Mark Skaggs is an American video game producer and executive. Skaggs is known for leading the team that created the Facebook game '' FarmVille'' for Zynga, leading the team that created '' CityVille.'' He served as Executive Producer and product lead for the PC real-time strategy games '' Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2'', '' Command & Conquer: Generals'', and '' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth''.

Career

Skaggs founded Tetragon, Inc. in 1993, a small company that developed a console game called '' NanoTek Warrior'', released in 1997 through Virgin Interactive. Skaggs and Tetragon also worked for

GameTek GameTek was an American video game publisher based in North Miami Beach, Florida known for publishing video game adaptations of game shows in the late 1980s and early 1990s. GameTek was a trade name for IJE, the owner of electronic publishing rig ...

on the PC game '' Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller''. Skaggs later joined Westwood Studios as an Executive Producer.

Electronic Arts

After Westwood was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1998, Skaggs oversaw the creation of a series of hit real-time strategy games as vice president and Executive Producer at EA. His Westwood Studio in Irvine, California became known as

EA Pacific EA Pacific (formerly known as Burst Studios and Westwood Pacific) was a developer formally owned by Virgin Interactive's North American operations, and was based in Irvine, California. Burst Studios was beset by production problems during its early ...

. His first major RTS project was '' Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2'', released in 2000, followed by its expansion pack ''Yuri's Revenge'' in 2001. Skaggs then led the team making '' Command & Conquer: Generals'', released in 2003, notable because of its high quality 3D graphics and because it established a third product line in the ''Command & Conquer'' series (alongside the ''Tiberian'' and ''Red Alert'' games). The expansion pack for ''Generals'' was called ''Zero Hour'', also released in 2003. EA Pacific was relocated to Los Angeles in 2003, becoming a part of EA Los Angeles. The last major EA RTS game helmed by Skaggs was '' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth'', released in 2004. In 2005, Skaggs left EA to become COO for Trilogy Studios.

Zynga

Skaggs joined Zynga in 2008 and led the teams that built the Facebook games FarmVille and CityVille. He also led teams making other games at Zynga including '' The Ville'', ''Treasure Isle'', and the mobile version of

Empires & Allies ''Empires & Allies'' is a defunct social network game that was Zynga's first combat and strategy game. The game, the first release by Zynga's Los Angeles studio, launched in twelve languages on June 1, 2011. G4TV.com writer Jake Gaskill called th ...

. In 2015, Skaggs left Zynga. He joined India's Moonfrog Labs in 2016 as a game designer and board member, developing mobile games for the Indian market.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) American video game designers American entertainment industry businesspeople Zynga people Living people Video game producers Video game businesspeople {{US-bio-stub