iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Thank you! It surprises me that people are still out there listening to that show

Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Sometimes I get icky about the entire "social/educational/health/etc benefits of games" field because I have major concerns about who actually benefits - but this is actually my ideal outcome.

Findings The study did not collect enough data to make conclusions about team
effectiveness. Although there may have been an unintended introduction of social
desirability bias, teams unanimously would like to engage with For the Queen and other
collaborative storytelling games again. Qualitatively, the participants did not believe that
gameplay trust, collaboration, and cohesion, all
important attributes of strong teams.

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Also I love being interviewed, everyone interview me for your thing. I am in a well-respected academic publication just Saying Stuff

For the Queen has a very small set of written rules. But, if you want to get through the instruction
cards and still functionally be playing the game, you need to start internalizing its unwritten rules,
which include: Set aside distractions. Listen to each other. Add your perspective rather than arguing
someone else’s. Let each person decide when their turn to speak is over and find an effective way to
indicate to the next person that it’s their turn. Offer what you have to say as a gift and be ready to
receive nothing in immediate return. These are not necessarily the rules people are living by in their
daily lives. I don’t know the long-term effects of giving a group of people the experiential evidence
(not just the idea) that they can operate by these rules and have a pretty good time. But I will keep
doing it

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Stephen is such an intelligent and well-read guy, love talking to him about historically and culturally contextualizing games, game studies, and its foundational texts. See: "Pentecostal Modernism: Lovecraft, Los Angeles, and World-Systems Culture"

cover of the book mentioned in text, authors Stephen Shapiro and Philip Barnard

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I'm interviewed by Stephen Shapiro in the latest issue of Analog Game Studies! Always free and open-access: escholarship.org/uc/analoggam...

escholarship.org

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I was just reminded that this exists and that I am curious about it! If you've read it I'd love to hear your thoughts. Sometimes I think I should write something like this? But maybe this makes that unnecessary? barkadagames.itch.io/descendants-...

barkadagames.itch.io

Descendants of the Queen by Barkada Games

How to design for Descended from the Queen games

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Jason's right, the website should come to me

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

The first (I think!) descended from the queen game (it might have been in development before FtQ came out?) is Reunion, which follows the impulse to ask what happened to the retinue, long after the Queen's attack jennmartin.itch.io/reunion and I love love love that

jennmartin.itch.io

Reunion by Jenn Martin

A Descended From the Queen game about coming back together

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Yes! This is the kind of iteration on my work that gets me really interested - from what Chris aptly calls "the useful kind of wanting," not a frustration at lack but a yearning for more.

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Okay apparently I need to pay closer attention to this website

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Briefly alighting on a branch of bluesky to say 1. USA-based fans, For the Queen is back in stock! shop.critrole.com/collections/... 2. Friends at GenCon know that I am with you in spirit <3 <3 <3

shop.critrole.com

For the Queen

Hear ye, hear ye: Your Grace is primed for her voyage, and has chosen you to accompany her! For the Queen is a card-driven collaborative storytelling game that invites you to tell a dramatic narrative...

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

I can also only play for like 15min at a time because of another, unrelated ongoing pain thing in my shoulder. Trying to get into an enemies-to-lovers arc with my own body but it's kind of a slow burn

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Having dental surgery on Thursday and wondering what games I should have ready to play. I have a Switch and a Saturn. I know theoretically I could emulate anything but the LAST thing I want to do after a surgical root canal is fuck around with emulation

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Reposted by Alex Roberts

Graham Walmsley 🎲 @grahamwalmsley.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

If you want to know more about Play Unsafe - and lots of other random TTRPG stuff - @benriggs.bsky.social interviewed me and @helloalexroberts.bsky.social . It's a great interview and I love talking to Alex. www.youtube.com/watch?v=68G5...

youtube.com

What is the purpose of horror? A conversation with Graham Walmsley & Alex Roberts- Ep 93

YouTube video by Reading D&D Aloud

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Thank you, it always feels great to hear that

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Please check this out, @benriggs.bsky.social was a great moderator to our overexcited tangents and musings

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Graham and I had a real good time talking about horror, romance, and precious slices of rpg history

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Follow for more memorable movie quotes

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

If I wanted to keep outsiders from entering the forbidden zone I would call it something else. the obligatory zone maybe

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Must suck to have to guard a forbidden zone. Or to be forbidden from a particular zone.

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Looking forward to listening to this!

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

For once, the Japanese box art is much less interesting.

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

The box art promises a good time. The ice cream sandwich enemy is front and center, which makes sense because he is an absolute icon. But the graphic designers said: no. This cannot be enhanced, it must be balanced. There is no action without stillness just as there is no shadow without light.

Box art for the same game. The gang is all here

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Today's preoccupation is the strangely empty image on the Chameleon Twist (N64) cartridge. So much negative space. You can almost hear a gentle breeze.

Nintendo 64 cartridge showing the words Chameleon Twist and an empty jungle

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Somebody eternal sunshine this outta me

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Why have I never before perceived the hideous mouths on the Beamos from Ocarina of Time? Did I refuse to perceive them? Did my brain edit them out of my memory?

Horrid little creature from Zelda 64. It's like a cast iron pot grew an eye stalk? And then a mouth? This is just a relatively low poly model, I refuse to look at the concept art

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Reposted by Alex Roberts

Knave of Cups @knaveofcups.com · 22/02/2026

TONS OF FAVES ARE BACK IN STOCK ...including For The Queen by @helloalexroberts.bsky.social 👑 Answer prompts to tell the story. You've spent years in the service of your queen, but one final journey decides her fate. Genre-spanning art means a multitude of tarot-inspired queens can shape the tale

The box cover to For The Queen, decorated like a storybook (the title) and a stained glass window showing roses and five possible queens in different art styles: a regal white-haired queen, a folklore sun-themed queen, a mermaid, a cyberpunk hacker, and a knife-wielding, horror movie beauty queen

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Yo was there ever an official release of the OST for this

90s ass lookin painting instructional video

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Thanks Pascal :) have fun at Breakout!!

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Yes this last note is so important! Sometimes a well GMd session is helpful for new players but pick-up-and-play oneshots, in my experience, open even very inexperienced players up to the possibility of *making* a game

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

This is so up my alley it must be taking place in my house

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

This is how I respond when people say you "must be really creative" or "have good improv skills" to play TTRPGs

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

If you like learning and then getting to demo some TTRPGs get your ass to Open Space this Friday, Lino and I are gonna kill it. Pls pls pls bring your friends who are RPG-curious, they are my fav kind of people

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

The enthusiasm, the passion, the frantic insistence. Diva behaviour.

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

I went to a party last night where the theme was "diva behaviour." Not usually a vibe I'm working with but I asked the host "Is Ken Penders a diva" and her yes was so immediate and absolute I knew I was in for a good time

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

A guy at my regular rpg meetup is trying to do this - a Transformers LARP that has the card based structure of Juggernaut but also sawed-in-half pool noodles for robot energy swords. It's ambitious!

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

killer combo. I want to hear all about it!

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

The editing is flawless, everyone is saying this

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Probably the work I'm most proud of from 2025! Everyone please listen and then tell me your critiques

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Yes, simple lines/shapes give more space for the erotic imagination to project itself onto! I also think that smooth, exaggerated forms feel like a safer place to play - to imagine feelings/dynamics without the messy reality of human bodies

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Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

I love this piece, and not just because I'm a theology dork - the reasons why Sonic makes for a popular object of Christian fanart are, I think, similar to the reasons why he is a fetish icon

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Reposted by Alex Roberts

Alex Roberts @helloalexroberts.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

In 2025's last act of utter self-indulgence, I'm going to be ranking all the depictions of Cid from Final Fantasy as seen on Magic: the Gathering cards. Cid is a recurring character in the series, usually a good guy, makes machines and stuff. I haven't played the newer games so I think of him like

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