Smaller independent mobile game developers will need to find more cash to achieve sufficient visibility of their products over the next year, according to Juniper Research.

The analyst firm said that with the number of apps continuing to rise, it will become harder for new games from smaller developers to make their mark.

As a result, crowdfunding is likely to become a more popular way of generating cash that can be used to drive consumer awareness of products. One of the best-known crowdfunding platforms is Kickstarter.

And it seems that games optimised for tablets will become more lucrative for developers in the next few years.

Juniper’s Mobile & Handheld Games: Discover, Monetise, Advertise 2014–2019 report forecast that revenue generated by games optimised for these devices will more than treble to reach $13.3 billion by 2019.

With the market worth $3.6 billion in 2014, growth will be driven by improved storage capacity of devices, better graphical capabilities, increasing mobile broadband penetration and consumer preferences for convenience.

The report also predicted strong growth in the monetisation of smartphone games in emerging markets, aided by direct operator billing as a way of getting around the issue of low credit card penetration.

In addition, advertising will become increasingly important in generating revenue with only 6 per cent of mobile games predicted to require payment at the point of download.

Games embedded within messaging services could also stimulate further growth in the medium term, the report asserted.