Tanya X. ShortVerified account

idk maybe it's fine to hire 10-20 people and then lay them off a year or two later. a short stint is better than none, I guess, when you need a job. but in my position, I'd rather be ~certain I'll have 5 years of salary for them. I've laid off 2 great people and it felt awful.

them: "so what's your advice on scaling up your studio?" me, leaping across the Zoom table, grabbing them by the shirt collar: "DON'T"

as an American living in Canada, when asked, my instinct is to say I'm trying to get better at French, but this makes Canadians think I have a Master's in French Literature, so, instead I just say I am very bad, and then they think I only have a Bachelor's

Americans: "I can speak 8 languages" (they can correctly greet you and ask about the weather in 6 and get by conversationally in 1.5) Canadians: "ah sorry my French is SO BAD, just, ugh, I'm the worst" (they speak and read French almost fluently but have an accent)

ah yes, the Roaring 20s, so named because that's the decade we let the lions loose on Wall Street

wow 2 completely unrelated mentions of Seaman in one day. what is the astrology going on here? I LOVE IT

anyone in Montreal want a very good cat? he's cuddly, clean, chubby, and does tricks! Bigby does high-fives, spins, and has a lil squeaky meow... but we have a toddler. He'd be happier in a home that can pay a little more attention to him and have less screaming. Any takers?

game design is like trying to plan a wedding without ever meeting the bride and groom, their family, and the only way you can give instructions to the attendees is through semaphorehttps://twitter.com/kchironis/status/1370471889525563393 …

I actually stopped going to events in the summer of 2019 due to heavy pregnancy lol, so, I have a headstart on my irrelevance :P but, post-pandemic, either physical events come back in force, OR new companies are at an even bigger disadvantage than before, permastyle

thank you to each and every colleague who HAS trusted me with sensitive info, in the past year+. it's been invaluable! I appreciate it! but I'm probably roughly 3-6 months behind Best Buds studio heads, and sometimes that's too late to pivot meaningfully

and, sure, if you're Best Oldest Buds with someone they might still tell you over a video call. maybe. but they can't REALLY know who else is in the room, or if you're recording, so, the safest thing is just to go by the book, when you're virtual.

- CompanyZ is changing priority, they want X kind of games now/soon - CompanyY is closing up shop in a few months - CompanyA is announcing a big new device and has a budget that kind of thing

but more and more, I'm realizing how much business runs on "I didn't tell you this" or "this isn't written anywhere" or "we haven't said this yet" -- things people literally could get fired for writing down, but might trust you with, bc you might be useful if you're prepared

at first, it seemed like the main things I was missing out on (as an established-if-scrappy studio with some legitness) were "chance encounters", opportunities, new network adds, etc