Aviator arcade gunsight method

Checked: the procedure used to assemble the Kakob Aviator shortlist. Method: timed protocol with dated gates. Result: a repeatable gunsight pass any reader can audit against the published cards.

Charter for the pass

The gunsight method exists so ranking notes stay falsifiable. Every claim on Kakob must map to a Play field or to an explicit editorial tag labelled as such. The Aviator keyword scopes the genre: casual flight combat where aiming, waves, or run structure are visible on the listing. Titles that only borrow airplane art without a combat loop stay outside the crosshair.

Kakob AS operates from Akersgata 16, 0158 Oslo. The desk is independent of CASUAL AZUR GAMES, Ruby Entertainment, KIW GAMES, and Google Play. That independence line is part of the method, not a footer afterthought: affiliate offers and paid bumps are rejected before scoring begins.

Gate one — pool open

On 20 October 2026 the pool opened. Inclusion rules: Google Play availability, public package id, content rating at 7+ with a violence descriptor, and English-readable listing copy sufficient to judge Aviator fit. Exclusion rules: gambling vocabulary, missing package id, or age labels that the desk could not verify on the store card.

Candidates were logged with name, developer, and package string only. No star scores entered the sheet yet. Mixing scores too early biases the pool toward already-popular titles and hides quieter listings that still fit the gunsight.

Gate two — field capture

On 24 October 2026 each survivor received a capture row: rating, review count, download band, ads flag, IAP flag, content label, last update date. Fields the store omitted were marked “not published” rather than guessed. Download bands use the Play notation (100K+, 1M+) because exact install counters are not exposed.

Artwork paths were reserved only when real icons and stills existed on disk. The method forbids gradient placeholders. If a still is missing, the image slot is dropped. That rule keeps the Aviator desk honest when a listing changes creative assets after the check date.

Gate three — gunsight filter

On 27 October 2026 the filter ran. A title stays if the listing supports a readable targeting or flight-combat loop and if monetisation flags are present in some form (including Free + IAP without ads). Soft rejects: unclear genre mashups, broken package URLs, or content labels outside the 7+ violence band chosen for this pass.

Best-for tags were assigned only after filter pass: tank AA for Air Defense, ship-upgrade loops for Sky Attack, roguelike arcade for Galaxy Air Fighter. Tags are desk shorthand derived from listing presentation; they are not Play category enums.

Gate four — lock and publish

On 29 October 2026 order locked. Sort keys: rating descending, then review count, then download band. Air Defense (4.4 / 16.8K / 1M+) led. Sky Attack (4.2 / 3.55K / 100K+) sat second. Galaxy Air Fighter (4.0 / 2.19K / 100K+) closed the list. The homepage numbers hero surfaces the lead rating, lead downloads, and the check calendar stamp.

Publication includes ranking cards with mandatory review links, a ratings chart scaled 0–5, a method timeline mirroring this guide, and an FAQ-led block because L8 on this build is FAQ-led. Install CTAs always leave Kakob for Play with noopener nofollow.

Re-check triggers

The method schedules a re-pass when a listing changes rating band by 0.2 or more, when the content label shifts, or when ads/IAP flags flip. Cosmetic icon swaps alone do not force a full reorder. Readers can request a correction via the contact form; accepted corrections appear in future check notes.

What the method refuses

It refuses invented session lengths, fabricated permission lists, and “best/top/free download” headline spam. It refuses hosting APKs. It refuses dark-pattern urgency copy. The Aviator gunsight is a laboratory voice: state the check, state the method, state the result.

Worked example on the three cards

Apply the gates to the published trio. Pool: all three had public package ids and 7+ violence labels. Capture: ratings 4.4 / 4.2 / 4.0, samples 16.8K / 3.55K / 2.19K, downloads 1M+ / 100K+ / 100K+, monetisation Free+IAP / ads+IAP / ads+IAP, updates Oct 2025 / Feb 2026 / Jul 2026. Filter: all three kept Aviator combat framing with distinct role tags. Lock: sort by rating then sample then downloads → Air Defense, Sky Attack, Galaxy Air Fighter.

The worked example exists so a reader can reproduce the order without trusting the homepage alone. If any captured field was wrong, the contact form is the correction channel. If a field was right but a reader prefers a different sort key (for example freshness first), that preference is valid for personal use and still outside Kakob’s published rule.

FAQ-led weight on the homepage means six to eight protocol questions sit near the timeline. This guide remains the long form. Methodology remains the policy page. Columns remains the index. The gunsight metaphor ties them without turning the site into a dashboard of competing widgets.

Failure modes the method watches for

False package match: icon looks right, id differs. Failed check. Inflated download claims on third-party blogs: ignored. Missing ads flag treated as “definitely no ads forever”: forbidden; we only say “not listed as ads-supported on the pass sheet.” Keyword stuffing “best free Aviator download 2026” in titles: rejected by editorial policy. Horizontal scroll from long package ids: mitigated in CSS, verified at 320px.

Another failure mode is layout drift — turning the homepage into a dashboard of stats, schedules, and promo chips. The build spec keeps a numbers hero, a shortlist note, ranking with best-for tags, ratings chart, method timeline, FAQ, blog preview, and CTA. That sequence is intentional. Extra widgets would dilute the gunsight metaphor and violate the one-job-per-section rule used across this fleet.

Cookie notice failure modes are mechanical: never set display:flex on the base cookie class, always toggle the hidden attribute, always use kb_gunsight_consent as the storage key, always name that key in Privacy. The method document mentions cookies because trust in the desk includes trust in how the notice behaves.

Publication checklist

Before a gunsight pass goes live: ranking cards link to real reviews; reviews carry back links to Columns; store buttons carry noopener nofollow; checked dates match; sitemap lists every slug; privacy names kb_gunsight_consent; header is fixed; drawer is a sibling; cookie uses hidden; FAQ accordion does not inherit oversized card padding; folded-corner cards keep the ::after fold; blur-in respects prefers-reduced-motion; split-screen aside pins from 1024px with the data-pin script.

Audience and operator layers

The Aviator gunsight separates audience locale from legal operator. SITE_LOCALE en-IN steers English phrasing toward an India-facing reader. COMPANY_COUNTRY NO and the Oslo street address identify Kakob AS as the operator. Neither layer rewrites Google Play commerce, package ownership, or content ratings. Keeping those layers separate stops the method from inventing India-only download counters or Norway-only star marks.

When a correction arrives, ask which layer it belongs to: listing fact, desk copy, or legal footer. Listing facts require a new Play pass. Desk copy can be edited without moving the checked date. Legal footer changes are rare and do not reshuffle the Aviator ranking.

That checklist mixes editorial and engineering because the method fails if either side lies. A perfect sort with broken store links is still a failed pass. Perfect CSS with invented ratings is still a failed pass. The Aviator gunsight demands both.

Language and locale notes

SITE_LOCALE en-IN means the desk writes in English for an India-facing audience while COMPANY_COUNTRY NO keeps the legal entity in Norway. The method does not translate Play ratings into localised stars; the numbers stay as published. Keyword Aviator appears as natural phrasing in titles and headings. Gambling terms stay banned. Absolute asset paths stay mandatory. No PHP file closes with ?>.