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Fast-forward another couple of months, and in late January, there was an executive review of our progress on Phoenix. It went well. It went so well, in fact, that we were told we would be getting an extra year to polish the game up to a mirror sheen.

Unfortunately, this meant that as our only next release was to be Spyro Skylanders 3DS in September, we would be knuckling down on expenses by way of laying off a bunch of the studio's testers. Thus my other friend and roommate, Bonafede, was laid off as well.

Finally, a couple of weeks later, one cold February morning, an e-mail went out to everyone at the studio from HR: "The Q4 2010 earnings call is today at 4PM (our time). We will have an all-hands meeting in the kitchen at 3PM to discuss what this means for the company."

Anyone who could see the writing on the wall could immediately clock what this meant. Some people were numb. Some were worried. But there were still some folks who wanted to believe that the company would do the right thing.

Eric himself, an unending font of positivity, even told me during a quick chat outside the office: "I can't see how they would be cancelling the project. We just had a glowing executive review! It probably won't be that bad."

I myself wanted answers, thus I went about trying to find a studio executive to give me some straight talk. After a good hour or so, during which the executives where nowhere to be found, I found the VP, Guha. Karthik (his brother) and Guha were co-founders and always good folks.

"Guha," I said, "I'm freaking, man. Just tell me: Will I still have a job tomorrow?" With a sigh, he said, "Ryan, you know I can't tell you that. It could be considered insider trading. But if you are freaking out, take a long lunch with your roommates, but be back before 3."

At that point, I pretty much knew what was going on. I drove home, had a long lunch with my friends who'd been previously laid off, talked about our plans for Bat Country Entertainment, and then drove back in time for the news.