Every Monday, FingerGaming rounds up the most popular paid iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as current that day on the iTunes App Store. This week’s top titles are:

1. Doodle Jump ($0.99)
2. All-in-1 Gamebox ($0.99)
3. Shopping Cart Hero ($0.99)
4. Bejeweled 2 ($2.99)
5. Skee-Ball ($0.99)
6. Moto X Mayhem ($0.99)
7. Words With Friends ($2.99)
8. RunStickRun! ($0.99)
9. Rock Band ($6.99)
10. iZombieland ($0.99)

Doodle Jump faces new competition this week from Triniti Interactive’s compilation app All-in-1 Gamebox, which returns to the charts to finish at second place.

Shopping Cart Hero falls to third place, meanwhile, as Bejeweled 2 rises up past Skee-Ball to take fourth.

Moto X Mayhem and Words With Friends were in danger of dropping out of the top ten last week, but both titles have since recovered to finish at sixth and seventh place. RunStickRun! places eighth following the recent release of a free Lite version, as Rock Band and iZombieland settle for ninth and tenth.

Hudson’s Military Madness series premiered on the TurboGrafx-16 console in 1990, offering console gamers a rare look at the PC-dominated turn-based strategy genre. Though it never achieved the same level of success as Nintendo’s similar Advance Wars series, Military Madness became a cult hit, and spawned several sequels across multiple console generations.

Hudson’s latest franchise update, Military Madness: Neo Nectaris ($4.99) features the same hex-based strategy gameplay the series is known for, updated with touch screen controls and enhanced visuals. Players will guide an army of troops, tanks, and aircraft against an AI opponent in a single-player campaign that spans 48 maps.

Though Hudson has not clarified whether Military Madness: Neo Nectaris is an all-new series entry or a port of an existing title, it appears as though the game is a remake of the PC Engine Super CD game Neo Nectaris, meaning that much of the game’s content will be new to players outside of Japan.

Tap Tap Revenge series creator Tapulous has launched Riddim Ribbon ($2.99), a rhythm-infused action title featuring licensed music from The Black Eyed Peas.

Riddim Ribbon challenges players to navigate a twisting, obstacle-filled ribbon by tilting the iPhone’s accelerometer. All hazards, items, and ramps are synced to the beat of a background music track, making for an immersive audio-visual experience in the vein of titles like Vib Ribbon and Audiosurf.

The core version of Riddim Ribbon includes three songs by The Black Eyed Peas, and boasts a total of eight remixed tracks in all. Three additional levels featuring songs by Tiësto and Benny Benassi are available for 99 cents each.

This weekend brings discounts for several big-name titles, including Ubisoft’s recently released Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery and the Gameloft-published aerial combat sim Tom Clancy’s HAWX.

Capcom’s iPhone-exclusive platformer Ghosts’n Goblins: Gold Knights also gets a steep drop in price, and can be picked up for only 99 cents. Other notable dollar-priced apps in this week’s roundup include Crayon Physics Deluxe, Chronicles of Inotia, and Heavy Mach 2.

• Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery ($9.99 -> $6.99)
• Tom Clancy’s HAWX ($6.99 -> $4.99)

• Ghosts’n Goblins: Gold Knights ($4.99 -> $0.99)
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 2010 ($4.99 -> $1.99)

• Crayon Physics Deluxe ($4.99 -> $0.99)
• Heavy Mach 2 ($2.99 -> $0.99)

• Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor ($2.99 -> $0.99)
• Tap-Fu ($2.99 -> $0.99)

• Stand O’ Food ($2.99 -> $0.99)
• Success Story ($1.99 -> $0.99)

Ukraine-based iPhone developer Tatem Games has brought the popular online Flash game Gibbets to the iPhone. iGibbets ($0.99) is a skill-based puzzle game in which players must use a bow and arrows to save the lives of hanging men by shooting the ropes above their heads.

Naturally, the operation can get a little messy. Miscalculate an angle, or misjudge the power of your shot, and you might have a dead ragdoll man weighing on your conscience. You can also expect plenty of blood and screaming, to make you feel even worse about turning the hanged men into pincushions.

Tatem Games notes that the original Flash version of Gibbets (playable for free here) has been played over 30 million times worldwide since its launch last year. The iPhone version includes all levels and content from the Flash version, and new stages will be released for free in future updates.

In this round-up, Gamasutra highlights some of the notable jobs posted in its industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Black Rock Studio, Blizzard and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site’s daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, ’serious games’, independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Black Rock Studio: Lead Vehicle Artist
“When a company the size of Disney steps into European development, it’s pretty big news. Disney employs over 100,000 staff. It’s one of the biggest Entertainment companies in the world and it’s getting serious about original games. We’re a strong studio of just over a hundred people, based at the heart of beautiful and cosmopolitan Brighton, UK. Just a quick train ride away from London in an office where pretty much everyone gets a sea view. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly but focussed and our role is to create original racing game franchises.”

CCP China: Senior Programmer
“CCP, makers of the largest game universe in existence, is looking for a Senior Engineer to be a part of the creative team that brought the world the groundbreaking MMO title, EVE Online. Successful applicants will join a seasoned team based in Shanghai, China where they will work on original games for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.”

Ubisoft San Francisco: Lead Artist
“Ubisoft Entertainment, a global leader in the video games and entertainment software industry, is currently seeking a full-time Lead Artist. We are looking for a talented, motivated and experienced person to create and manage art development on an exciting next-generation cross platform project. Qualified individuals are expected to be organized, with excellent communication skills, and have a proven track record in management and art direction for both internal and external outsourcing studios.”

Blizzard: Senior Exterior Level Designer
“Blizzard Entertainment is looking for a senior exterior level designer with experience building outdoor levels similar to those of World of Warcraft. The ideal candidate has industry experience on a shipping game or has created and distributed levels in the fan/mod community. Level designers need to be able to create fun and interesting environments that look and play great. Game design experience and skills in general 3D modeling/texturing are preferred. The senior level designer must have experience leading a team but also works well in an environment of peers who are passionate about making great games.”

Monolith: Staff Software Engineer, Engine
“Over the past 10 years, Monolith has risen to critical acclaim with products such as the FEAR franchise, the Condemned series, the No One Lives Forever franchise, Aliens vs. Predator 2; and Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. Monolith has focused primarily on first person action games with a strong emphasis on storytelling and atmosphere. In addition, Monolith has extensive internal expertise creating cutting edge tools and technology to support our products. The company’s number one goal is to create fun, compelling games to excite the imaginations of gamers everywhere.”

Sony Computer Entertainment America: Senior Developer Support Engineer, Audio
“Be a part of the most exciting and innovating computer entertainment in North America. Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) markets the PlayStation® family of products and develops, publishes, markets, and distributes software for the PS one™ console, the PlayStation®2 and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment systems and the PlayStation Portable (PSP™).”

To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra’s job board now.

Zenonia publisher Gamevil has released its latest title for the iPhone platform. Billed as an “artistic action-RPG,” Vanquish: The Oath of Brothers ($2.99) boasts a striking visual style and a dramatic storyline based on the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history.

Vanquish’s gameplay blends elements from the RPG and hack-n-slash genres. While the in-game action plays like an arcade-style brawler, players will be able to upgrade weapons and learn new abilities between levels, using experience and items earned in battle.

Vanquish includes three playable characters and 25 unlockable achievements. A gameplay trailer is below.

The 100 page report is a result of a survey of more than 800 video game professionals from North America and beyond who read Gamasutra, subscribe to Game Developer magazine, or attend Game Developers Conference.

Those complete results are available as a 100-page report from Game Developer Research, and more information from the survey is also available in the February 2010 issue of Game Developer magazine.

The results of the comprehensive 55-question survey help to illustrate which platforms Western game creators develop for, which market sectors they work in, which tools they use and how much they spend on these tools, and sheds light on which factors determine the target platforms for game development.

As a reflection of recent economic difficulties and resulting layoffs, this year’s survey reveals that many experienced developers have founded smaller studios, or have begun developing games on their own.

This trend is marked by a 7 percent growth in the proportion of developers employed by companies of 50 employees or fewer, while in sharp contrast, the proportion of developers at companies of 500 or more employees has fallen by two percent since last year’s survey.

As shown from the results of the survey, another increasingly prevalent trend has been the growth of the mobile space. Due in large part to the success of Apple’s iPhone software platform, mobile support shot up to 25 percent of developers, more than doubling last year’s 12 percent.

Of these mobile developers, nearly three quarters of that group are targeting iPhone and iPod touch development, a number more than twice the reported support for traditional handhelds like Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.

Meanwhile, the choices of development platform showed relative stability. Just over 70 percent of developers said they were developing at least one game for PC or Mac (including browser and social games), rising slightly from last year; 41 percent reported working on console games. Within that latter group, Xbox 360 was the most popular system with 69 percent of console developers targeting it, followed by 61 percent for PlayStation 3.

While those console figures stayed within a few percent of last year’s results, the change in Wii adoption was much more significant: reported developer support for the system dropped from 42 percent to 30 percent of console developers, supporting numerous publishers’ claims of a recent softening of the Wii market.

When it comes to choosing target platforms, more developers cited ease of development and market penetration as incentives, more than any other factors. Other important considerations included team members’ existing skill sets, portability of code to a given platform, and the acquisition costs of development kits and materials.

“Like any other medium of entertainment, video game development is subject to change with the ebb and flow of the economy and any hot new trends, and this year’s survey continues to reflect this evolution,” says Simon Carless, global brand director of Think Services Game Group (and publisher of Gamasutra).

“The full, detailed survey document, with its plethora of raw data and wealth of insight, is an important resource for any industry-watchers looking to navigate the changing seas of the games industry.”

The full ‘State of Game Development 2009-2010 Survey’ includes dozens more data points about the preferred software, hardware, and tools of game developers across game engines, AI tools, production machines and beyond, as well as game genre and sector statistics, geographical breakdowns, budgetary information for the past year, and upcoming product purchase intent.

The survey was conducted with a sample of 814 users of Game Developer magazine, Gamasutra, and attendees of the Game Developers Conference, and can be projected to the overall game development community with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.

Those complete results are available as a 100-page report from Game Developer Research, alongside numerous other reports delving into the key facts and trends that define the modern game development industry. More information from the survey is also available in the February 2010 issue of Game Developer magazine.

Every Thursday, FingerGaming rounds up the most popular free iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as current that day on the iTunes App Store. This week’s top titles are:

1. Kinetic Balls
2. iBomber
3. Rock Band Free
4. RunStickRun! Lite
5. Titanic Rescue
6. Call of Duty: World at War Zombies Lite
7. Driver Free
8. How Long Can You Tap It?
9. FallDown!
10. Dum Dum Pops Flick-A-Pop

After making its chart debut at fifth place last week, Motion 9’s executive toy simulator Kinetic Balls tops the charts as this week’s most popular free game in the App Store.

Cobra Mobile’s arcade-styled bombing game iBomber follows at second, as last week’s chart champion Rock Band falls to third place.

Activision’s Call of Duty: World at War Zombies Lite also sees a drop in popularity after a strong showing last week, as newcomers RunStickRun! Lite and Titanic Rescue move in at fourth and fifth place. A free version of Gameloft’s Driver makes its chart debut at seventh, while FallDown! drops to ninth place after previously debuting at fourth.

You like Music?
You like Platforms?
You like pink bird-like things?
You like the Jungle?

It’s hard to argue with any of those things! If, like me, you also enjoy all of the above, then Bulkypix suggests that you’ll love its upcoming rhythm-based platformer Maestro! Jump in Music – Green Groove Edition.

Created by French indie developer Pasta Games, Maestro! Jump in Music stars a pink bird-like thing out for a leisurely stroll across a series of floating platforms. Players must “strum” the platforms to the rhythm of a background music track to make the bird jump to collect items and avoid bottomless pits.

Later levels add new rhythmic challenges, including enemies that must be tapped to the beat and platforms that can be rubbed rapidly to play sustained bonus notes.

Maestro! Jump in Music originally debuted for the Nintendo DS in Europe last year, but has yet to see a U.S. release. The iPhone version will launch worldwide at the end of this month for 99 cents. A preview video is below.