Why App Store promotion isn't always a blessing, the making of Hearthstone, and can Thomas Was Alone hit the top?

Last week's top five stories.

• 5 Grand Cru: An App Store promo spot can do more harm than good

  

  Securing an App Store promo spot is what all mobile developers dream off. After all, who'd pass up on the chance to be featured by Apple and watch the downloads pour in?

  Well, according to Grand Cru's CTO Maikko Wilkman, if your game isn't up to scratch you may wish you could pass up the chance. Unless, that is, you want to press your project's self destruct button.

  Wilkman recently claimed that an App Store promotion can actually put off a "significant portion of new potential players if the game becomes unresponsive or at worst doesn't accept new users at all."

  "This is particularly true for Supernauts," explained Wilkman, drawing from his own experiences, "as our concurrent multiplayer features and social aspects of the game make it quite a bit more heavy on the server side than many other, more single player oriented games."

  
  

• 4 Helsinki hotshot Next Games is hiring

  

  Fresh faced developer Next Games, a firm founded by mobile veterans looking to push free-to-play gaming into uncharted territory, is looking for new recruits.

  Despite being the new kid on the block, the dev currently has two titles in development, one of which has been confirmed to be a free-to-play title based on the hit TV series The Walking Dead.

  So, if you think you've got the passion needed to succeed in the mobile industry, you're in luck, because Next Games is looking to fill a variety of high profile roles.

  "We are Next Games and we build games with passion. High production values and engaging play experience is in our DNA," read a Next Games statement.

  "We believe passion is contagious. Come work with us if you aim high and want to be part of a team dedicated to making great games."

  
  

• 3 Boom Beach burst helps keep Supercell at the top of the app tree

  

  King and Supercell may still be battling it out at the top of the app store charts, but - according to stats published by App Annie - there has been something of a power shift at the Finnish giant..

  Supercell's recent release Boom Beach has finally come into its own two months after launch, with the game now playing a serious role in helping Supercell keep its place at the top of the charts.

  It only made its way into the top five iOS games in terms of monthly downloads and revenue in April, but now, along with Clash of Clans and Hay Day, it has become a key tool in Supercell's gaming arsenal.

  
  

• 2 Can Thomas Was Alone find friends on the App Store?

  

  Can an indie sensation thrive on the mobile market in the free-to-play age? That's the question we asked in last week's Charticle, which saw Thomas Was Alone put under the microscope.

  Mike Bithell's indie hit, which is currently available on iPad for $8.99, proved that a quality premium title can find a place of its own on the top grossing charts, if only for a while.

  Unfortunately, It also highlighted the gap between F2P and premium isn't getting any smaller, as the game's impressive number of downloads failed to translate into an equally impressive position on the top grossing charts.

  Success or failure? You decide.

  
  

• 1 Nerfing rogues and gaming grans: The making of Hearthstone

  

  Hearthstone's rise to stardom has been something of a hollywood fairytale. The game, which was announced last spring at PAX East, has captivated most tablet owners, and has quickly cemented its position as a must-have mobile title.

  As you can imagine, creating a mobile best-seller is no easy feat, and in his latest 'Making of', PocketGamer.biz's Matthew Diener got to take a peek behind the curtain to find out how Blizzard crafted their deceptively simple, but dangerously addictive, free-to-play card battler.

  "Our core tenet is that collectible card games are awesome, and we want to get people who had never played CCGs before playing them," expained Blizzard's Eric Dodds.

  "Making the game free-to-play got rid of the biggest obstacle that might keep players from trying out the game, so that is the direction we went.

  "Our goal was really the same as the PC version of the game, which was to make a fun game that anyone could enjoy, including people who don’t normally play collectible card games."