After nearly 4 years, chief game designer Brian Reynolds recently announced via Twitter message that he has left the employ of social game company, Zynga. In June of 2009, Reynolds founded Zynga’s Baltimore studio, Zynga East, the company’s first external game studio expansion.
Before Reynolds joined Zynga in 2009 he was a founding partner in Firaxis Games, where he played a major role in the design and creation of Sid Meier’s Gettysburg and Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri in the late 1990s. Reynolds sold his share in Firaxis and left the company in 2000 to become CEO of Big Huge Games, where he stayed until he joined Zynga.
Recent times have not been easy for Zynga. The company has had several top-level staff members leave in the past year, including COO John Schappert, CCO Mike Verdu and CastleVille lead designer Dave Pottinger. Electronic Arts also recently filed an ongoing lawsuit against the publisher, claiming Zynga infringed on its copyrights of The Sims Social by releasing The Ville.
(via Gamespot)
Report filed by Thomas Coutts