This is the game I’ve been working on for the past year, Mafia Wars 2. As Lead UI, I lead a team of 3 UI Designers and 1 Developer. We were responsible for the overall user experience, from interface design, animations, front-end development, to interaction flow. This might have been the most challenging project I’ve worked on, but also extremely fun because of the team I worked with.

Check out an interview I did for our site here: http://mafiawars2.com/team-interviews/mike-mariano/

So it’s been almost been a year since my last update. Apologies if I haven’t responded to any questions about some of the Flash code, but hopefully the bits of code that I’ve shared have proved useful.

Since last September, I’ve been the UI Lead on a new game at Zynga, so most of the work I can’t show until the game is released sometime soon. It’s exciting to be a part of something brand new and also to have been involved in the heart of this growing social gaming community.

Although it’s halfway through the year, I’m hoping to start posting more frequently in my UI section. I’ve begun to compile a lot of my experience working Zynga, which I would like to share in the next few weeks. Unfortunately I can’t talk specifics about our company, but I can share general tips on designing interactions for the social audience, collaboration with other functional groups, and other knowledge I’ve gained over the past 2 years working here. So if you’re interested, check back when you can.