oh right. I forgot to do one of these. So.
Hi! I'm PleasantlyTwstd. Most call me PT. Some call me 'auntie.' My actual name is Vanessa. Any of the above work.
I'm Black, ace, and go by she/they pronouns. Non-binary doesn't feel 'quite right', but genderfluid feels more right (even though its under the NBi umbrella). I'm opinionated about a lot of BS and a lot of important stuff, too.
I work in game dev as a community coordinator. Where I am (I'm not saying where until I'm full time for safety) I do a little of everything-I've worked on a few IPs you're familiar with, but I also help my company get more integrated with streaming and working with community. I have a lot of cool projects that I'm working on that I love and I hope the communities will too!
I stream part-time for fun. I usually play older games like Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire 3, or things from the Nintendo era since growing up, I never got to play them as my family was poor. I was also a Genesis child. So this is an unabashed Sonic Fan account. But I agree: 3D Sonic has not been a kind timeline. That said I think he is bold for at least trying new stuff as opposed to a choice plumber who has been making the same game for the last twenty years. I said what I said. Every now and again I may whip out some more triple A stuff. For the most part, I'm an indie and retro head. Ask me about emulation!
I also speedrun and challenge run sometimes, because why not? I have times on The Messenger, Katana Zero, and Hades. I'm looking to add a few more to my roster. I challenge run Soulsborne games. My favorite of the FromSoft kids is Bloodborne. Speaking of speedrunning, I help put on events with GamesDoneQuick such as Unapologetically Black and Fast in February, Juneteenth stuff in June, and Next Fest with Valve. You may have seen me around!
I love, love, LOVE baking, gaming OSTs, and talking about gaming history. If you stop by the channel, I talk a lot and oftentimes am invested in a deep dive about the game we're playing or something around it. Intimate discussions about game design, game dev, and illuminating what its like in game dev is some of my favorite stuff to do. I'm generally a pretty mellow person-people like to listen to me while they work, which I kinda view as a compliment!
Lastly: I do the Activism Thing. I talk about race, queer issues, light grazing of politics, and why conversations around representation are critical and more importantly, necessary and unavoidable. If you want better for ANY space you are in, representation and involvement is going to be core to the discussion. I have little to no tolerance for sea lions, for devil's advocates, for 'well actually' fuckshit. If you are looking to do better, step one is listening to marginalized voices when we discuss our experiences, how things impact us, and more importantly than that-uplifting and supporting our joy. We do not exist to provide you trauma exploitation. We are people with thoughts, feelings, interests, and personalities.
I'm a pretty cheery person, but don't get it twisted, the hands are rated E for everyone. 💜🖤🤍
I'm just out here trying my best, and it took me a long time to realize that isn't an unfair expectation of others around me. 🙂
Let's talk about video games!