ZYNGA MOBILE

Senior Game Designer · Principal Game Designer

(San Francisco, CA | 2011–2014)

At Zynga, I worked as a Senior and Principal Game Designer on large-scale, live-service titles, contributing to both core feature development and ongoing content delivery. My role focused on feature design, player progression, event content, narrative context, and user experience design across high-traffic, data-driven products with global audiences.

I collaborated closely with designers, writers, engineers, product managers, and marketing teams to support feature development, live events, and content updates. This work required balancing creative intent with performance metrics, player retention considerations, and production timelines.

For the Celebrity Challenge, I contributed narrative framing, quest design, and live-event-driven content with celebrities, which involved external coordination and public-facing outcomes.

These experiences strengthened my understanding of service-based platforms, cross-functional collaboration, and the realities of operating at scale.

WORDS with FRIENDS: CELEBRITY CHALLENGE

iOS | Zynga

Principal Game Designer

  • Designed and owned the complete player experience for the Celebrity Challenge live event, including team-based competition, leaderboards, and charity-driven gameplay

  • Created and implemented Celebrity playback mode featuring bespoke dialogue and interaction systems

  • Led UX, UI, and FTUE design to support onboarding, clarity, and event engagement

  • Ensured brand alignment with the “With Friends” franchise while coordinating talent participation and content integration

Outcome:

  • Raised over $1 million in charitable donations within the first week of launch

RUNNING WITH FRIENDS

iOS / Android | Zynga

Senior Game Designer

  • Contributed to core game design across levels, characters, features, and narrative systems

  • Helped define and refine running-game mechanics, progression, and difficulty balance

  • Designed and hand-crafted hundreds of gameplay levels to support pacing, variety, and long-term engagement

  • Defined game metrics and tuning parameters to balance challenge, retention, and player flow

  • Designed Bull characters and Story Mode content, contributing to narrative framing and personality

ZYNGA (WEB)

MAFIA WARS 2

&

FRONTIERVILLE: PIONEER TRAIL

Web (Facebook) | Zynga

Senior Game Designer · Narrative Designer

  • Contributed to core game design and narrative systems across large-scale, live-service social games with high daily active users

  • Designed quest structures, progression systems, and narrative content supporting long-term engagement and repeat play

  • Authored DAU-focused quest lines and event content aligned with player behavior, pacing, and retention goals

  • Collaborated cross-discipline with design, engineering, production, and live-ops teams to deliver new content and feature updates within active service environments