Michael Downing

Michael Downing has a diverse work experience in the gaming industry. Michael is currently serving as the Design Director for Free Range Games, overseeing the development of the "Lord of the Rings Return to Moria" project since February 2022. Michael also holds the position of Design Director for an unannounced AAA project since March 2021.

Prior to their role at Free Range Games, Michael worked as the Design Lead for "Oddworld Soulstorm" at the same company from June 2020 to May 2021. Michael also held the position of Creative Director for "Twitch Sings" from May 2019 to June 2020.

Before joining Free Range Games, Michael was the Design Lead for the Experimental Prototyping Team at King from November 2017 to February 2019.

Michael has also worked at TinyCo, a Jam City Company, where they served as the Lead Designer for "Futurama: World's of Tomorrow" from January 2017 to October 2017 and as the Game Director & Product Lead for "Family Guy: The Quest For Stuff" from June 2015 to January 2017.

Michael began their career at Zynga, where they held several roles. Michael was a Senior Game Designer for in-development mobile titles from January 2012 to June 2015 and a Game Designer for "FarmVille" from July 2011 to December 2011.

Michael started their professional journey as a Researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology from August 2010 to June 2011. Prior to that, Michael had an internship as a Game Design Intern at Zynga from May 2010 to August 2010.

Michael Downing attended the Georgia Institute of Technology from 2007 to 2011, where they earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computational Media.