As we consider the trends of the past 12 months and look forward to the next 12 months, we've asked the great and the good in the mobile gaming industry for their opinions.

Barry Meade is the commercial director of Fireproof Studios, the UK developer responsible for Apple's iPad Game of the Year for 2012, The Room.

Pocket Gamer: What do you think was the most significant event for the mobile games industry in 2012?

Barry Meade: That's tough to answer honestly – we only released The Room three months ago, so we're a bit too noob to give a rundown of changes in the mobile scene. And with one foot in consoles we kinda see it as one big games industry anyway.

On that front there's much you could say, not least of which is that it's now clear Microsoft and especially Sony, are mortal and the mountains that support the industry might fall.

But gaming continues to thrive; mobile was exploding with good stuff in 2012 and it just keeps getting better.

What was the most significant event for your company?

Jaysus, where to start. Having Rob our coder join us in January, maybe. Or perhaps it was showing a six weeks demo of The Room to Apple and seeing their faces light up.

Maybe the game getting featured by Apple on release in September... or watching it go to #1 just 24 hours later, with all of Fireproof together at my house for my 40th piss up – THAT was cool!

Seeing the user reviews of the iPhone version getting just the same love as the iPad, maybe? Then there was the huge shocker of Apple giving us iPad Game of the Year 2012.

It's been a nuts year for us. We've been broke-ass dreamers since 2008 so the most significant event of 2012 for us was 2012.

What was your favourite mobile game of the year?

I play console and PC games too so not sure I have favourites – there's lots of stuff I like really.

I suppose a fair way to measure it is how much time I put in something, and that would have to be Kairosoft's games. Pocket Clothier was their best since Game Dev Story, though I mined the shit out of Dungeon Village and Epic Astro too.

I should also mention Bridge Constructor and Great Big War Game. Incoboto was great too – can't believe that wasn't huge. Also Wonderputt was a charmer. Seeing Minecraft do so well is just great. There's loads I could say.

What do you predict will be the most important trends in 2013?

Well, given that I've no idea, I'll just guess like everybody else: Maybe Google will do something to button up the crazy Android marketplace... in fact someone, anyone, should do something.

I also hope and pray that Microsoft and especially Sony change how they deal with developers, as they're driving themselves and their developers out of business.

In mobile I hope we'll see a lot more efforts to make true touchscreen games – it requires new genres but we can afford to be brave with such a huge audience. And maybe there'll be a much bigger push to make tablets into mini-consoles with AV connectivity and joypads etc.

Anyway, like I said, any predictions I have I say only because they sound about right – I haven't the foggiest.

What's your New Year's resolution and what resolution would you enforce on the industry?

Resolutions? I work hard on my vices I'm not giving them up. To be honest, I intend to collect a few more before I go.

Luckily, however, I'm a natural hypocrite so I'll gladly enforce them on someone else – in this case the entire industry.

I would resolve the industry at this time of madness to calm down a bit – to stop trying to be a ka-zillionaires and get back to the creative/engineering basics of good games.

It's so complicated to navigate success if you constantly listen to all the Silicon Valley-backed Facebook trend-o-rama studios. The push to be instantly successful and do everything huge is a mug's game if everybody does it.

I would take all that extra time trying to learn business and networks and sucking up to angels and spend it getting better at interactive software. Concentrate on making a really good game that deserves to be looked at and you will find an audience.

Oh, and cut down on salt and take a walk occasionally.
Thanks to Barry for his time.