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Jonaya Kemper

@violetriotgames.bsky.social

Assistant Teaching Professor of Playable and Participatory Media in Creative Technologies and Performance, Play & Design:Games @ UCSC. Award winning Game Designer/Artist. Afrofuturist. Opinions are my own. jonayakemper.com

2,473 Followers  |  204 Following  |  693 Posts  |  Joined: 04.07.2023
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Posts by Jonaya Kemper (@violetriotgames.bsky.social)

Tickets on sale now! Dive in, connect with others, & fuel your passion. gdocexpo.com

Tickets on sale now! Dive in, connect with others, & fuel your passion. gdocexpo.com

GET HYPE! 🎉

Game Devs of Color Expo returns September 22-25, 2026.

✅ Submissions are now open for panels, speakers, interviews, and games.
❌ No exhibition or submission fees.
💰 Speakers are compensated and all participants are considered for a grant.

You in? Tickets: ti.to/GDoCExpo/2026

25.02.2026 15:00 — 👍 80    🔁 75    💬 2    📌 7

It should also be pointed out that WGA representation can't be just for Video Games. People who make ttrpgs are literally creating games that studios want for IP. SFWA values us, if WGA takes us in, the Union only gets stronger. 🤷🏾

06.02.2026 06:14 — 👍 51    🔁 18    💬 1    📌 0

Every once in a while I have to use Tumblr for fandom research and I always come away with the feeling that maybe some of their thoughts should be inside thoughts not post it on the internet thoughts.

04.02.2026 20:23 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I don't know who needs to hear this, but teachers (ECE- graduate school) are fucking exhausted right now and have to keep teaching during *points to world*. It's rough normally, it's been extra rough for years, and right now it's basically boss levels rough. Don't beat yourself up, fellow educators.

02.02.2026 19:16 — 👍 33    🔁 9    💬 0    📌 3

Ash is correct! Consider learning how to be a street medic, you can also do childcare, conflict de-escalation, food distribution. There's a wide variety of ways to be useful to your neighbors.

25.01.2026 20:12 — 👍 27    🔁 11    💬 0    📌 0

Many many moons ago I specialized in photojournalism and often brought my camera everywhere. It's extremely important to get tools and training (or at least have advice) to keep you safe and secure as you report.

25.01.2026 02:13 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Preview
Freedom of the Press Foundation Defending press freedom for the next generation

Are you doing a journalism in this time? Consider talking to Freedom of the Press. Especially if you are not a trained journalist. ✨ freedom.press

25.01.2026 02:11 — 👍 7    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
Preview
Galaxies Like Islands, Islands Like Galaxies: Envisioning Futurity In Seascape Technologies Author(s): Furtado, Nicole | Advisor(s): Raheja, Michelle; Minch-de Leon, Mark | Abstract: Galaxies like Islands, Islands like Galaxies: Envisioning Futurity in Seascape Technologies examines Indigeno...

And if you're interested in Indigenous Futurisms and Nicole's work...

escholarship.org/uc/item/8dc0...

23.01.2026 19:44 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Not me weeping into a burrito after reading this.

23.01.2026 19:28 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Example: Palantir is a company actively invested in fucking up the world. Palantir is also the name of that weird crystal ball from Lord of the Rings. It's important for us to dream better futures so that someone behind us can go, "This dystopia will not come to pass."

23.01.2026 19:25 — 👍 10    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Indigenous futurism and Afrofuturism are seeds for hope. They are writing about resistance in the future and actively work against colonialism to broaden our imagination. Cyberpunk is uniquely dystopian. The corpos have won. But why? We discussed that what we create impacts the real world.

23.01.2026 19:25 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Thanks to the work of Nicole Furtado, I taught my students about Indigenous Futurism and its connection to Afrofuturism, the fetishistic treatment of Asian cultures in cyberpunk, and the connection between California missions, oppression in Oceania, Japanese internment, Slavery and the Holocaust. ✨

23.01.2026 19:16 — 👍 23    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0

Oh I'll pitch with lights in mind. ✨

23.01.2026 02:50 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Guess it's time to write that Goth Club larp.

23.01.2026 02:17 — 👍 7    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Frankly this is the type of shit I wanna see in AP. Give me some fucking improv musicals. PUT IT IN MY VEINS.

15.01.2026 01:42 — 👍 14    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0

This is excellent, thank you! I'm a bit spoiled having a theater department behind me, so I can call colleagues to NPC/play as well. But yes, all of these can be folded into the first few weeks of class to also teach basic ideas around larp in general. Mechanics, social theory, magic circle, etc.

14.01.2026 21:45 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

This is exactly what I'm thinking of! We have an amazing outdoor focused campus so this is a super viable idea.

14.01.2026 21:39 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Guess who's adding, "Create an hour long boffer larp as a teaching tool" to their research fund requests. 🙂‍↕️ The children crave the foam.

14.01.2026 21:33 — 👍 7    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Okay that's hella cool. I wonder if there's like a 200 word rpg style boffer dungeon that can be made this way.

14.01.2026 21:31 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

A lot of my students are interested in the form, but I realize since they're so long normally we may not have one shots? But now you've given me an idea about creating an entire class that has a one hour at a time continual boffer larp attached. ✨

14.01.2026 21:30 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 4    📌 0

Are there hour long boffer larp examples? If not I think my spring class is going to get a custom bespoke boffer larp I have to make. 😅

14.01.2026 19:23 — 👍 11    🔁 1    💬 11    📌 1

My first ever KP changed my life in such a radical way that I'm sitting here and wondering if I'd even be interested in academia or able to withstand it without having gone. Being accepted as a peer and a play maker was extremely important to me, and I'm always a little misty thinking about Norway.

12.01.2026 22:58 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 1

I can't explain how grateful I am for the open kindness and collaboration I experienced in the KP scene. I'm assigning my students work that I literally hand carried to the US. Finances, world interruptions and burnout, has made it near impossible to go "home" but at least I can share it.

12.01.2026 22:54 — 👍 13    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

I got a set of Dispel dice and I have to be honest there is a certain ✨ to them.

10.01.2026 19:46 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

I taught two classes today with brilliant students that deserve a future overflowing with goodness. I think about what happened today and what continues to happen and know that I'll protect them in any way I can. I can't fix everything, but I can try and create a just future with and for them.

08.01.2026 02:05 — 👍 14    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Sweet! It's so fun, next time I'm going to have them try Liz Gorinsky's Goth Court version. 🦇

08.01.2026 01:55 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Several of them did not know what a courtroom show was, though, so next time I'll assign Judge Judy or Night Court alongside it. But on the whole one of my favorite games for this introduction.

07.01.2026 23:17 — 👍 8    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

In my larp course I introduced my class to the form by playing Ghost Court from @bullypulpithq.bsky.social . It's genuinely one of my favorite ways to erase a preconceived notion of what a larp is while teaching basic forms. And my students dressed up. 😭 They are all perfect and can do no wrong.

07.01.2026 23:11 — 👍 21    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 1

important message to all bluesky users

07.01.2026 19:53 — 👍 11264    🔁 6442    💬 178    📌 166

Do I have to write grants? Can't some patron just gift me a large sum of money (10k) so I can make a game about a juke joint with a happy ending? 🎶

06.01.2026 20:12 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0