a long way off to me".
While Vladimir Funtikov perfectly sums up the Pixel - "any phone with a 3.5mm jack that doesn't explode has the potential to sell well".
#1: Zynga, MZ, and King are already blocking App Store Search Ads on their own games
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Zynga, MZ, and King are already blocking App Store Search Ads on their own games »When App Store Search Ads were first revealed, there was some concern that they would lead to the bigger developers muscling in on another UA space and buying up all the ads available.
And, surprise surprise, that's sort of what they've done, with companies like Zynga and MZ having already bought up the ad space surrounding their own games to block them from other developers.
So if you search for Game of War or Mobile Strike, you'll see an ad for either one of MZ's games right next to the actual game itself.
There's still some space available though - Twitter hasn't blocked its ad space yet, nor has Rovio when searching for Angry Birds.