D. Squinkifer
You Don't Have To Go Home, But You Can't Stay Here
Squinky is a trans and neurodivergent multidisciplinary artist who cofounded Soft Chaos, a Montreal-based worker cooperative game studio. When not designing and programming games and other interactive experiences, they enjoy playing the tuba, making weird crafts, and doting on their beloved cat.
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (b. 1995, London) lives and works between Berlin and London. Working predominantly in animation, sound, performance and video game development, and with a background in DIY print media and activism, the artist’s practice focuses on intertwining lived experience with fiction to imaginatively retell and archive the stories of Black Trans people. Danielle utilizes interactive technologies to create participatory spaces that challenge traditional narratives and encourage active engagement. Their projects often take the form of immersive video games, where players navigate choices that confront their assumptions and biases, fostering deeper conversations about identity, privilege, and systemic oppression. Through their innovative use of digital media, Danielle not only preserves histories but also envisions inclusive futures where the voices of those that are ignored or erased are central. Their work is both ‘archive and insurgency’, a catalyst for dialogue, inviting audiences to reflect on their roles within broader societal structures.
Madison Schmalzer
Madison Schmalzer (she/they) is a media scholar, competitive speedrunner, and glitch artist. Madison’s scholarship explores trans media art, emergent play practices like speedrunning, and embodied relationships to technology. Her published work can be found in The Journal of Cinema & Media Studies, Game Studies, Animation, Camera Obscura, The Journal of Applied Transgender Studies, and The Journal of Games Criticism. You can find her speedrunning and breaking all manner of media on Twitch and Discord at @MadzBrutal.
Ryan Rose Aceae
Fleshy Essays on Tits and Tribulations
Ryan Rose Aceae is a type of flowering shrub. They are best known for photosynthesizing and producing tart, delectable fruits. Unlike most plants in the Rosaceae family, Ryan occasionally makes art, some of which can be found at gendervamp.itch.io. Ryan may be reached by wading into your local creek and whispering questions to the fish, attaching a note to the collar of a friendly neighborhood cat, or turning out the lights and saying their full name three times into a mirror. If all else fails, you can try emailing them at gendervamp@gmail.com.
Teddy Pozo
Chest Simulator Digital Edition
Teddy Max Pozo is an artist, scholar, writer, and teacher, living in Los Angeles. They explore the sense of touch in video game design in theory and practice through their Haptic Media class and haptic arcades, through their writing, scholarship, and comics about trans "touchy-feely" game design and criticism, and through hybrid game art installations. They use small zine-like tools and toys, and combine clay bodies with human and cyborg bodies. They hope their work will inspire you to make something expressive, touching, and possibly messy.
time
time, PhD, (they/he) is a queer, transmasc largely cis-passing and white-passing (sheet white, ghost-white, wow did someone turn up the albedo in here) mi’kmaw and eurosettler-descended game designer and escaped academic who lives with chronic illness and chronic pain. They are writing under a pseudonym because we still live in a world where sexuality and the full range of human experience could affect the respect afforded to them by employers, clients, and peers that they rely on to survive this big ol' capitalist hellscape. The veil is thin if you know them, but the plausible deniability is delicious. Feel free to reach out to them at time.to.occur@gmail.com if you want to talk about this work or any of their other work.