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.
The Art of Agent Dash: How 2D concept art brought 3D play to life
As part of a two part column, last week saw Full Fat the studio behind the critically acclaimed Agent Dash take to the pages of PocketGamer.biz to detail the game's notable visual style.
The first part saw concept artist Russ Cogman reveal how the game's 2D sketches helped shape the 3D look of the game.
"It was established very early on what direction the designer and artists (2D and 3D) wanted to take the game, and having a cartoon secret agent gave us the scope to draw on so much popular culture from video games and cinema that we felt spoilt for choice," detailed Cogman.
"Essentially, we wanted to make a cocktail of secret agents and modern CG animation with a retro vibe."
You can also read the second part - how Full Fat explored the third dimension - here.
Sweet story: The making of Pudding Monsters
Most developers would love to have a hit the size of Cut the Rope, but following up such a success is no easy task. No-one wants to be known as a one-hit wonder.
The development of ZeptoLab's Pudding Monsters, then, was burdened with a certain amount of pressure, though speaking exclusively to PocketGamer.biz last week the studio claimed it didn't alter its approach when setting out to serve up another hit.
"The neat thing about having 50-plus bright people around is that you have great potential for brainstorming and feedback, so we gathered detailed feedback on the internal ideas and tried to analyse what kind of game would make most sense for us to release at that time," said ZeptoLab co-founder Semyon Voinov.
"Character is clearly one of the main reasons why Cut the Rope succeeded, and we tried our best to make the pudding monsters lively, cute and wacky creatures. The process involves lots of sketching, experimenting and brainstorming and it usually pays off."
From humble beginnings to bundles of sales: The rise of a new publishing ideal
2012 may end up being best known for the year when crowdfunding became a legitimate monetisation model and free-to-play games began to dominate, but they weren't the only trends that defined the last 12 months.
Also of note was the rise of the Humble Bundle collections of games where the consumer determines the price and can also donate a portion to charity.
"I think Humble Bundle really originally came from this perspective of 'we have a theory about why people pirate games, and we want to try this experiment' - but it became a really amazing thing, commercially speaking," said Adam Saltsman, co-founder of Canabalt creator Semi Secret Software, which has featured on a Humble Bundle for Android.
"I think World of Goo was maybe the first indie game to do a really high profile game sale that was 'pay what you want' for a DRM-free game, and they had great success, so it wasn't necessarily unheard of... but those first Humble Bundles really blew up and impressed people."
Nexon partners with DeNA to launch games through Mobage
Another week, another move by DeNA to strengthen its grip on the mobile social scene in response to increasing competition from rival GREE.
The firm's latest move has seen it partner up with Korean free-to-play publisher Nexon to distribute the company's games through DeNA's Mobage platform in Japan and across the world.
"This alliance is a compelling next step in extending Nexon's mobile strategy, which is also consistent with our vision of growing our presence in the expanding global mobile market," said Nexon's president and CEO Seungwoo Choi of the deal.
Commentators have already questions whether Nexon's games which are heavily geared towards the Asian market will be able to make a mark in the west, however.
Another week of Windows Phone 7.8 madness
Some may think Windows Phone 7's death certificate had effectively been signed the moment Windows Phone 8 was unveiled to the world, but for the second week running, stories focused on the possible launch of the platform's last major update have dominated PocketGamer.biz.
Without giving away too much, it's not exaggerating the situation to suggest stories detailing Windows Phone 7.8's launch are already comparable to some of the most popular articles ran on PocketGamer.biz during 2012: hits are high.
And yet, Microsoft is still unwilling to give too much away, with the firm's Russian arm saying only that the update is effectively ready, and it's now up to manufacturers to deliver it to consumers.
Whether they will or not, however, is another matter.
Such has been the slack handling of Windows Phone 7.8's launch that, according to editor Keith Andrew, real damage risks being done to its successor.
After all, while would developers and consumers alike support Windows Phone 8 if they fear it may eventually be abandoned like its predecessor?
Hot Five
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.
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