eBee is a strategic board game that merges quilting, eTextiles and game design to bridge gender, ethnic and generation gaps in electronics. A physical quilt, the goal of the game is to complete a circuit by laying a path of conductive fabric between a centralized hub or power source, and satellite islands that illuminate when the circuit is completed. eBee aims to merge the social contexts of the female-friendly experience of a quilting bee, the multi-generational appeal of a board game, and creative community of a maker space.
About the author(s)
Gillian Smith is an Assistant Professor in Game Design at Northeastern, as well as a quilter and designer who releases patterns under the label Coding Crafter. Her quilts have been shown at the 2015 Quilt Show of the Modern Quilt Guild and the 2014 Cambridge Science Festival, and has published a pattern under the Modern Quilt Guild’s Quilt of the Month series.
Celia Pearce is a veteran game designer, author, and artist who is currently an Associate Professor of Game Design at Northeastern. She is known as both a feminist and virtual worlds scholar, as well as a game designer, and is the co-founder of Ludica women's game collective. Her recent game games have been produced under the mantle of Paidia Studios, founded with Northeastern MFA student Jeanie Choi. Their games have been shown at a number of festivals including Come Out & Play, Boston Festival of Independent Games and the Smithsonian Indie Arcade.
Jeanie Choi is a master’s student at Northeastern in Interdisciplinary Arts, formerly a graduate of Georgia Tech’s computational media program, and a designer at Primal Screens Studio in Atlanta. She is Dr. Pearce’s collaborator in Paidia Studios.
Isabella Carlsson is an undergraduate at Northeastern University studying Computer Science and Philosophy, with an interest in design and new media.