What are the hottest trends in mobile right now, and how can developers use them to their advantage?

That was the question Oren Todoros, PR specialist for hardcore developer Plarium, asked the audience during his talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2014.

Of course, what works for one developer might not work for another, so Todoros made sure there was something for everyone by putting on a spread featuring five of the hottest mobile trends.

“One of the most interesting trends that we've noticed recently is the mash up of different gaming genres,” began Todoros.

“One of the games that has done this very well is The Collectables, which is an action-orientated game with a card element involved. It's an extra feature that makes the game a little more engaging and entertaining.”

Mobile mash-ups

According to Todoros, developers must make sure their game is challenging. Without any hurdles players will become bored, lose interest, and eventually, abandon the product.

“It's great to have a fun game and to get people engaged in it, but if people lose interest because it isn't challenging enough you're losing out on a lot of potential,” explained Todoros.

“Flappy Bird is a great example of that, because it was incredibly challenging, and even though, graphically, it wasn't anything to write home about, [that challenge] is what set it apart.

“Tournaments are a great example of how you can keep your players engaged and challenged. You need to include things liike periodic challenges, and daily rewards in your game to keep people coming back.”

Todoros also believes that more devs should harness the might of push notifications, because, even if players do choose to ignore them, they can still be used as a powerful analytics tool.

“Push notifications are great because they help bring a player into your game, but they're also a great way to make sure they keep coming back,” said Todoros.

“If you have any of those challenges we talked about earlier, you should definitely be inviting them . I know it's not really a new trend, because push notifications have been in use for a while, but the thing that makes it interesting today is that developers are getting smarter about how they use them.

“They're not just pushing out the messages, but they're using it as they did email, and now they're tracking things such as how many people actually use the notifications. There's a lot of analytics involved.”

You can see all the video presentations from Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2014 here.

Pocket Gamer Connects is the biggest mobile games show in Europe, which brings together the best speakers and delegates from across the industry and from all over the world.

To-date, Pocket Gamer Connects has been held in London and Helsinki, and the show will be heading back to the UK in January 2015.

To find out more about the latest show, head on over to www.pgconnects.com.