Zipline Games, the studio behind the Lua-based Moai mobile game development platform, has appointed Shane Kim, formerly Microsoft Game Studios vice president and overseer on franchises such as Halo and Gears of War, to its board of directors.

Kim will advise the Seattle-based mobile games company on its Moai platform and future studio partnerships. Moai was launched as an open beta last month, after a closed beta attracted requests from nearly 700 international developers.

Todd Hooper, CEO at Zipline, explained, "Shane has very deep experience working with AAA development studios and a world-class online gaming service."

"Shane's knowledge, advice and help will be invaluable as we enhance the Moai platform and partner with more and more game studios."

Kim added, "With Moai, Zipline has a fresh and well-executed approach to helping studios build cross-platform mobile games and the cloud infrastructure those games need to be successful. I am looking forward to working with Zipline Games and helping shape its growth and success."

Kim was also appointed onto the board of directors for leading U.S. retailer GameStop last month.