Hot Five

Hot Five: Women in games, charting the app clones and Supercell's smash Clash of Clans

Last week's top five stories

Hot Five: Women in games, charting the app clones and Supercell's smash Clash of Clans

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.Lady Shotgun's Anna Marsh: Why the industry's bedroom coder background is stifling diversity Having taken to the stage at the Women in Games Conference a matter of weeks before, we chased down Lady Shotgun's Anna Marsh to talk about the hurdles women have to clear to get into the games industry.However, according to Marsh, such issues are just one part of a wider problem the industry has dealing with diversity – one that stems back to its very roots, when bedroom coders ruled the roost."But big companies have continued to exploit this work ethic – with the crucial difference that now developers create the games that management (attempt to) predict will be the most profitable," said Marsh."The knock on effect is that the working practises suit those who are already pretty obsessive about games and have little life outside of them – and that's people who are young, unattached, able to commute, have no kids and, it seems, mostly male."The Charticle: Just how successful are clones on the App Store anyway? Another week, and another look at the app charts proved popular with the discerning PocketGamer.biz readers.Last week put the focus on apps and their supposed clones, tracking the performance of those that ape other titles to see whether they ever end up outperforming their inspiration.The answer? It's a bit of a mixed bag. Some, like Yeti Town, barely make an impact, while others like Dream Heights, manage to be App Store hits in their own rights.Eight key industry trends we learned from GDC Online 2012

We tend to talk about editor-at-large Jon Jordan as if he's on holiday when he leaves the country, but it turns out he actually does something.After hopping off a plane from Austin and before crashing into a jetlag induced coma, Jordan jotted down the eight trends he took away from this year's GDC Online.We won't ruin the surprise as to what nuggets of wisdom Jon took away with him, but we will say one thing: there's eight of them.

Opinion: Steve Jobs was wrong about the iPad Mini
It's widely accepted that the forthcoming iPad Mini more than likely wasn't the baby of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs.Indeed, as Pocket Gamer editor-in-chief Kristan Reed pointed out last week, Jobs thought 7-inch tablets were "too big to compete with the smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad", suggesting they wouldn't be popular with developers either.But was he right? With Mini's big day now a matter of hours away, Reed isn't so sure.

Chart rush: Making of Clash of Clans
Topping the rundown this week was our exclusive inside look at the making of Supercell's Clash of Clans.It was particularly well timed too, if you ask me, given the recent rather positive statistics that have come to light regarding the amount of revenue the studio is taking in."It has been humbling to see how passionately players feel about the game, how much they enjoy playing and how they want to see the game evolve and succeed," said product lead Lasse Louhento."That really gives us a lot of energy to develop the game further. We are extremely grateful to have such great players."


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With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.