Castleville dev team forms new studio Boss Fight Entertainment

A handful of former Zynga staff have broken away to form a new independent studio focusing on mobile free-to-play titles.

VentureBeat reports Boss Fight Entertainment is an entirely self-funded start-up based in McKinney, Texas. It was founded in June 2012 but has been under wraps while working on its first games.

The core team of 25 was co-founded by one time Zynga Dallas general manager Bill Jackson, and is largely composed of members of Bonfire, which Zynga purchased in 2010, renamed as Zynga Dallas, and closed in 2013. Bonfire itself coalesced around shuttered Age of Empires developer Ensemble, which Microsoft closed in 2010.

Other founding team members include president and chief executive David Rippy, former Castleville general manager, and Scott Winsett, a very early Ensemble employee and former Zynga divisional manager.

"We've got a great team, and we have been very fortunate to keep people together, even in big transitions like companies closing down," Jackson said.

"This team loves to be together and it has had success."

Jackson said Boss Fight will draw on its experience with Zynga., and will pursue free-to-play games for mobile and tablet with an element of strategy.

"There are a lot of lessons there. Zynga was really pushing in a lot of new areas, and the pivot to mobile was a challenge. But I’m thankful that we learned a lot there," he said.

Thanks, GamesIndustry.