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Tanya X. Short

@tanyaxshort.bsky.social

7K followers 630 following 990 posts

Captain of Kitfox Games (Streets of Fortuna, Boyfriend Dungeon, Dwarf Fortress, Caves of Qud). Co-director of Pixelles & Polaris. She/her. Be full of love. Put in the effort.

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · Jun 6

I'mma #pitchyagame watch out @pitchyagame.bsky.social ~

Streets of Fortuna is a free-roaming sandbox life simulation. Survive however you can in a late antiquity city -- be a thief, blacksmith, priest, smuggler, whatever! From the publisher of Dwarf Fortress: store.steampowered.com/app/2946850/...

Streets of Fortuna on Steam

Use your wits to survive the generated chaos that is living in the Streets of Fortuna. A free-roaming sandbox game about growing from street rat to a tradesman, a priest, a smuggler, an alchemist, a s...

store.steampowered.com

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 19h

you're very kind

Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 19h

I apologize to The World for being cringe and/or misunderstanding Byung Chul-Han. I really should stop randomly rambling when nervous about things I don't really know much about, I'm sorry, it's a terrible habit I've quit many times, like others with smoking.

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Reposted by Tanya X. Short

Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 20h

I think this is bang on, and gets at a sense of what I see in play with stuff from Dwarf Fortress and Qud to Rimworld to Crusader Kings and the Sims: a desire to understand the world, whether a familiar or an alien one, through play

lincoln carpenter @lincolnhello.bsky.social · 20h

"'The more we try to understand what's going on in the world around us—the more we don't just withdraw into a hermitude of my family and I as a nuclear unit, the more we try to understand our society—I think the more these kinds of games speak to us,' Short said."

Founder of Dwarf Fortress and Caves of Qud publisher Kitfox Games says its procgen sims for sickos are 'giving storytelling tools back to the people when games and passive media took them away'

Streets of Fortuna, Kitfox's own in-development "megasim," is chasing that same systems-driven storytelling.

pcgamer.com

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 2d

yesss thank you! Vinny lives in my head rent-free, unless you count the rent of needing to occasionally re-stage this performance

Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 2d

yes! I'm doing it on behalf of @polarisgamedesign.com so keep an eye out! cheers!

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 2d

someone brilliant once made a tiktok that was of United Federation of Planets interviewing Earth & a bit stuck with me.

Interviewer: so it shows you have enough food for everyone
Earth: yea
I: and yet some people are starving and why? oh? you're gonna go with.. "logistics"? (side-eye at clipboard)

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 2d

Fair! It DOES end up being a bit more mainstream due to aggregation (a few Gamers will be surprised by some titles probably, but not the top 10). Tho we also intend to publish (consent-given) lists in a trickle over the years between surveys, if that matters! Via @polarisgamedesign.com :)

Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 2d

yeah nah bro let's just make it unlivable here instead, let's put all of our top minds behind how to waste MORE ENERGY for LESS FOOD AND WATER and it'll be super cyberpunk when we all take opioids and go online to shitpost lol

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 2d

through asking designers for their top influential games, I have discovered /another/ reason design leadership is very herding-cats.

most lists had some game I'd never HEARD OF. either some essential piece of their design practice is esoteric OR they have deep defiance disorder, or both. hmm.

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 2d

one of the best ways to get riled up about environmentalism is to read about terraforming. the logistics, the challenges, the constraints. shit is HARD. nope me outta that. and here we already got a humdinger of a starting situation and we're just... giving up??? for billionaires?? the f...?

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Emilia @lazerwalker.com · 3d

So if you visualize LLMs as not "artificial consciousness" but "an artificial connection to the collective unconscious":

1. They become philosophically way more interesting
2. It's way more forgivable they suck at math
3. It becomes extremely clear they are infinitely less useful to capitalism

Emilia @lazerwalker.com · 4d

A thing I am starting to embody in my extremely weird healing journey, and that a lot of AI people don’t seem to get, is that consciousness is *by far* the least interesting or impressive part of human intelligence

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 5d

exactly the problem! his argument is 'well, if 99% of what you're ingesting is irrelevant, it's probably safe to reduce consumption by 50% at least'

on the other hand, he listens to the Judge John Hodgman podcast when he has trouble sleeping, so

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 5d

Designers talk a lot abt the stories they want to tell through games. But what about the PLAYER's story? How can we empower players to tell THEIR unique play story to each other?

Let's amp up the "tellability"! Here's 7 design tools for player stories: polarisgamedesign.com/2022/a-toolk... (thread)

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Reposted by Tanya X. Short

Edwige Lelievre @edwigelel.bsky.social · 9d

How I try to become a better game designer:
1/ I try to get a lot of feedback from players and improve based on it
2/ I play and analyse games in my genre
3/ I try to listen more to external ideas :) I discuss game design with my team and other indie devs, especially
4/ I read research papers!

Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 10d

Welcome, new followers! We're a group of game designers trying to push our craft forward through deep thought, collaboration, and open minds. We think, we chat, we write, we experiment.

How do YOU explore and improve as a game designer, besides making games? (Reposts welcome)

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 6d

my partner suggested recently that perhaps I (like most people right now) am ingesting too much irrelevant information, despite my attempts to be disciplined about intake.

worse, I think he may have a point. moderation is very difficult in the firehose.

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 7d

(for context, if you ever wondered by the guild house decorations in Age of Conan or that playhouse in The Secret World was so janky, it's because I scripted em in our visual language and had virtually no programming assistance and they had no business being there, you're welcome)

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 8d

sometimes games are made with duct tape & paperclips accidentally, under poor production process.

but sometimes games are made with duct tape & paperclips that a dev REALLY LOVED and MADE THEMSELVES and it would be insensitive and morally wrong to replace it with store-bought metal rods

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Reposted by Tanya X. Short

Brian Valenzuela @brianvalenzuela.bsky.social · 8d

Every waking moment has been drawing or teaching lately. Here is some inspiration:
Recently acquired book—Noriyoshi Ohrai.
His brushwork can be so immediate when it needs to be. He has such a range from academic realism to this adventurous sketching with paint. To be this bold and decisive digitally

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 10d

it's really hard other than making games, tbh. or at least parts of games. this is the main reason why I miss doing more game jams -- the kinds of designs you can explore in a jam context are limited, but I am unlikely to exhaust that well in my lifetime.

Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 10d

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 11d

Let's talk System Visualization! As designers, we often lean on visuals to help understand, communicate, or simply use a system. But which visuals???

This report (polarisgamedesign.com/2022/when-sp...) suggests we "PAUSE" and consider:

- Purpose
- Audience
- Usage
- Scope
- Emphasis

(Thread!)

When Spreadsheets Aren’t Enough: A Framework for Approaching System Visualization

Visualization techniques can help us design and maintain game rules and systems, communicate these internally (across the development team), and effectively convey them to external stakeholders (such ...

polarisgamedesign.com

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 12d

it's possible Certain World Leaders in the future could actually make and follow coherent plans held together by ideologies instead of shouting random policy ideas for getting more money while on the toilet. and if we can't even protect against the latter, the former is... well... ok back to games

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 12d

the thing that scares me the most about the downward spiral of the Motherland isn't even necessarily this moment, which is nightmarish but poorly thought out, led by chaotic people going on instinct. it's the systemic vulnerabilities exposed that are open to more intentional predation in future.

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Osama Dorias @osamadorias.bsky.social · 12d

Friends!! The Poly Fighter playtest is live!!

Please sign up, play, and give us ALL of your feedback!!

RTs are appreciated!! Thank you ❤️❤️❤️

Poly Fighter Game @polyfightergame.bsky.social · 12d

🔥 Our first alpha playtest is LIVE on Steam right now! 🔥

Until October 3rd you can sign up to try the game early and give us valuable feedback!

👉 Request access on Steam now! ❤️
store.steampowered.com/app/3977340/...

#Playtest #IndieGame #Roguelike #FightingGame #Steam

Poly Fighter on Steam

Poly Fighter is a single-player roguelike fighting game. Learn new moves from every opponent you defeat to build your fighter’s unique style. Battle through tense retro-arcade duels with beginner-frie...

store.steampowered.com

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Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 12d

to be fair, it IS rather upsetting to see someone murder/betray for no real purpose or personal benefit, just seemingly to be mean and take a nice person down a peg. it's not fair. usually in stories characters like that are wolves or something, not a blood brother. I empathize.

Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort.bsky.social · 12d

the old myths still got it. last night my 6yo was WAILING with grief and existential sorrow at the death of Balder and filled with righteous justice towards Loki. ok so he was also extremely tired. but it was still something to see.

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