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PB Berge ✨

@persephone.blue

1.6K followers 620 following 51 posts

🔥 ludoarsonist 🕹️ media scholar 🎮 game breaker Assistant Professor of Experimental Game Design @UAlberta. Dir. @ https://darcmode.org. 🔍 trans play 🏳️‍⚧️ TRPGs 🎲 extremism 💀 & the ✨unplayable✨ 🌐 https://persephone.blue 🎲 https://gravesnail.itch.io

darcmode.org.

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · Nov 11

Welcome new followers! 👋

To occupy you while you're here, have some glamor shots of a bioactive, Legend of Zelda themed vivarium I built for my geckos out of an IKEA cabinet over the summer!! 🦎✨🪴

An orange Bokoblin standing in a Shiekah Tower!

A blue Bokoblin, dancing on a little fort by a snake plant!

An IKEA cabinet filled with tropical wilderness!

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · 4d

Y'all, I'm so trash at rhythm games but I'm over the moon this is out in the world. Congrats @gensuta.itch.io!! 🔥🛼🎉

Geneva/Styx @ Skate & Date Out NOW!! @gensuta.itch.io · 4d

Skate & Date - lesbian roller derby, rhythm game is out now! Come get your yuri on wheels!!
https://f.mtr.cool/scjlbborbl
https://f.mtr.cool/ugehecznam

(I've linked steam codes to itch.io so you can easily get it for both and have Valve take less money from me <3)

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · 5d

🎉 I am so hype that this is actually, finally, really out in the world 🎉

quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/i...

Un-Moving Play and the End of Time: Code Injections and the Trans Abrogation of Media Objects

quod.lib.umich.edu

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · 5d

🦋 Hey! Listen!

@madzbrutal.bsky.social and my article on Ocarina of Time, trans movement, tool-assisted speedruns, and code injections is out today at @jcmsjournal.bsky.social!

Link finally gets the Triforce and we can finally resolve the age-old question of "is speedrunning queer???"

📄🔗⬇️

a pixel art of a blue object with a speech bubble saying listen

Alt: Pixel art of the fairy Navi from Ocarina of Time hovering and shouting Hey! Hello! Listen!

media.tenor.com

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · 11d

I love this dream??? 👀👀👀 Also thanks so much for watching! 💜🔥✨

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Reposted by PB Berge ✨

Geneva/Styx @ Skate & Date Out NOW!! @gensuta.itch.io · 11d

Showing Skate & Date and on an anti-panel about trans games with other folks at 4:30pm EST @qgcon.bsky.social

So excited to be here!!!

A picture of me and my game Skate & Date surrounded by a colorful border. Below the pictures there's text that says: Geneva Heyward @ QGCON2025

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Reposted by PB Berge ✨

BRIEFS @briefsge.bsky.social · 12d

Our 2025 series is out now!

The CHEESE is here with three games by talented developers.
The cheesy, the cheesying, the cheese-able all playable for free here:
itch.io/b/3301/brief...

You wanted shorter artsier games? You'd better pick the bundle up!

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · 22d

Oh hell yes!!! 🎉🎉😴😴👏👏

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · Jul 18

Awhhhh that's so sweet! 🥹 I hope y'all enjoy the panel, and that the meeting went well!!!

PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · Jul 17

Ahhhh I'm so glad!! 🔥

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · Jul 17

Thanks so much, Aasa! ✨

a cartoon eevee with purple eyes is standing on a dirt road

ALT: a cartoon eevee with purple eyes is standing on a dirt road

media.tenor.com

Reposted by PB Berge ✨

Aasa T 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @rosgakori.bsky.social · Jul 17

AMAZING presentation by @persephone.blue and @percivalhornak.bsky.social, I was spellbound right to the end! Go read their full paper, it is so good: analoggamestudies.org/2025/07/lich...

PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · Jul 17

So hyped to be talking about liches, trans play, lyric games, and parasitic eels with the fantabulous @percivalhornak.bsky.social in ~10 minutes at Generation Analog! @analoggamestudies.bsky.social 🌔🎲💀✨

A title slide showing an eel with the words "Liches, Lampreys, and the Moon: An incantation for trans life & lyrical play" as the title.

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · Jul 17

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · May 14

Ahhh thank you!! ✨✨

PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · May 14

And if you would rather listen to me gush about $500 word documents, the presentation recording is up on YT! 🫡

youtu.be/vfh5oeSI0rE

Anti-Games, Fantasy Consoles, and the Rise of Speculative Game Development on Itch.io

YouTube video by PB Berge

youtu.be

PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · May 14

This is part of a bigger book project I'm developing on 🔥 the unplayable 🔥. I'm excited to share with y'all some particularly provocative, brain-melty, and "sacrilicious" anti-games.

📄 dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Anti-Games, Fantasy Consoles, and the Rise of Speculative Game Development on Itch.io | Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

dl.acm.org

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · May 14

‼️I have a new article out this week! 🎉

From anti-game jams to fantasy console communities, I explored how ✨ speculative game design ✨ practices are a vital response to growing precarity in tech industries.

Also, it's open access! Also, it won best paper at #FDG25! 🏆

The abstract for the article, titled "Anti-Games, Fantasy Consoles, and the Rise of Speculative Game Development on itch.io."

Thumbnail for the presentation of the paper, featuring a pink sun, retrowave background, and the title of the article.

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · May 13

Yes!!!!!! Congratulations, friend! 🔥

three cartoon beavers are standing next to each other

ALT: three cartoon beavers are standing next to each other

media.tenor.com

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · May 3

Oh amazing!! We'll have to same-sleeve high five next conference we cross paths! 😆

PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · May 3

Ahhh thank you Phoebe!! ✨

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · May 3

An update! 🌌💜✨🔥

Got my tattoo of Chaos, from the Hades games, colored in! Tattoo is on the upper bicep--pink and purple and gold and white and teal and blue.

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · Apr 3

I'm crushed to not be at SCMS in meatspace this year, but grateful to @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social for coordinating a panel on games & political economy to kick off the conference! Should be a great conversation, and I hope the early birds enjoy my little video on fantasy consoles & anti-games 🎮🔥✨

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · Apr 3

Happening this morning at #SCMS2025 #GameStudies

Political Economy of Games Now

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Reposted by PB Berge ✨

Rascal News @rascal.news · Feb 14

In our continuing Zine Month coverage, @rowanzeoli.bsky.social curated a list of crowdfunding projects by trans game designers

Zine Month 2025: TransQuest

Paranormal body horror, cozy cat sims, and the realities of motherhood

www.rascal.news

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · Jan 1

Started some new ink!!! Featuring my beloved Mxtress 💜✨Chaos✨💜, whose boons I'm taking into this high-heat run of 2025.

(💉 Pokery & portrait of the primordial progenitor by the unrivaled Julia McKay!)

PB in a witchy tattoo parlor, looking at my arm in a mirror and beaming!

Tattoo closeup! Right bicep and shoulder. Chaos--the character from Hades and Hades II. They have a halo and are wearing a suit that warps into shifting faces. A deep purple spacey background. Mostly linework, with color to come.

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Reposted by PB Berge ✨

Analog Game Studies @analoggamestudies.bsky.social · Dec 30

CFP: #QueerAnalogGameStudies Special Issue! Analog games are here…but are they queer? What’s queer about analog games? What does it mean to queer tabletop, board games, or LARP? How might analog games be queered?
**Essays due April 7, 2025**
analoggamestudies.org/cfp/cfp-quee...

CFP: Queer Analog Game Studies | Analog Game Studies

analoggamestudies.org

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PB Berge ✨ @persephone.blue · Dec 6

Mmm, it's risky cause SeaTac TSA is 💀💀💀, but they do post their current wait times online. If it's not too bad, you can take the light rail straight into the city from SeaTac (~45 min each way), and at least have an hour to go around and see the sights!

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