Mark Skaggs

Mark Skaggs

Allen, Texas, United States
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Gala Games

About

Exec and Game Maker with deep hands-on experience building teams and creating multiple…

Articles by Mark

  • Advice for students looking to make games for a living
    Dec 30, 2016

    Advice for students looking to make games for a living

    Here's the general advice I gave to a student near graduation looking to make games. Sharing it here for others to…

    10 Comments
  • My Next Adventure!
    Feb 25, 2016

    My Next Adventure!

    Hello everyone! Last fall, after 7 hard charging years of a roller coaster ride that was Zynga, I decided to take some…

    18 Comments
  • 6 Things I wish I knew before I started a game company
    Oct 5, 2015

    6 Things I wish I knew before I started a game company

    After I finished my MBA, I did what I thought everyone did, I started a company. In picking what to do, I looked around…

    20 Comments
  • FarmVille "core loop" idea applies to your business too.
    Sep 25, 2015

    FarmVille "core loop" idea applies to your business too.

    Success playing FarmVille meant repeating the three steps of Plow, Plant and Harvest. In game making terms, we called…

  • 3 Lessons and a funeral
    Sep 16, 2015

    3 Lessons and a funeral

    (sharing a note more personal in nature) Buried a close relative a couple days ago. She passed suddenly and…

    6 Comments
  • Thinking positively, my truth
    Aug 22, 2015

    Thinking positively, my truth

    I've never been one for gratuitous self-talk and positivity. Now I'm rethinking that.

    1 Comment
  • Product creation: "The Craftsman vs the Artisté"
    Aug 15, 2015

    Product creation: "The Craftsman vs the Artisté"

    "How I stopped struggling & started making successful games" was the second title I had in mind for this post. I…

    3 Comments
  • Plate Spinning = Fake Winning
    Aug 12, 2015

    Plate Spinning = Fake Winning

    Spending the day servicing a large number of diverse efforts (i.e.

    6 Comments
  • Near Miss = Near Win
    Jul 28, 2015

    Near Miss = Near Win

    Near Miss: What I call it when you "go for it" with an opportunity, doing all the prep, laying the ground work, really…

    10 Comments
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Activity

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Experience

  • Gala Games

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    Dallas, Texas + Bengaluru, India

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    San Diego, CA

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    Los Angeles, CA

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Education

Publications

  • MusicMaker News

    Free weekly music making focused newsletter with interesting news, links, tl;dr's, and free stuff.

    See publication

  • Select Original Music Tracks and remixes

    SoundCloud

    Music tracks and remixes I've created.

    See publication

  • Master Class On Game Design!! Mark Skaggs!!

    India GDC

    Watch Mark Skaggs, Director & Board Member, Moonfrog having a "Master Class on Game Design" at Nasscom Game Developers Conference 2016 held in HICC, Novotel, Hyderabad.

    See publication

  • GDC - The Lessons I Learned from Making FarmVille, CityVille and other games

    GDC

    The evolution that occurred in social games between the 18 months from the launch of FarmVille and CityVille represented a new "generation" of social games. In many cases, a traditional game would still be in development over that period of time. Hear Mark Skaggs, SVP of Games at Zynga, and creator of FarmVille and CityVille describe his top lessons learned from creating break out social games. Learn about Mark's new mindset on creating games today, how to tackle the challenge of making…

    The evolution that occurred in social games between the 18 months from the launch of FarmVille and CityVille represented a new "generation" of social games. In many cases, a traditional game would still be in development over that period of time. Hear Mark Skaggs, SVP of Games at Zynga, and creator of FarmVille and CityVille describe his top lessons learned from creating break out social games. Learn about Mark's new mindset on creating games today, how to tackle the challenge of making data-driven decisions, things that went wrong over various projects and what the "next generation" of games will bring.

    See publication

  • GDC 2011: Zynga's Skaggs On How The Company Achieved The Impossible

    Gamasutra

    See publication

  • Composer/producer

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    I'm learning to make music because it's been a passion of mine to do that for years, but I never had time. The process in interesting and humbling because I'm starting a a neophyte and having to learn a new skill set from the ground up.

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Projects

  • FarmVille, CityVille, The Ville, Treasure Isle

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    FarmVille, CityVille and The Ville all went to #1 on Facebook with millions and millions and millions of players. Treasure Isle also did well and had millions of players.

    Other creators
    • David Gray

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