Mobile Game Pitch winner Tobias Rowe helps us with our Finders Keepers enquiries

Last week, a young developer-in-training called Tobias Rowe took first prize in Channel 4 and Nokia's Mobile Game Pitch competition with Finders Keepers, receiving a cool thousand at the Golden Joysticks, along with an N96, a box-set of DVDs, and a hothouse placement with EA Mobile and Nokia. We caught up with Tobias to ask him some probing questions.

Tobias Rowe: Thank you. The core concept of Finders Keepers is attack and defence. As a notorious cat burglar, the player has to steal treasure from other players' vaults, whilst defending their own with security in the form of puzzles and mini-games. There are other features too but I think the best one allows a player to create their own personal calling card to leave in the vault of every player they steal from. I like to be cheeky.

At first I was worried that my idea wouldn't be selected because of the topic. As a game designer, I try to be innovative and original in all of my ideas. Stealing is wrong but getting one over on someone is something I think everyone enjoys.

Recently I've been very interested in mobile games. I've bought and reviewed several of them on different websites. The mobile phone as a unique platform that has advanced at a rapid pace within the last year or so and I personally see it as a market with great potential.

I was at home.

I don't see myself as a 'hardcore gamer' but a player who is addicted to all games. I've been extremely busy of late but I do try to play when the wife lets me or my two kittens aren't chewing through my console leads. It is a tough decision but my favourite game is Suikoden II. I love JRPGs. I've also spent many hours playing on Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War.

I've actually already bought Fable II. I bought a copy on launch day. So far it's living up to my expectations and I've always had respect for and been inspired by Peter Molyneux, he is an extraordinarily talented game designer. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, so I haven't bought Fallout 3, but Bethesda is an exceptional studio.

I suppose, a hole in the garden.

I've never actually stolen anything.

That's very true but I don't think it was a negative thing. If anything it shows the amount of interest in the potential of GPS gaming. During my brain storm when designing Finders Keepers I too was going to structure it around GPS technology but after my research I discovered that there was only a small percentage of existing capable mobile phones. I don't think it will define mobile gaming as a platform but there will be very interesting concepts designed with it in mind in the future.

Yes, definitely. If something doesn't currently exist it won't take long for a developer to take advantage of it and I don't mean that negatively. The DS, especially. Nintendo themselves are already introducing the DS into art galleries and baseball stadiums to be used in similar ways.

Nothing, because I didn't steal it.

I was intrigued by I Queue. After completing an IQ test you were placed in a virtual queue. You would then receive questions from the person in front of you and give questions to the person below you in order to advance in the queue and increase your intelligence. An excellent concept and, as Mandy at Channel 4, one of the judges, said, it would work perfectly as a TV show in the same vein as Deal or No Deal.

I'm definitely aiming for a career in the video game industry. A successful one I hope, too. I'm currently in my second year of studying a BA (hons) Game Design degree at the University of Central Lancashire. It's an excellent course, the best in the country, and the tutors are very experienced. I once thought that it was only a dream but with dedication and hard work, I'm going to achieve it.

Winning the Mobile Game Pitch competition will no doubt help, so any aspiring game developers should set up their drawing boards now in preparation for next year's contest.