FrontierVille creator Brian Reynolds takes the reigns of CityVille 2

With only two images available and a short announcement, next to nothing is known about the successor to one of the fastest growing Facebook games of all time, CityVille 2. But during a chat after his session at GDC Online 2012 in Austin, Tex., FarmVille and CityVille creator Mark Skaggs let slip an interesting detail: He has little to nothing to do with it.

Who exactly at Zynga is responsible for CityVille 2? It's Brian Reynolds (pictured right), the main man behind FrontierVille (and of Civilization fame). "That's being done ... in Baltimore, the FrontierVille guys, Brian Reynolds," Skaggs points out. "They had the idea of, 'How would we do a city game?' And it kind of evolved into this, which is awesome."

Residing in Zynga East, Reynolds and his team will more than likely take a similar approach to CityVille as they had FrontierVille. "Brian and his group, they brought the idea of stories and quests to Ville games. That is their nature: 'Let's do funny stories, let's do interesting stories, let's bring a certain kind of nice, light humor,'" Skaggs explains.

"So, if you subscribe to the idea that the products are the reflection of the team, you go look at FrontierVille and see that as a reflection of the team. You could imagine, if you move the mirror over to CityVille 2, [you'll see] the reflection of the team as well."

It's likely that CityVille 2 will see more narrative content than the original, but that might not necessarily be the focus. According to Skaggs, CityVille 2 is more about the threefold approach that the team behind FarmVille 2 employed.

"[Zynga releasing CityVille 2 is] no different than EA saying, 'Hey, you know, we did Medal of Honor. Now we're doing Medal of Honor 2,'" Skaggs says. "It's not quite the same as, say, Madden, but it's very that same thing. Take what people love, improve the stuff that was broken and come up with new and interesting things."

What do you think of the guy behind FrontierVille taking the helm on the CityVille sequel? What do you want to see in the sequel most? Sound off in the comments. Add Commment.