Splice of Life Games

Splice of Life Games is an indie game design studio based in Aotearoa New Zealand, run by E J B Morris—but you can call her Emily! Armed with a Masters degree in one hand and a (nearly completed) PhD in the other, Emily is a TTRPG designer and academic who specialises in TTRPG design and play alongside queer theory and feminist studies, with a healthy sprinkling of sociology, critical theory, and fan studies thrown in there for fun. With nearly 8 years of university-level design education under their belt, alongside a decade of TTRPG experience and a lifelong love for games, design, and queerness, Emily is more than well-versed in TTRPG academia, theory, and game design.

Her first game, Interwoven, was designed in 2022 as part of her Masters thesis and design portfolio. Their Masters thesis is open access and publicly available to read here. Concerned with looking at queer TTRPG design informed by more than 330 queer TTRPG players' experiences, her Masters culminated in designing a TTRPG that embodied queerness as a concept: fluid, ever-changing, non-linear, and most of all, fun. And so, Interwoven was born (albeit, a beta version).

Interwoven will be publicly released in 2025 for the first time, with a variety of game modes that will suit every player. Other TTRPGs and journaling games are forthcoming. 

If you're interested in reading more academic research and theory on queer games, check out their academic blog, Queer TTRPG Studies.