Looking for some input for a leader board / incentive system for a new iOS puzzle game app. What are your suggestions?

I would suggest you self-publish. Let me break down the mobile game landscape for you in a single statement: *You can only grow a game if your LTV (Lifetime Value) is greater then your CPI (Cost Per Install).* I assure you, that once you have that formula successful, finding money to support continued growth of your game at extremely favorable terms to yourself is not going to be a problem. If you don't have success with the above formula, then it doesn't matter if you have a publisher, your game's not going to be able to grow and make money with them either. There are only 2 conditions which you should consider a game publisher: 1) You need money to complete the game. (ie, no way will the game exist unless you get the money.) 2) For specific geo locations, such as China where there are people who can properly localize and market the game. That's it. I believe there is no grey area here and I've had experience on both sides of the table, including being the first 3rd party publisher signed by Zynga. The latest game I built is currently in the top 100 grossing chart (Cookie Jam) and it's there because we have successfully cracked the formula above. Its quite simple, but really difficult to achieve. Good luck! -Michael.

Hello, thanks for ask. Well, in the Web are specialized sites for coders, developers and testers. I reccomend you the three I consider best for your searching: 1.Toptal: It matches the a good percentage of freelance developers with employers. Based on your project description, you will be matched with the developer most suited for the job. You will then have two weeks to decide if they are right for you. 2. Matchist: This site connects top freelance developers with entrepreneurs and startups. You submit your project, and they will give you three great developers from which to choose. Matchist accepts only 15 percent of developer applicants to their network. 3. Guru: Guru allows you to look for specific services and people who provide them. These include general programming, language-specific programming, software, and management. I hope this info would be useful for you. Greetings.

Online, however, there could be anything going on behind all of that technical wizardry, right? Technically that is true, but online bingo played at regulated websites is as fair, safe, and trustworthy as the real thing.

The quick and honest answer is - you don't. In games, as in many places in the software industry, ideas are worth nothing, only the implementation counts. In addition, ideas tend to evolve during development and the design you end up implementing in the final game is quite often very different from the one you started with. To be even more honest - it's likely your idea is not as original as you think. I'm not trying to suggest you're not creative, just that there are a lot of other creative people in the industry and we all have tons of ideas. I have written several game designs in the past, then found that other people implemented the same ideas a while later without knowing me. Sometimes I even discovered my ideas were implemented years before I had them by people I never heard of. That's the life in our business. Another tip - don't try to sign people on NDAs just for hearing your idea. NDAs are fine if you expose them to code, art and data you have already prepared/collected. These are "implementation" products. Trying to sign people on NDAs for hearing your idea is a newbie move and no industry professional / investor will do it. It will make you look like an amateur. Ok, so this was the discouraging part, now the encouraging one... If you have a game idea that you think will rock - just go and try it. You don't need developers to try out a platform game idea, just use one of the MANY quick-builders tools out there. Game Maker is a good option as well as GameSalad Creator. Often you'll find that what you imagined to be a cool idea might not be as fun to play. Sometimes you'll find that combining two genres into one game, as many ideas tend to be, misses the fun factor both genre had. Games are about finding a fun factor. Identifying a pattern players enjoy recognizing and following over and over. This is immensely hard, but so rewarding when accomplished. I was in charge of the final project workshop of the Game Studies program in collage for 6 years. I went through this process with many students (including the fear of 'idea theft' at the beginning) - it is worth it every time a new game is born. As to finding developers - look either between your friends or on internet forums (gamedev.net, indieteamup.com). Both places are good, but projects done with friends have higher success rate by far. You can also locate the nearest IGDA Chapter / Game Hackathon (like Global Game Jam) and befriend people there. All in all, I hope you proceed with your game project. Feel free to contact me if you feel I could help in any way.

I guess the best answer is, it depends. What kind of mobile game are you marketing? Who are you targeting? For what platform? (iOS, Android?) Different ad networks work better than others depending on the type of game. A good place to start would be MoPub, MDotM, Manage, and Insight.