That was the year that was: Paul Farley, Tag Games

As the year draws to an end, it's time to look back at what happened in the world of mobile gaming during 2009.

Equally, the lessons of history are useless without a future to demonstration what we've learnt, so as well as asking various notables about their view on the past 12 months, we're also getting them to look ahead to 2010.

You can see the full list of our end of year interviews here.

Scottish mobile developer Tag Games demonstrated a range of business models during 2009, successfully bringing its mobile GTA-style game Car Jack Streets to iPhone, while also doing work-for-hire, and announcing it would be publishing thirdparty content in 2010. It will also be releasing games for DSiWare and PSP Minis.

Its MD is Paul Farley.

Pocket Gamer: What was the most significant event of 2009?

Paul Farley: It may have been a fairly underwhelming launch but the arrival of Sony's PSPgo, a video game platform that only supports digital downloads is surely a sign of things to come for the industry as a whole.

Mobile and handheld continue to lead in terms of future business and distribution models and the PSPgo reinforces this position.

What was the most significant event for Tag Games?

After three years of developing original IP, we had our first hit with Car Jack Streets on iPhone earlier in the year. It was a landmark title for us as it also demonstrated Tag's evolution from simple 2D Java mobile games to fully 3D console quality titles.

What was your favourite mobile game of 2009?

I'm still playing Harbor Master six months after release. It took the line drawing mechanic from Flight Control and made the gameplay faster and more immediate. It's an example of great arcade game-play sensibility in a contemporary form.

What do you predict will be the most important trends in 2010?

Iphone will continue to dominate smartphone hardware sales but will start eating into the mass market as exclusivity is eroded.

The large, touchscreen format will start to become the norm for all mobile phones and users will start to drift away from operators for mobile content as mobile search and the app store concept takes hold.

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

Operators moving to a 70/30 revenue share model across all mobile content including games.

Thanks to Paul for his time.

To keep in touch with Tag Games, check out its website and Twitterfeed.