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Celia Pearce

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Celia Pearce
Born (1961-09-06) September 6, 1961 (age 63)
Los Angeles, California, US
Known forGame design
Websitecpandfriends.com

Celia Pearce (born September 6, 1961) is an American game designer currently teaching at Northeastern University in the College of Arts Media and Design.[1] She is a co-founder and current Festival Chair of IndieCade, an international festival of independent games,[2] co-founder of Ludica women’s game collective,[3] as well as founder of the Playable Theare Project.[4] She is currently a professor at Northeastern University and occasionally talks and shows games at art and game events such as Different Games and Incubate Arcade.[2]

Life and career

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Before working in game design starting in the 1980s,[5] Pearce designed theme part and museum attractions[1] making "location-based entertainment.[6] Pearce previously held a position at the Georgia Institute of Technology as Head of the Experimental Game Lab and Emergent Game Group.[7][1] In 2018, Pearce worked on a summer residency at Blast Theory.[8] She was an artist in residence at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Game Lab in 2015.[9]

Pearce's work focuses on the creation and moderation of virtual worlds and networks as well as covers topics such as cosplay, role-playing, and gender representation in video games. In her profession, Pearce has also worked with other game designers such as Tracy Fullerton, Will Wright, and Eric Zimmerman.

Games

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Friendship Adventure Cards for Girls (1997)

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A set of trading cards to extend the Rockett's World and Secret Paths CD-ROM game from Purple Moon, a girl gaming company founded by Brenda Laurel.[3][10]

Candy Crusher (2015)

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  • A strategic board game in which players rearrange and smash candy pieces with hammers in order to create the longest row. The game was designed in collaboration with Jeanie Choi (an MFA masters student in Interdisciplinary Arts at Northeastern).[11]

CLITar (2016)

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  • A plush toy covered in pompoms in which the player has to find hidden buttons between the pompoms which then play synthesized woman's noises through a speaker in the top of the CLITar.[12]

eBee (2016)

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  • An electronic quilting game in which players build circuits with quilted hexagons that connect the central hub with a power source.[13]

Written works

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  • The Interactive Book: A Guide to the Interactive Revolution (1997)
A book exploring the history and potential of digital and interactive media.[14]
  • Playing Dress-Up: Costumes, Roleplay and Imagination (2007)
A co-authored essay exploring dressing up as a historically female practice and how it fits into modern entertainment means.
  • Communities of Play (2011)
An exploration of emergent fan cultures in digital worlds with integrated player networks.[15]
  • Ethnography and Virtual Worlds (2012)
A guide meant for those interested in studying online virtual worlds using scientific methods and descriptions. Co-authored with Tom Boellstorff, Bonnie Nardi, and T. L. Taylor.[16]
  • Meet Me at the Fair: A World’s Fair Reader (2014) A group of short texts examining world's fairs. Coauthored with Laura Hollengreen, Rebecca Rouse, and Bobby Schweizer.[17]
  • Playframes: How do we know we are playing? (2024)
A theory of what playing is and why we need it.[18] Foreword by Janet Murray.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Celia Pearce | ETC Press - Carnegie Mellon University". press.etc.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  2. ^ a b "Celia Pearce". College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD). Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  3. ^ a b "Celia Pearce | Creative Territories". creativeterritories.dcrc.org.uk. Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  4. ^ "Celia Pearce". HowlRound Theatre Commons. Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  5. ^ "Handmade Pixels: Interview with Celia Pearce". www.jesperjuul.net. Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  6. ^ Wolinsky, David (2015-07-05). "Celia Pearce - Don't Die". nodontdie.com. Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  7. ^ "Fellow Celia Pearce". HEVGA. 2017-02-24. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  8. ^ "Faculty Member Dr. Celia Pearce Earns Residency at Blast Theory". College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD). Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  9. ^ "UCLA Game Lab » Celia Pearce: Curating : Creative : Communities". Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  10. ^ "Celia Pearce & Friends". Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  11. ^ "Candy Crusher". Come Out & Play. 2015-06-29. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  12. ^ "CLITar". 2016.differentgames.org. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  13. ^ "eBee | Illuminated Quilt Game". ebeeproject.net. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  14. ^ Pearce, Celia (1997). The interactive book: a guide to the interactive revolution. Indianapolis, Ind: Macmillan Technical Publishing. ISBN 978-1-57870-028-8.
  15. ^ "Communities of Play". The MIT Press. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  16. ^ Boellstorff, Tom; Nardi, Bonnie; Pearce, Celia; Taylor, T. L. (24 September 2012). Ethnography and Virtual Worlds. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691149509. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  17. ^ Pearce, Celia; Hollengreen, Laura, eds. (2014). Meet me at the fair: a world's fair reader. Pittsburgh, PA: ETC Press. ISBN 978-1-312-11587-3.
  18. ^ Pearce, Celia (2024). Playframes: how do we know we are playing?. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-55081-9.
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