Brian Reynolds Leaves Chief Game Designer Position at Zynga

Video game developer Brian Reynolds, best known for working alongside Sid Meier on the Civilization series, is leaving his chief game designer position at social game developer Zynga.

Gamasutra has independent confirmation of the news and says that the designer wants to leave the company in order to pursue other opportunities, presumably with another high-profile development team.

Reynolds joined Zynga in 2009 coming from Big Huge Games and he was supposed to introduce more complexity to the experiences that the company offered while also attracting more mainstream gamers.

The move seems to have largely failed and complex Zyng-made video games have failed to find a solid audience.

Brian Reynolds is one of the most celebrated designers of turn-based strategy games and has worked on titles like Colonization, Rise of Nations and Alpha Centauri, perhaps his best title.