--- title: "How we pick ideas: reading the store charts — Savas Games" description: "Each of our eight new games started from the October 2026 top charts. How we read them, what we look for, and how we find a twist of our own." url: https://savasgames.com/devlog/picking-ideas-from-the-charts last_updated: 2026-10-09 --- # How we pick ideas: reading the store charts [Devlog](https://savasgames.com/devlog), 10 October 2026, 2 min read Each of our eight new games started from the October 2026 top charts. How we read them, what we look for, and how we find a twist of our own. ![Honk! Bus Jam app icon and screenshots](https://savasgames.com/games/honk-bus-jam/og.jpg) We are a small studio, so we cannot afford to guess what people want to play. Before we started our eight new games, we spent time with the free and top-grossing charts of the App Store and Google Play, in the US and in Turkey, as they stood in early October 2026. ## What we look for - **A style of game that is growing right now.** Logic puzzles where you place one piece per row, column and region were at the very top of the free charts. Arrow puzzles, where you tap blocks out of a shape in the right order, were the fastest-growing puzzle style of the year. Sorting puzzles, parking jams, aim-and-smash physics games, block puzzles, pixel-clearing puzzles and ring puzzles all had hits near the top. - **A rule you can learn in seconds.** If it takes a long tutorial to explain, it is not a good fit for us. - **Room for our own twist.** We do not want to make copies. Each game gets one idea of its own. ## Our twists - **Cat Corner:** the logic puzzle, with 3D cats in pastel gardens and a new puzzle every day. - **Surprise Cube:** every arrow cube hides a toy, and the toys fill a shelf. - **Fishbowl:** the pieces are fish that swim and wiggle, and every sorted species joins your aquarium. - **Honk! Bus Jam:** passengers board by colour, so you plan the order in which you clear the lot. - **Topple!:** real physics, and goblins who never get hurt; they just tumble off with a squeak. - **Jelly Grid:** glossy jelly cubes, plus an Adventure mode with goals. - **Pixel Bees:** bee swarms carry the picture away, and finished pictures turn to honey. - **Ring Twist:** generated levels checked by a solver, so there is real depth to dig into. ## Reading the reviews too Charts tell you what is popular; reviews tell you what players miss. One of the ring puzzles near the top had many reviews saying the same few levels kept repeating and that it got too easy. That is why Ring Twist has eighty levels with five different twists, each introduced on its own. ## Then we prototype, fast Each idea goes from a one-page description to something playable on a real phone as quickly as possible. If it does not feel good under the thumb, no amount of polish will save it. More about that in [Making it feel good](https://savasgames.com/devlog/making-it-feel-good). ## More from the devlog [All devlog posts](https://savasgames.com/devlog) - Devlog, 10 October 2026 **[Our journey so far](https://savasgames.com/devlog/our-journey-so-far)** From our first learning games for kids in March to eight cosy 3D puzzle games in October: how Savas Games has changed in its first seven months. - Devlog, 10 October 2026 **[Puzzles that can always be solved](https://savasgames.com/devlog/puzzles-that-can-always-be-solved)** Nothing ruins a puzzle game like a level that cannot be won. How we build levels backwards, let solvers play every one of them and grade how hard they are. - Devlog, 10 October 2026 **[Making it feel good](https://savasgames.com/devlog/making-it-feel-good)** Squash and stretch, tiny haptic taps and slow motion for the biggest crash: the small details that make a puzzle feel good under your thumb. --- Savas Games · a brand of Savas OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia · info@savasgames.com Web page: https://savasgames.com/devlog/picking-ideas-from-the-charts · Index of this site for AI assistants: https://savasgames.com/llms.txt