Paidia Studios was formed in 2014 by Dr. Celia Pearce and MFA student Jeanie Choi at Northeastern University to develop multiplayer artgames and cultural experiences that engage people through play and creativity. We view our games as “social sculptures” that create fun, meaningful and sublime experiences between people.

Paidia studios came out of our work with Emergent Game Group {egg} at Georgia Tech, which explored emergent behavior, including creativity, in virtual worlds, online multiplayer and pervasive games. We continue to develop multiplayer games in a variety of different genres, now expanding to physical and board games.

Our work is inspired by 20th Century Art movements that embraced play as part of their oeuvre, including Dada, Fluxus, Happenings and Performance Art. Drawing from these traditions, we use tactics such as scores (a set of rules or parameters), appropriation (reframing and reconceptualizing found objects and assets), and intervention (inserting art into real-life contexts).

Paidia is a Latin word, introduced to play studies by Roger Caillois, meaning open-ended play, in contrast to the competitive, “ludus” or goal-oriented style of play often seen in sports and video games. Paidia is also a genus of moth, which provides the inspiration for our logo.

Celia Pearce is an award-winning game designer, curator, professor and author of papers and books including Communities of Play (MIT Press 2009), and is also co-founder of IndieCade and Ludica. She currently holds a position as Associate Director of Game Design at Northeastern University. She previously directed the Emergent Game Group {egg} at Georgia Tech.

Jeanie Choi is a graduate of the Georgia Tech Computational Media Program and a current MFA masters student in Interdisciplinary Arts at Northeastern University. She has experience in development of mobile games and apps from Primal Screens, based in Atlanta.