With the news that the latest incarnation of Angry Birds – Angry Birds Space – has hit 10 million downloads within just three days of being released, we’ve been thinking: what’s the dead-cert formula for making an ultra-popular mobile gaming app to blow everything else out of the water? Games are the most popular downloaded apps by quite some distance. If, as a developer, you can successfully crack the art of mobile gaming, you’ll be in the money. Here are our hints on how to put together an unstoppable multi-platform mobile game – and as you can see, Angry Birds aces them all. If only we could code, we’d be rolling in it.

1. Short, snappy stages (Angry Birds, Cloudy, Air Control):

This one’s pretty obvious, but with mobile apps, most gamers are going to be using them at bus stops, on breaks at work, or waiting for the second part of Coronation Street to start – keeping your stages short and fast-paced is what it’s all about. If you’re good, no matter how often people sit down thinking they’re just going to play your game for a couple of minutes, you’ll still end up grabbing them for hours.

2. Appeal to the ‘I can do this!’ mentality (Angry Birds, Red Stone, Bejewelled):

Puzzle games will never go out of fashion, particularly when it comes to mobile gaming. We’ve all done it – spent three hours playing the same level again and again, thinking every next turn is going to be the last. The ‘I can do this!’ (or even ‘I will do this!’ for the overconfident) mentality is probably solely responsible for thousands of hours wasted on games. Build a puzzle element into your game and appeal to our inner egotists.

3. Cute, potentially angry animals (Angry Birds, Cat Physics, Bouncy Mouse):

Even those of us who manage to keep ourselves together in front of pet shop windows can’t resist the appeal of mobile games that include cute animals and characters. Maybe it’s the humorous contrast between their large, fluttering eyes and the abhorrent violence you’re about to make them undertake, but I like to think there’s an animal-lover in us all, and it’s in charge of your app downloads.

4. Keep it simple (Angry Birds, Cloudy):

With quad-core handsets set to take the world by storm in 2012, it’s no big surprise that there are plenty of heavy 3D games out there in the iPhone App Store and Google Play. That said, the games with the biggest download rates will always be the ones that everyone can play. Whether you’re on a quad-core Samsung Galaxy S3 or a 600MHz Galaxy Ace, making a game that can play on pretty much any smartphone with no lag is your key to becoming a gaming god.

So what you waiting for? Stop playing other people’s games and start developing your own!

About Author: This post was provided by Simon from Best Mobile Contracts, the UK’s leading mobile phone comparison website.