Bright Patterns
Whitney Beltrán is a multiple award-winning Mexican-American narrative designer who has recently stepped up to heading the new AAA game studio Dawon Entertainment. She was previously the Narrative Director at Hidden Path Entertainment, where she led narrative on a AAA Dungeons & Dragons video game in partnership with Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast. Whitney is known for her gripping work on internationally celebrated titles like Bluebeard’s Bride and HoloVista, as well as State of Decay 2, Beyond Blue, Raccoon Lagoon, Dungeons & Dragons (tabletop products), and myriad other video game and tabletop RPGs.
She is an expert in world building and narrative design, and holds a master’s in mythological studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her academic specialty area is the intersection of mythology, psychology, and play. She has published peer-reviewed academic papers, lectured internationally, contributed a chapter to the first ever university-level textbook on roleplaying games, and has conducted research through Carnegie Mellon’s Human Computer Interaction Institute. She has published think pieces on gaming through outlets like Tor.com and Terrible Minds.
Whitney has been voted Top 100 Women in Games 2022, selected for the Game Awards inaugural Future Class in 2020, and has received a number of additional awards, both personally and as part of a team for the games she’s worked on including an Apple Design Award (HoloVista 2021), and two IndieCade wins; Best Narrative (HoloVista 2021) and the Grand Jury Award ( Bluebeard’s Bride 2018). She has served as a judge/juror for the Diana Jones Awards, Golden Cobra Game Competition, and IndieCade. She serves on the advisory board of Fantasy Network.