Carly A. Kocurek
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sparklebliss.bsky.social
Carly A. Kocurek
@sparklebliss.bsky.social
2.9K followers 1.3K following 1.7K posts
Experience design, video game history, writing. Prof and associate dean @ Illinois Tech. Books: Coin-Operated Americans (Minnesota), Brenda Laurel (Bloomsbury), Historiographies of Game Studies (Punctum).
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sparklebliss.bsky.social
Pulled up to a housewarming to see this gem.
Black Hyundai old enough to have some rust. There is a rectangular bumpersticker that tags, "I was an honor student. I'm not sure what happened."
September 20, 2025 at 9:44 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
The accessible seating at the Salt Shed is so nice. After getting here, I probably would have been ok without it (there are other places to sit, and I get around on but can't stand for extended periods), but I was nervous and this alleviates that. Also, this way I have a seat even if I arrive late.
A large paved area with a stage at the end. There are small bars and a large tented area for the sound booth. There is a long building to the right. The sky is blur and gold with white fluffy clouds.
September 10, 2025 at 11:17 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
A white woman in a beige blazer and c ream sweater with a cute shag haircut and a name badge is standing in front of the ocean. She says "Your friend was messing up my tanks and messing up my whales."
May 2, 2025 at 1:44 AM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
Graphic design is my passion. #scms25 #scms2025
White person's hand holding quarter size fliers that say "Support your SCMS colleagues. Call your rep and senators today to defend NEH." in all caps black on white paper. They are not well designed.
April 4, 2025 at 2:51 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
We're almost to 100 backers. Help us get there and get this (I think it's) hilarious shirt! www.kickstarter.com/projects/car...
A white tshirt on a gray board background. The tshirt has an oversized text-based graphic in Garamound that reads "Apologies. I can't talk right now. I'm thinking about how much better my life would be if I was on a fake spaceship instead of doing whatever this is" in blue. The Halcyon Daze logo is underneath.
March 20, 2025 at 11:24 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
Not my home, but I know my way around.
A large derelict farm house. Two stories with columns. In a field with some creepy trees. Hewitt House.
March 2, 2025 at 5:03 AM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
It is too windy to wear my plumbob but I really did a good job on the office costume this year (not engineered for outdoors).
A white middle aged woman with glasses with a green paper diamond shaped plumbob above her head. She yes spring it with one finger.
October 31, 2024 at 9:47 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
Hi there! Carly Kocurek! Video game historian, writer, maker of weird games, current documentary film producer. Faculty at Illinois Tech. Have appeared on History Channel and the documentary Insert Coin. Written for Vice, Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette, Washington Post, etc.
Carly A. Kocurek, Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade. Book cover with lime green text over a black and white photo of teen boys playing an arcade game. Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls book cover. Purple book with Ulysses if Brenda Laurel. A white woman with round glasses smiling. Cover for At The Doll Café, a LARP by Carly Kocurek. Pepto pink with a black and white photo collage of dolls distorted by digital noise. Golden Mart employee handbook. White with minimalist sunset graphic. This is the cover for a solo tabletop RPG by Carly Kocurek and Mike DeAnda.
October 18, 2024 at 2:58 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
The purpose of a post-menopausal female.
Black and white photo of a Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in an evening gown reclining on a couch smoking. Her eyes are closed and she is wearing a lot of jewelry.
August 15, 2024 at 3:52 AM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
Here is some of the embroidery.
White seersucker dress bodice with thick chainsitch embroidered doodles.
June 8, 2024 at 4:16 AM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
One of my favorite displays at Greenfield Village is the lab in Menlo Park. These aren't the original chemicals, but they look pretty close to how they would have during use. Also, it is so quiet today I got to go upstairs in the Wright house!
A mix of amber, clear, and blue glass bottles filled with pigments. The labels are handwritten and aged. They are on black shelves on a white wall
April 27, 2024 at 2:52 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
#WhatAGameDevLooksLike I only want to make weird things, and I do just that.
Middle aged white woman with bangs and glasses holding a cell phone for a mirror selfie. Wearing a black shirt. Ends of hair are blue.
March 17, 2024 at 1:22 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
Fun surprise at #scms2024 ... the Ultima book Matt Payne and I wrote is on display at the Amherst College Press booth!
Book on table display. Book cover days Ultima & World-Building in the Computer Role-Playing Game, Carly A. Kocurek, Matthew Thomas Payne
March 15, 2024 at 4:32 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
The brutal cold makes for such a haunted world. Frost from inside the car. It just sat outside for a couple hours while we went to church.
Rounded bursts of frost on a car window. A brick building is partially obscured by the frost haze.
January 14, 2024 at 10:42 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
Silver puffy heart earrings. They have a picot-style edging. The face says "feral" in scratchy text.
December 28, 2023 at 11:52 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
Foolishly, ambitiously, we started a massive, ambitious book project at the start of the pandemic. It's ... almost out! It's got something like 30 separate chapters and interviews from some of the most interesting scholars working in game studies.
Book cover: a pixelated message in a bottle. Text says "Historiographies of Game Studies: What it Has Been, What it Could Be," edited by Alisha Karabinus, Carly A. Kocurek, Cody Mejeur, and Emma Vossen."
December 15, 2023 at 2:45 AM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
Pink Halloween cookies with candy googly eyes and a single black sprinkle as a mouth. They look worried.
December 15, 2023 at 1:34 AM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
Coworker I don't know: "Oh, is that your ugly sweater dress?"
Me: "Haha, yeah."

(These are just my regular clothes.)
Thin white blonde model in a black sheath dress. The dress has a mock turtle neck and is sleeveless. On the bottom left, there is a 3-dimensional "2nd place" ribbon appliqued on.
November 30, 2023 at 1:55 AM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
I mentioned twitch while being interviewed and then had to explain that Twitch the platform references twitch the mechanic, and I felt 8,000 years old.
Two panels. Top panel shows a realistic lion in the middle of a green grass background with some kind of red tent to the right side and is captioned "Do not cite the deep magic to me, witch!" Bottom panel is closer in on the lion's face with the same background and is captioned "I was there when it was written."
November 25, 2023 at 2:59 AM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
Installed the mobile app so I could post a picture of the cool brooch I am making.
A brooch painted weathered silver. The bottom is a flat half circle divided in two. The left side is slightly darker, as if tarnished, and has six white flat backed crystals along the edge. Above the right half is a dome shape with a striped rectangle extended out across the left and beyond the edge of the half circle. It is on a lavender background.
September 11, 2023 at 1:12 AM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
I made a tote bag. This is probably going to Etsy because I have too many tote bags for a single person.
On the left is a vase shaped like a 1960s astronaut with fake orange poppies in it. On the right is a blue tote bag. It has a glittery bottom. The main fabric is stained glass style and shows characters from the original Star Wars. The straps have a blue space print on them. Everything is sitting on a brown wooden table.
July 30, 2023 at 6:44 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
Unlike you I get my news from a reliable source
Original cast of Murphy Brown. Man in suit on far left, then man in flannel shirt. Candace Bergen in navy suit. Man in suit. Man in shirtsleeves and suspenders. Woman in turtleneck and blazer. Man in shirtsleeves with tie and glasses. Everyone is white. It's very shoulder pads in general.
July 18, 2023 at 7:15 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
If you're in and around #gamestudies, reply to this post, then repost so we can find each other.
An advertisement for Atari's ET game. The top says "ET" in big letters with "The Extra-Terrestrial" under it. The rest of the text is too small for me to read. The image shows ET and Elliot side-by-side in front of a blue background. Elliot and ET both look worried. There is a floating telephone, and some looming humanoid shadows. At the bottom, there is one screen shot of ET the game and a picture of the box cover, which has the same picture of ET and Elliott with a different background
July 7, 2023 at 10:08 PM
sparklebliss.bsky.social
I teach interactive storytelling and game design at Illinois Tech. I made Choice: Texas (about abortion access in Texas) a million years ago, and more recently Golden Mart. Currently working on another tabletop project and an escape-room type game set in a dollhouse.
Two poster-style images. Left headline: Help every customer have a Golden Day! Underneath, player quote: "This dude in a robe walks in to the store and says 'pie jesu domino donee is requiem' then whacks the customer in the head with a wooden plank! Mustof worked cause the guy walks over to the counter like nothing happened and bought his scratcher. Guess Kevin's gonna get an invoice from the exorcist? I signed something, hope I'm not on the hook for it." The right image has a headline "welcome to golden mart" and a player quote: "I did find it quite tedious ... this felt really appropriate for role playing a service industry position." Underneath is a small picture of a cartoon rat and the words "verminum honorate."
July 7, 2023 at 3:19 PM