Making sure you start the year in style, Pocket Gamer Connects London is happening on 13-14 January 2015 at Vinopolis. 

And tickets are available now.

So to give you a hint at what you can expect, we're shining the spotlight onto our speakers to provide a deeper look at the personalities who will be taking the stage at PG Connects London 2015.

Head in interstellar clouds

James Brooksby is a nearly 20 year games industry veteran; something that has bought significant experience in terms of running and guiding game development studios and producing games.

He has produced a large number of high quality games including Firewarrior, Geometry Wars Galaxies, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and Burn Zombie Burn.

In near the start of a company that grew to be Kuju Entertainment, a UK developer with around 350 staff, he's increasingly been involved in senior management positions, for example, founding doublesix games, a Kuju division that was solely focused on digitally distributed games on multiple platforms using innovative marketing and sales techniques,

James then led a management buy-out of part of doublesix to form Born Ready Games which successfully launched Strike Suit Zero.

Currently James is CEO of Born Ready Games, as well as the CEO of Edge Case Games, where he heads up the team building Fractured Space, a PC game that has the potential to be huge.

Pocket Gamer: We're showcasing the Best of British at Pocket Gamer Connects so how much of an impact have British game developers had in your gaming life?

James Brooksby: Huge. I have been playing games since I was small and I am 42, so most of my early years games were made by Brit developers.

Then there was Elite, an amazing British game that has influenced me to this day.

Why is user acquisition such a challenge in the mobile business today?

UA was always going to get extremely tough, it was just a matter of when.

There are no simple solutions or everyone would be doing whatever it is. I don't have a one-trick answer.

What are the major challenges currently facing games businesses when publishing abroad?

It depends where abroad is, but recently looking east, challenges are going to be for those without strong free-to-play mechanics in their games, or ones that require huge amounts of translation.

Also genres and style matter more than it may initially seem.

How can indie developers adapt to survive in the mobile economy?

I don't have a great answer to that.

Will new technology like wearable tech and VR change the mobile landscape?

Of course, but it will take time. VR for mobile I think is a stepping stone to AR, and that is where the future for what will be mobile will be incredible and omnipresent.

What are you most looking forward to at Pocket Gamer Connects?

Meeting people.

What's your prediction for the mobile gaming industry in 2015?

More available, incredible power, with most games struggling to use it in a clear visible way.

Grab your tickets for Pocket Gamer Connects London 2015 here!

Don't forget to keep up-to-date with content from our speakers via the Speaker Spotlight hashtag.

And you can check out videos of our speaker talks from PG Connects Helsinki 2014 here.