For every yin there's a yang. While Tag Games might have been willing to highlight some its misdemeanours in 2010, it's also not shy of blowing its own trumpet when it needs to.

In a follow up blog post to the original rundown of slip-ups, co-founder Paul Farley lists five key areas where he thinks Tag Games has made the right moves throughout the course of the year – and working with media giants like the BBC, Endemol and Channel 4 was most definitely one of them.

Sun always shine on TV

"Working with TV and film companies, many of which are entering the mobile games market for the first time, has been an excellent experience," says Farley, with Tag having worked on franchises such as Doctor Who, Wipeout and Come Dine With Me during 2010.

"In the UK in particular we feel that the BBC and Channel 4 have the potential to impact British independent game creation in a similar fashion to the way in which they have impacted TV and film making in this country.

"If the BBC and Channel 4 build on their early appetite for games...then the UK could have a very exciting mechanism for growing game development in the face of overseas competition."

Fostering formatsTag hasn't been scared to expand its own remit, either.

While Farley claims many within the industry had warned against the studio working on DS and PSP, he says the whole experience has actually proved useful.

"Not only have sales on both platforms met and exceeded our expectations, we have learnt so much from dealing directly with Nintendo and Sony that the overall experience has been of great benefit," he adds.

The rest of the studio's successes this year have revolved around either shelling out to pick up talent left by fallen rivals, or ensuring too much of the firm's budget isn't needlessly lavished on games.

"This year it's really hit home that you need great people to make great games," Farley summarises

"As we've grown we've been very fortunate to be able to attract a high calibre of new recruits to Tag at both ends of the spectrum.

"Local job losses in the games industry have poured a wealth of experienced talent onto the streets of Dundee and we've been quick to move for some really great people from both Denki and Realtime Worlds in particular."

The graphics race

But while it can be easy to pour such talent into big budget releases – Farley citing both Real Racing 2 and Infinity Blade as two game changers on that score – Tag knows where its borders lie.

"It can't be denied that there are a large number of mobile gamers that want to play games such as Real Racing, Infinity Blade and Dead Spaceon, but they aren't the mass market and the cost of development means that most indie studios would have to place all their well-earned eggs in a single basket to try and compete at that level," he concludes.

"It's like we are trying to recreate the failing console eco-system on mobile and that's just crazy."

Farley does note that investing in technology is an inescapable part of the job, however, claiming that its moFlow game engine will add new formats to its roster in 2011.

"We expect to extend the functionality and platform support of moFlow in 2011 to include Windows Phone 7, Palm and Nintendo 3DS as well as completing phase one of moConnect our connected and social gaming platform for mobile games early in the year."

[source: Tag Games]