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.

Textual orientation: The making of DEVICE 6

DEVICE 6 isn't your standard App Store fare, but then Simogo isn't your standard developer.

Last week, PocketGamer.biz contributer Kirk Mckeand spoke to the studio for a detailed look at the creative process behind this text-based adventure game and, in the process, answered the questions as to whether the whole game is an anti-Apple allegory (hint: it's not, but you can take it that way if you'd like).

The making of also reveals the influences behind DEVICE 6 and gives a brief tease of what Simogo might have planned next. Fancy knowing more? Read the full text here.

Hall of Fame: David and Ian Marsh

Although the sobriquet "The Nimblebit Bros" might be enough on its own to land brothers David and Ian Marsh in our Hall of Fame, it was their work on such seminal titles as Tiny Tower, Pocket Planes, and most recently Nimble Quest that secure their spot.

With the branded release of Star Wars: Tiny Death Star looming, we thought it was high time to honour the brothers Marsh with a plaque on our virtual wall.

If you'd like to learn more about David and Ian Marsh, you can read it all here.

Layoffs hit The Playforge as studio 'winds down' on game development

Zombie Farm amassed download numbers that any developer would dream of, racking up 16 million downloads in its first year on the App Store - but now its developer, The Playforge, is apparently "winding down" on game development.

This transition unfortunately translated to layoffs at The Playforge, although president Jack Sorensen adamantly stated that the studio isn't shuttering for good.

"It will continue to support the Zombie Farm and Tree World franchises, but is winding down development of new games"

Opinion: EA should have bought NaturalMotion or Machine Zone, not PopCap

EA Mobile's got a raft of great titles performing strongly at the moment between Real Racing 3, and The Simpsons: Tapped Out which has made bank since its relaunch in October 2012.

Further, EA Mobile should be celebrating the recent launches of Plants Vs. Zombies 2 and FIFA 14 but instead, its Q2 FY14 were down 34 percent to $75 million.

Editor-at-large Jon Jordan drew on his vast expertise to look at the problems EA Mobile is currently facing, and concluded that it should have passed on PopCap and bought NaturalMotion or Machine Zone instead.

With downloads booming and sales stagnating, Jon summarises that this "suggests that while EA can market its mobile games successfully, it's not plugged into the free-to-play business model as well as it should be.

"Brutally put, it lacks retention and monetisation."

Fishlabs CEO: If your game can't guarantee $1 million a day, it's hard to raise investment

It's hard to think that a company like Fishlabs, well renowned for its successful mobile space shooter Galaxy on Fire, would have to layoff staff or file for the equivalent of Chapter 11 protection from its creditors - but that's the exact situation facing the German developer.

CEO Michael Schade gave us the details on how Fishlabs fell on hard times, and notes that the booming success of mobile gaming is making it increasingly difficult for developers to secure investment capital.

"Raising money is always a challenge, especially when you don't yet have a live game that shows great metrics - at least in a handful of countries," he admitted.

"You might think success stories like Supercell have made it easier to raise money, but for some investors and even strategic partners the opposite is true.

"If you don't have a game that has the potential to generate $1 million a day, it is a tough call."