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Whitney "Strix" Beltrán

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Whitney "Strix" Beltrán is a narrative designer and the Project Narrative Director at Hidden Path Entertainment.[1] She has previously worked on indie games Bluebeard's Bride and HoloVista. She founded the advocacy initiative Gaming as Other to promote inclusivity in the gaming community.

Early life and education

Beltrán has said she started playing NES at a young age, began playing RPG before she was a teenager, and was running game organizations in her early 20s.[2] In graduate school, she studied mythology.[2] As a PhD student, she conducted research for the game lab at the Carnegie Mellon Human Computer Interaction Institute.[3]

Career

Beltrán has written for a variety of video games, including State of Decay 2, Beyond Blue, and Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.[4] She was the narrative designer for the 2020 Aconite augmented reality (AR) game, HoloVista,[5] which she described as "a strange ode to post-modernism and Western capitalism, bathed in vaporwave-y aesthetics."[6] In March, 2021, it was announced that she would be the narrative director for an upcoming open-world D&D game.[7][8][9]

Bluebeard's Bride

Beltrán wrote and designed the game with Marissa Kelly and Sarah Richardson, based on the Bluebeard fairy tale.[10][11] After $130,000 was raised for development,[12] and extensive research conducted by Beltrán and her coauthors into classic characters in western horror,[13] Magpie Games released Bluebeard's Bride in October of 2017 as a tabletop investigative mystery. In a review for Dread Central, Rachel Beck writes, "The story itself has the elegant simplicity of a fairytale," and it "is an explicitly feminine horror piece, and at its heart it’s a game about systemic social and physical violence towards women."[14] Sharang Biswas at Dicebreaker writes, "The point is for the players to fail, to experience what failure means. Through this, the game delivers its central ideas of feminist and feminine horror, using powerlessness as a game mechanic and employing supernatural hyperbole of real-world misogyny to highlight anti-feminist thought."[15] Matt Baume, writing for Vice, writes that Beltrán and her coauthors "unpacked centuries of narrative tradition, and eventually distilled their feminine archetypes into Animus, which embodies strength; Virgin, representing obedience; Witch, suggesting sinfulness; Fatale, for sensuality; and a Mother who soothes."[13]

Gaming as Other

Gaming as Other is an initiative founded by Beltrán to promote inclusivity in the gaming community.[12] Outreach has included panel discussions, short videos, and written commentary that advocates for inclusion in the gaming industry.[16][17][18]

Works

  • Jessica Hammer; Whitney Beltrán; Jonathan Walton; Moyra Turkington (April 17, 2018). "Power and Control in Role-Playing Games". In Zagal, José P.; Deterding, Sebastian (eds.). Role-Playing Game Studies. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781317268314. Retrieved 29 March 2021.

Honors and awards

  • 2021 The Game Awards Future Class[19]
  • 2020 Presenter, 55th Annual Nebula Awards[20]
  • 2019 ENnie Awards nominee, Best RPG Related Product (Bluebeard’s Bride: Book of Lore)[21]
  • 2018 Game of the Year, Best Art, Indie Game Developer Network (Bluebeard’s Bride)[10][22]
  • 2018 IndieCade Grand Jury Award (Bluebeard's Bride)[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Home". Hidden Path Entertainment. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
  2. ^ a b "Interview with the designers of Bluebeard's Bride". BoardGameGeek. October 19, 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  3. ^ "Interview with Strix: Myths, minorities, and feminine horror". RPGG. April 7, 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  4. ^ Macgregor, Jody (February 28, 2021). "There's a big-budget open-world Dungeons & Dragons game in development". PC Gamer. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  5. ^ Ong, Alexis (April 17, 2020). "Welcome to HoloVista: a surreal game that explores our relationship with technology". The Verge. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  6. ^ Damiani, Jesse. "Aconite Comes Out Of Stealth And Announces First Game: 'HoloVista,' A Stunning Mobile Mixed Reality Experience". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  7. ^ Chowdhury, Mahirul Alam (March 4, 2021). "New D&D open-world game in development". GameRiv. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  8. ^ Marshall, Cass (March 3, 2021). "An ambitious open-world D&D adventure game is in the works". Polygon. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  9. ^ Adams, Robert N. (March 3, 2021). "'Defense Grid' Developers Working on New D&D Game". TechRaptor. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  10. ^ a b "Previous Groundbreaker Award Winners". Indie Game Developer Network. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  11. ^ "Bluebeard's Bride | Magpie Games". Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  12. ^ a b Padar, Jody (March 21, 2017). "Kickstart your gaming project: An Interview with Whitney Beltran". Voice America. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  13. ^ a b Baume, Matt (March 25, 2017). "Diving Deep into Gothic Horror in 'Bluebeard's Bride'". Vice. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  14. ^ Beck, Rachel (July 29, 2018). "BLUEBEARD'S BRIDE Review – No Way Out; Only Forward". Dread Central. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  15. ^ Biswas, Sharang (February 17, 2021). "Indie RPGs show roleplaying can - and should - be far more than Dungeons & Dragons". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  16. ^ "Gaming As Other ⋆ StrixWerks". StrixWerks. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  17. ^ Beltrán, Whitney Strix (April 27, 2015). "Why Minority Settings in RPGs Matter". Tor.com. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  18. ^ Beltrán, Whitney Strix (May 17, 2016). "Gen Con 2016 Sends Clear Message that Gaming is for Everyone". Tor.com. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  19. ^ McBride, Genevieve (December 10, 2020). "The Game Awards Reveals The Inaugural Future Class". Skewed & Reviewed. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  20. ^ "SFWA Announces the Winners of the 55th Annual Nebula Awards". ComicMix. May 31, 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  21. ^ "Congratulations to all of the 2019 ENNIE Award Nominees and Winners!". ENNIES. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  22. ^ Wieland, Rob (August 2, 2018). "These 5 Incredible Indie RPGs Are Groundbreaking (And Award-Winning)". Geek & Sundry. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  23. ^ "2018 INDIECADE AWARDS". International Festival of Independent Games. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  • HoloVista, Virtual reality game by Aconite, released in 2020.
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