It's not every company that has a Minister of Propaganda. Thunder Game Works certainly does, although Kris Jones is also a co-founder and producer at the US developer.

It released its successful World War I-themed tactics game Trenches, updating it 14 times during the year with new modes, support for Game Center, and local co-op.

It hopes to add still more modes, units and factions, as well as global multiplayer, during 2011.

PocketGamer: What was the most significant event of 2010?

Kris Jones: I would argue that it is a series of events that were most significant for 2010 for the mobile entertainment industry - specifically, the rise in acquisitions by premium companies.

This year we saw the massive acquisition of ngmoco by DeNA for $403 million, Zynga acquiring Newtoy (creator of the With Friends series), and EA Mobile acquiring Chillingo.

Although these acquisitions come with a lot of criticism, one thing they do show is that the biggest gaming companies in the world realise the potential in the mobile market, and will be focusing an increasing amount of resources to bring greater products.

What was the most significant event for Thunder Game Works?

We released Trenches, which was a huge deal for us. We were able to create a unique and popular brand on the Apple App Store and created a successful business from it. On December 31, Trenches surpassed 2 million total downloads. That is 870,000 units of the paid version and 1,270,000 for the free Boot Camp version.

Later in 2010, we released the zombie-themed Stenches to further promote the brand, which got the attention of Apple as it was promoted as Game of the Week in November. This has also lead to us partnering with significant players in the industry, which will lead to an even more impressive year for 2011.

What was your favourite mobile game of the year?

Of course, I need to mention Trenches, but my personal favorite was Game Dev Story by KairoSoft. It was a great combination of pick-up-and-play addictiveness and fun graphics.

What do you predict will be the most important trends in 2011

The freemium market will continue to thrive, but with greater diversity than we've previously seen in terms of games replicating the harvesting gameplay mechanic.
Gun Bros. [Glu Mobile] and Kingdom Conquest [Sega] are experimenting with new mechanics and Zombie Farm [The PlayForge] added a nice twist to the farming system.

If you could enforce one New Year's resolution, what would it be?

Get your game on and don't settle. For the mobile industry, I'd love to see more premium studios focus on what the players want. We live in a connected world and our gaming should emphasise that.
Thanks to Kris for his time.

You can check out Thunder Game Works via its website.