2015 in Review: Our top 10 most read articles of 2015
2015 has been an interesting year for the mobile games industry.
We've had big name publishers snapping up mobile developers, witnessed the continued growth of interest in VR, and seen console-gaming behemoth Nintendo step into the mobile ring.
And of course, we at PocketGamer.biz have stood on the front lines, catching the news as it passes and delivering to you, our lovely readers, so that you can stay informed about all that has happened.
But what, I hear you cry, has truly caught the attention of the readers this year?
Blasts from the past
To answer that question, we've collected a list of our top ten most read articles, sorted them in descending order to add some gameshow-style tension, and present it to you now for you to gaze upon and remark on the year that was.
From key trends at major conferences to behind-the-scenes articles on the biggest releases, interviews with interesting developers to tips on how to make your own game successful, there's a wide spread to feast your eyes on.
So, dive on in and reminisce with us about the things you enjoyed reading about the most in 2015.
#10: 7 key trends from GDC 2015
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7 key trends from GDC 2015 »GDC is always an exciting time for developers and everyone else in games industry, and GDC 2015 was no exception.
We even held a Big Indie Pitch there, something we're also doing at our upcoming Pocket Gamer Connects London 2016 event. Have you heard about that?
Anyway, while we weren't judging the indies of the world on their mobile games, we were finding out what the biggest trends of the conference were, and collated 7 for you to wrap your head around.
Amongst some of the bigger trends was the rise of mobile VR, how using brands is a fantastic way to reduce the cost of UA, and the worrying trend of abuse in gaming communities.
#9: 10 key trends from Pocket Gamer Connects London 2015
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10 key trends from Pocket Gamer Connects London 2015 »Did you know we held a Pocket Gamer Connects event in London in 2015? It's true! Peter Molyneux was there and everything! It was a grand old time.
So grand, in fact, that we're hosting another one in 2016 on January 18th-19th, and you can still grab tickets for it if you've not done so already.
And if you want a bit of a taster of what it's all about, we collated the top ten key trends we saw at PGC London 2015 for your perusal.
These include the death of the premium game, the rise of video advertising, and designers setting themselves up for failure.
#8: Shaking it up: The making of Candy Crush Soda Saga
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Shaking it up: The making of Candy Crush Soda Saga »Candy Crush Saga continues to be one of the biggest mobile games even in 2015, and making King even more money than most people thought possible - heck, remember that time Activision Blizzard said it was going to buy out King for $5.9 billion?
Regardless, the developer keeps pumping out games, and even looked to build on the Candy Crush brand with a sister title, Candy Crush Soda Saga.
We took some time earlier in 2015 to ask King's Chief Creative Officer, Sebastian Knutsson, about the making of the game, and what makes the Saga games so addictive.
Although, "we would say the game is engaging, rather than addictive", said Knutsson.
#7: 9 growth hacking tips to boost your mobile game's success
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9 growth hacking tips to boost your mobile game's success »Back in 2014, Growth Hacker Pascal Clarysse was giving out some top tips on how to boost a mobile game's success through a variety of cheap methods.
Clarysse does warn that "the leads I'm passing on to you today are bound to cool down within a few months," but it's always good to go back and see what lessons we can learn from the past.
There's all manner of growth methods within the article, some of which are still seen today - incentivised video ads and YouTube have done nothing but grow throughout 2015, for example.
#6: Why did the chicken... the making of Crossy Road
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Why did the chicken... the making of Crossy Road »Crossy Road has become something of a poster child for mobile gaming, with its unique approach to free-to-play design and addictive, just-one-more-go gameplay.
It's also caused developer Hipster Whale to have a storming year, with it releasing both Pac-Man 256 and Shooty Skies.
We caught up with them at the start of 2015 to ask about the making of Crossy Road, the influences behind it, and what the company had in mind for its future.
On the topic of the game's free-to-play model, co-founder Matt Hall said "We basically never considered a paid 'premium' model."
"We wanted the game to be played by as many people as possible, and so it had to be free."
#5: Supercell talks community, ClashCon and eSports
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Supercell talks community, ClashCon and eSports »2015 saw the first ever ClashCon, a community event centered entirely around Supercell's Clash of Clans, take place in the company's home city of Helsinki.
It was an opportunit for fans of the game to gather together and share their enthusiasm, and for us to quiz Supercell's community manager Marika Appel about what it all means.
"The reception of Clash of Clans has continued to surprise us since its launch three years ago and we think it absolutely shows that the lines between ‘casual’ and ‘core’ are not as clear as people once thought they were," said Appel on the topic of whether ClashCon shows that mobile games aren't as casual as people think.
#4: How Seriously worked with PewDiePie to fire Best Fiends up the charts
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How Seriously worked with PewDiePie to fire Best Fiends up the charts »PewDiePie may not be to everyone's tastes, but with around 40 million subscribers on YouTube, you can see why game developers would want to work with him to push their game.
Which is exactly what Seriously did with Best Fiends, striking up a deal with the popular Swede that saw the game flying up the charts.
It wasn't just a simple case of paying PewDiePie to say nice things, however. Philip Hickey, the developer's VP of Marketing and Communication, spoke about not only having to jump through numerous hoops to reach him, but also that the YouTuber's desire to work with the game was essential.
"The first and most important step was that PewDiePie tried out the game and genuinely liked to play it. Short of that, nothing would have been possible," said Hickey.
#3: Machine Zone's Gabe Leydon on why he cares about more players' time than their money
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Machine Zone's Gabe Leydon on why he cares about more players' time than their money »Love it or loathe it, you can't argue that Machine Zone's Game of War has been something of a success since it launched. It's even spawned its own similar game in 2015 in the form of Mobile Strike.
But it looks like our fine readers were casting their minds way back into the past, as a large chunk of you went looking for our 2013 interview with Machine Zone's CEO, Gabe Leydon, about why he thinks a player's time is more important than their money.
Although it's really more about the player's time investment eventually syncing with their monetary investment. "If people play your game for 100 hours, it's not a big deal for them to spend money. But it is if you're trying to monetise after two hours," he said.
#2: Wooga on using the FUUU factor to hit the top of the App Store
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Wooga on using the FUUU factor to hit the top of the App Store »"Hate is a powerful emotion."
So said Wooga's Florian Steinhoff, who went on to explain how the company's game, Jelly Splash, harnessed the power of people's anger to make a compelling experience.
It boils down to the "FUUU factor", expressed as the number of times a player tries a level before they beat it divided by the number of times a player almost beats it.
The key is to make the game hard, but not impossible, so that players will keep coming back and trying until they win because they perceive themselves to be so close to the end of a level.
#1: 10 mobile games you should be excited to play in 2015
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10 mobile games you should be excited to play in 2015 »2015, as it happens, was a pretty good year for mobile games. But it's always fun to go back and look at what we were looking forward to at the start of the year.
Most interestingly, there's a number of games in the list that didn't see the light of day. Assassin's Creed Identity remains in soft launch, The Witness has been pushed back into 2016, and GodFinger 2 has been reset, bought back by the original developer and is being redeveloped as we speak.
So the only game on the list that made any kind of lasting impact is Need For Speed: No Limits, and even then the game only sticks in mind because of its relatively recent launch.
Still, it's impossible to know what will prove to be the most interesting releases in a given year, thanks to the fast pace of mobile development, so let's not be too hard on Peter for his suggestions.
