Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From Super Mario Bros. 3 To Keeping Appearances

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including level design lessons from Super Mario Bros. 3, minding the details when developing indie games, and more.] In our weekly Best of Expert Blogs column, we showcase notable pieces of writing from members of the game development community who maintain Expert Blogs on Gamasutra. Member Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while the invitation-only Expert Blogs are written by development professionals with a wealth of experience to share. We hope that both sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information about the blogs, check out the latest official posting guidelines. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs - Super Mario Bros. 3 Level Design Lessons, Part 3 (Radek Koncewicz) Radek Koncewicz provides an illustrated overview of the overworld hubs in NES classic Super Mario Bros. 3, studying how they're linked to the core gameplay stages. - Why Connectrode Costs $.99 (...And Why It Shouldn't Have To) (Shay Pierce) Following his release of iOS puzzler Connectrode, Shay Pierce examines the iOS market to see why developers are not just eroding prices, but also eroding the public perception of the value of what they do. - Our Digitally Distributed Futures... (Borut Pfeifer) Borut Pfeifer runs down all the current trends claiming to individually revolutionize the industry, and predicts the death of Facebook games (kinda). How can an indie dev navigate these chaotic trends in order to pick a platform strategy? - Keeping Up Appearances (Randy O'Connor) Are you selling your indie game? Tiger Style's Randy O'Connor advises that you make sure you put in the same details you'd expect out of games you pay for.