1）App Annie最近报告显示，King游戏《Candy Crush Saga》、Supercell游戏《Clash of Clans》以及Gungho游戏《Puzzle & Dragons》过去数月在iOS和Android平台仍然极具盈利性。4月份《Candy Crush Saga》再次成为iOS和Android下载量最高的游戏，并且位居营收榜单第三名。

《Puzzle & Dragons》月下载量虽然并未进入前十名，但却是iOS和Android平台收益最高的游戏（游戏邦注：5月初曾有报道称该游戏日常收益达375万美元）。《Clash of Clans》虽然尚未登陆Google Play，但在App Store已是收益排名第二的游戏。

google-play-monthly-downloads(from App Annie)

这三者自2012年第四季度以来，一直保持相对稳定的发展趋势。但在4月份高下载量榜单上也出现了一些新面孔。在Google Play平台，出自3dinteger之手的赛车游戏《Toy Truck Rally 3D》上升288个名次，在月下载量榜单排名第四，平台游戏《Manuganu》表现更为强劲，排名上升1000位，飙升至月下载量榜单第十名。

从iOS平台来看，表现杰出者包括《Sonic Dash》、《Hardest Game Ever 2》以及《水果忍者》。《水果忍者》此前在月下载量榜单曾一度下滑至第431名，4月份则反弹至第10名。《Hardest Game Ever 2》排名上升302位，4月份位居第五名；《Sonic Dash》则从原来的第34名上升至第二名。

top-ios-monthly-downloads(from App Annie)

除了《Candy Crush Saga》、EA游戏《真实赛车3》之外，iOS应用下载量榜单前十名的其他游戏均为新作。

2）据venturebeat报道，社交游戏公司Playfish联合创始人、前EA数字游戏执行副总裁Kristian Segerstrale日前加入Supercell董事会。Segerstrale原先于2009年以3亿多美元价格将Playfish出售给EA，并于今年2月份离开EA以便重新开启自己的创业旅程，此次加入Supercell董事会就是其计划的首个环节。

kristian-segerstrale(from venturebeat)

3）据DigiTimes报道，苹果将于今年第三季度发布两款新手机，最早可能于6月份宣布这一消息。

与iPhone 4和4S的情况一样，苹果将推出改进版本的iPhone 5，并推出硬件配置类似于4S（但屏幕和处理器性能较低）的低价iPhone（游戏邦注：此前曾有传闻称苹果正在研发售价仅为99美元的iPhone）。

iPhone 5S(from lifestyle9.com)

有消息认为，2013下半年iPhone出货量可能将达1.2亿部。

4）据gamezebo报道，继去年在Kickstarter推出Double Fine Adventure项目（现已更名为Broken Age）并成功融资超过300万美元之后，Double Fine最近再度向Kickstarter平台推出新融资项目Massive Chalice。

Massive Chalice(from gamezebo)

这个新项目是PC和Mac战略游戏，其玩家受到了《Final Fantasy Tactics》以及《Fire Emblem》的启发，并将由《冰河世纪》创意人员Brad Muir掌舵。

该项目融资目标是75万美元，在Kickstarter上线不到1小时就已筹得2万多美元。

5）据gamasutra报道，双人工作室Cardboard Computer联合创始人Jake Elliott日前宣布将发布指向点击冒险游戏《Kentucky Route Zero》，并表示他认为将“游戏题材惯例作为开发项目的起点是有点无聊的做法”。

Kentucky route zero(from kickstarter)

Elliott认为开发游戏应从其背景而非机制入手，并称这种开发方式有助于他们持续巧妙处理《Kentucky Route Zero》的机制。该游戏最有技巧的一个方面在于，它鼓励玩家制定非二元化的决策。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Candy Crush Saga and Puzzle & Dragons continue revenue dominance on mobile

Jeffrey Grubb

The game market on mobile devices is volatile. At least, that is what we always hear. The common wisdom is that ideas that worked a year ago don’t work anymore, and the ideas that work now won’t work in six months. Apparently, someone forgot to tell that to the developers of Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans, and Puzzle & Dragons.

For the last several months, these three have continued to rake in massive revenues on both iOS and Android, according to market-tracking firm App Annie. In April, Candy Crush Saga was once again the most-downloaded title on each platform. It also generated the third-highest revenue for each app market.

“Over the past month, we’ve seen a few trends,” App Annie vice president of global communications Marcos Sanchez told GamesBeat. “Publishers who are employing a freemium strategy attached to in-app purchases are doing incredibly well, showing a growing sophistication in how apps are monetized. Games in the casual gaming category that have a social component have
also fared well, largely because they are easy to consume, have the potential to be shared on a massive scale, and can acquire new users through major social networks such as Facebook. This
trend has been reinforced by many of the top ranking games on App Annie’s Games Index, including King’s Candy Crush Saga and Supercell’s Hay Day and Clash of Clans.”

Puzzle & Dragons, while not in the top 10 for monthly downloads, was the highest-grossing game on both mobile operating systems. We reported earlier this month that the hit puzzle role- playing game is making around $3.75 million every single day, which is an enormous sum.

Clash of Clans isn’t available on Google Play, but it was the second-highest grossing game on the App Store.

All three of those titles have maintained or grown their dominate market positions since the last quarter of 2012. This reveals that the mobile gaming market heavily favors the most popular games. The rich keep getting richer while everyone else fights over the scraps.

On that front, several games popped up in the most-downloaded chart for the first time (or the first time in a while).

On Google Play, the racer Toy Truck Rally 3D from developer 3dinteger moved up 288 places to take the number four place on the top games by monthly downloads list. Platformer Manuganu had an even more impressive surge. Developer Alper Sankaya’s running game moved up over 1,000 spots and was the tenth most-downloaded game on Google Play in April.

On iOS, the big movers were Sonic Dash, Hardest Game Ever 2, and Fruit Ninja. Halfbrick Studios’ Fruit Ninja is experiencing a resurgence after falling to 431 on the most-dowloaded charts.

Hardest Game Ever 2 moved up 302 places from March to April, and Sonic Dash jumped from 34 all the way to number two.

The rest of the top 10 most-downloaded titles on iOS were all new games outside of King’s Candy Crush Saga and Electronic Art’s Real Racing 3. That includes fighting game Injustice: Gods

Among Us from Warner Bros. and Gameloft’s Iron Man 3 – The Official Game.（source：venturebeat）

2）Former EA/Playfish exec joins board of red-hot mobile gaming startup Supercell

Dean Takahashi

Kristian Segerstrale, the co-founder of social gaming firm Playfish and former executive vice president in charge of digital gaming at Electronic Arts, has joined Supercell as a member of its board. Helsinki-based Supercell is one of the hottest mobile game companies around thanks to the popularity of two hit games, Clash of Clans and Hay Day. These games are earning millions of dollars per day, and they enabled Supercell to raise $130 million at a $770 million valuation in April.

Segerstrale saw great success with Playfish, a social gaming firm on Facebook, and sold it to Electronic Arts in 2009 for more than $300 million. He eventually became the head of digital games at EA, a retail gaming giant which has been investing heavily to adapt to the new world of social, mobile, and online games. He left EA in February to return to his startup roots, and his move to the board of Supercell is the first part in that plan.（source：venturebeat）

3）Apple may reveal and start shipping two new iPhones next month

by Zen Terrelonge

An iPhone 5 revamp and a low-cost model.

Apple is currently working two new phones for an unveiling in Q3, according to DigiTimes. The big reveal and shiping may potentially come as soon as June, as suppliers are reportedly gearing up for production of 20 million units a month.

Like the iPhone 4 and 4S scenario, Apple is thought to introduce a revamped iPhone 5, which may annoy those hoping for something meatier.

Meanwhile, the company is expected to enter new territory with a low-cost handset that will feature hardware similar to the 4S, though with a lower display and processor. It follows an earlier rumour that Apple is working on a $99 iPhone made from plastic parts.

With a June reveal on the calendar, sources reckon shipments of all iPhone will reach up to 120 million units in H2 2013. In other news, Apple’s rival Samsung has just unveiled the Galaxy

S4 Mini – a shrunken version of its new flagship handset, which has reached ten million sales in under a month.（source：mobile-ent）

4）Double Fine launches Kickstarter for new game, Massive Chalice

By Joe Jasko

Tim Schafer is no stranger to the amazing benefits that crowd-funding sources like Kickstarter can have on a struggling project. After all, it was only just last year when his company

Double Fine broke all sorts of internet records by raising more than $3 million dollars in a one-month period for their Double Fine Adventure game (now known as Broken Age). So naturally, why wouldn’t they try the same approach again?

Well that’s just what they did. The new game in question is titled Massive Chalice, and will be a tactical strategy PC and Mac game where players take control of an immortal King or Queen in charge of a powerful and century-old family dynasty. The gameplay is inspired by classic tactical strategy games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem, and the structure of noble families is also in homage to Game of Thrones. The game is being helmed by Brad Muir, who was the creative force behind Iron Brigade.

The Massive Chalice Kickstarter just went live less than an hour ago, and has already funded more than $20,000 of its $750,000 goal. Even if you don’t have the funds to pledge to the exciting new project right now, you should at least head on over to the Massive Chalice Kickstarter page and watch the surprisingly cinematic (and extremely hilarious) introduction video featuring Tim Schafer and friends.

In addition to learning some more about the game straight from the horse’s mouth, you’ll also find some tongue-in-cheek jokes at Double Fine’s own expense, a couple digs at big-time corporate video game publishers, and of course, projectile vomiting. What more could you ask for? （source：gamezebo）

5）’Taking genre conventions as your starting point is kinda boring’

By Kris Ligman

“Taking genre conventions as your starting point is kinda boring.”

- Cardboard Computer’s Jake Elliott

Two-man studio Cardboard Computer is poised to release the second act of its idiosyncratic, Southern Gothic point-and-click adventure Kentucky Route Zero “any day now,” says co-creator Jake Elliott.

Gamasutra had a chance to sit down with Elliott recently to get his read on developing a game from the point of its setting, rather than its mechanics.

“When I first started making games I was so immersed in ‘Indie’ games with a capital ‘I’ that I thought everything had to be a platformer,” says Elliott. “It was my go-to idea about how a game would function… But taking genre conventions as your starting point is kinda boring.”

Kentucky Route Zero began life as a Metroid-styled exploration game, Elliott tells Gamasutra. “There wouldn’t have been any violence or shooting. Just exploratory, and you had to do a lot of backtracking. We have some early prototypes of it; it’s kind of a weird fit.”

Elliott says that working through the game from the point of view of its setting allowed him and co-developer Tamas Kemenczy to continually finesse Kentucky Route Zero’s mechanics until the tone of the game showed through.

“We started stripping away gameplay mechanics, [things like] challenges and puzzles, and that turned it into more of a point-and-click, but that’s definitely not where we started. It’s just a process of undoing our preconceptions of what the game would be like.”

One of Kentucky Route Zero’s most artful aspects is the way it encourages players to make non-binary decisions.

“We’re used to thinking about consequences in games as being win-states and fail-states,” says Elliott, “or as narrative branching devices. But in the case of this game the consequences are often just what words are hanging in the air, what words you decide to commit to the record of the game.”

Above, you can see a Let’s Play walkthrough of Kentucky Route Zero’s first act by Unmanned author Jim Munroe, who is simultaneously interviewing Elliott about the game’s design.

Spoilers ensue, of course, but it’s an excellent insight into the design process from a game writers’ perspective.

On the subject of the game’s upcoming second act, the Cardboard Computer duo remain tight-lipped, but we’re bound to see an evolution from the previous installment.

“Act Two is a lot different than Act One in some ways, which will be pretty evident when it’s out,” Elliott offers. “You’ll be able to see with Act Two that we’re still figuring out some of what the design of the game is.”（source：gamasutra）