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.
Robert Bowling: Why Breach & Clear fell out of love with free-to-play
Having initially made much noise in the press about his decision to make his first mobile game, Breach & Clear, we felt in only fair to catch up with former Call of Duty man Robert Bowling when he reversed that decision.
"It came to a point where we were making too many decisions in favour of free-to-play that impacted gameplay too much," detailed Bowling, explaining the move.
"We were experimenting with the event model where players would hit 'wait walls' where they either have to wait until they can play again, because their unit is traveling, or they could speed up that wait time and play with that unit immediately.
"That was bad for the gameplay that we were trying to deliver - from a single player standpoint. I think you can make a good free-to-play shooter experience that appeals to the traditional shooter fan.
"We made our decision because of the progression and unlocking experience that we were trying to bake into the core gameplay. It works better by unlocking everything yourself."
Thomas Was Alone's Mike Bithell: 'It's been one hell of a year, and I've been very lucky'
"It's been one hell of a year," detailed Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell responding to the reception his talk at the Develop Conference in Brighton received earlier this month. "I've been very lucky."
Attracting the most attention during his talk with Bithell's claim that the games development business is no longer a "hit driven" industry. It's possible to make enough to live on from a relatively modest audience, he stated,
"Indie dev costs are crazy low, especially if you exclude the time of the primary creator - which many do," detailed Bithell in our interview.
"We don't need to be a big hitter, we can do just fine from relatively low sales. Many indies are living just fine off games that very few even know about."
Chart of the Week: How localisation tripled Clash of Clans' Japanese revenue
As you might have noticed, Clash of Clans the Supercell game that has dominated revenue rankings across the US and Europe in recent months is now something of a hit in Japan, too.
Supercell launched a Japanese language version on 17 June and, combined with a promotion with local smash Puzzle & Dragons, has since shot up the App Store charts.
According to Distimo, the end result has been a tripling in Clash of Clans' revenue, with the firm noting that in the "first six days of July, Clash of Clans already generated 61 percent of the total revenue it generated in June in Japan".
Clone wars: Why Vlambeer refuses to call time on open development
Last week was a big week for interviews on PocketGamer.biz, and top of the pile was our two-part piece with Vlambeer's Rami Ismail. The subject? Cloning.
Few studios' games have been cloned as frequently in recent years as Vlambeer's, but as Ismail told us the firm has no plans to abandon its open style of development.
"The worry we have by closing developmen...is that we would miss out on a lot of interesting realisations, feedback and perspective," detailed Ismail.
"Sure, you can do a closed release or something, you could release it to a certain group of people, or certain group of fans, but then who are you kidding? It's still going to get out everywhere."
You can read part one of the interview here, and part two here.
Breaking the ice: Nitrome, a studio profile
Considering Nitrome is the first third-party studio to have a game published by Rovio, it seemed only right that we drop in on the firm's offices for the complete back story as to how the outfit came about.
Having expanded beyond the Flash business when it started to wane, company MD Mat Annal told us that even developing Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage now a critically acclaimed smash was not without its challenges.
"The whole process of making Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage, the last few years, have been a very depressing time," detailed Annal, "to the point that I almost decided to sell the company and pack it all in."
"It's the best job in the world when it's going well and its the most difficult thing to do when you haven't got all your energy, when you try and remain enthusiastic about making exciting games, but you're worried about finances.
"It just saps everything away, it takes all of the joy out of it, it makes you hate the thing you love."
