S1 E5: Ludonarrative Harmony for Narrative Designers with Whitney Beltrán

Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast

Explore ludonarrative harmony and what it really takes to create nonlinear interactive narrative in modern videogames in this week's episode with Whitney Beltrán, a multiple award-winning Mexican-American Narrative Director with over 12 years of experience in narrative design and professional writing whose experience spans triple-A video games, mobile games, extended reality games, tabletop roleplaying games, and pretty much anything interactive. As a creative leader, she understands that visionary leadership isn't just about having the ideas: it's creating the space and structure in which teams can thrive chasing a shared narrative vision, as she did successfully on her award-winning immersive game Holovista. Whitney is also an accomplished video game academic whose specialty in the intersection of mythology, psychology, and play is best demonstrated by the runaway success of her Kickstarter tabletop RPG Bluebeard's Bride. In this wide-ranging exploration of the craft of narrative design, we pull back the veil on the core concepts behind ludonarrative alignment and the nuanced world of narrative design tools across the industry, and will inspire narrative designers with candid reflections about creative leadership and navigating the world of venture capital.

Season 1 of the Enduring Play podcast is drawn from interviews that informed Cheryl Platz's new book The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive, which is now available from digital booksellers around the world or from publisher Rosenfeld Media. Show notes, including a full bio, episode outline, and links are available on the Enduring Play website.