FarmVille creator moves to Moonfrog

Mark Skaggs, the dev behind Zynga hits FarmVille, CityVille and Empires & Allies, has joined an Indian studio formed by fellow ex-Zynga devs.

Skaggs spent seven years at Zynga, serving as SVP of games while he led production on multiple big titles at the casual specialist, before leaving last September.

He has now taken up the position of director at Moonfrog Labs, which was spawned three years ago by ex-members of Zynga’s Indian arm and received $15 million in funding in March 2015.

Skaggs had previously worked with Moonfrog in a remote capacity following his time at Zynga.

“I wanted to find people with the same values for making games – transparency, openness, respect for creative leadership and long-term thinking instead of short-term chasing,” he told Techcrunch.

He added: “The [Indian] audience will have the opportunity to go through the experience of getting their first smartphone and that first experience of gameplay and then the next year, when they are ready to upgrade, they are ready for more complex game experiences.

"They see it with fresh eyes and we get to learn what audiences like and deliver them fresh entertainment.”