Design chief Brian Reynolds leaves Zynga

Zynga lost yet another executive today with the departure of Brian Reynolds.

The company faced a mass exodus of its leadership last year, and the loss of its head game designer is certainly a poor way to ring in the new year.

Reynolds was lead game designer on Firaxis’s Civilization II, as well as Alpha Centauri, Colonization, Rise of Nations, and Rise of Legends.

He joined Zynga in 2009 from Big Huge Games, and was lead designer on Farmville.

Though multiple news sites confirmed the news independently, Zynga first denied the rumors before later issuing a statement.

"Brian has a long history in the game industry and has been a great partner to the creative leaders at Zynga," president of games Steve Chiang told Polygon.

"I want to thank him for his leadership of the Zynga Baltimore studio in the design and development of FrontierVille, which brought many innovations to social gaming. We appreciate Brian’s contribution and we’re proud of the deep bench of creative leaders who are leading the next wave of game innovation at Zynga. We wish Brian the best in his next chapter."