Hello! My name is João Pinho, but I usually go by the literal translation of my last name, Pine. Coming from Brazil with a background in Film focused on screenwriting and directing, I now make use of this knowledge and 8 years of narrative design experience to create compelling, emotionally engaging experiences for players in written, visual, and systemic forms.I love developing characters and writing dialogue and barks for them, as well as creating lore and world-building, but also greatly relish a healthy balance between creative and technical tasks, such as designing narrative systems and implementing dialogue in-engine. My trademark approach is to analyze projects under a holistic, goal-oriented lens and determine which mechanics can be infused with narrative to make them feel more purposeful and cohesive with the game's direction.I'm deeply passionate about communication, accessibility, and localization, and I'm always seeking to make games (and game development) more inclusive.Feel free to contact me through LinkedIn or at pinejohnv@gmail.com!
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Senior Narrative DesignerHighdiveVancouver, Bc, Ca
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Senior Narrative DesignerNetease Games Montréal Oct 2024 - PresentVancouver, British Columbia, Canada -
Narrative Designer; Project ManagerResonance Games Apr 2020 - PresentVancouver, British Columbia, CanadaAdjusting, rescoping, and prioritizing tasks and capacity; tracking velocity; iterating on the project roadmap; maintaining narrative documentation on lore and characters; developing narrative systems; writing dialogue; attending promotional events. -
Lead Narrative DesignerTimbre Games May 2024 - Jun 2024Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada• Co-led the Quests & Encounters team in developing a fast-paced vertical slice demo with a 2-week workaround, identifying priorities and delegating tasks;• Pitched an approved project, including forming a team, directing concept art, audio, and design fundamentals;• Collaborated on restructuring the studio’s task management and documentation practices; focusing on features above disciplines. -
Senior Technical Narrative DesignerTimbre Games Aug 2023 - May 2024Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada• Responsible for the project’s Narrative systems and documentation, from conceptualization to implementation in Unreal Engine 5;• Owned the creative vision behind a AAA family-friendly ARPG’s hub area, writing documentation, style guides, and dialogue for both critical path and optional content;• Acted as Narrative point-of-contact across all disciplines, collaborating closely with the Gameplay, Engineering, Art, UI, and Audio departments; championing a holistic design philosophy and project cohesion.
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Senior Narrative DesignerRelic Entertainment May 2022 - May 2023Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada• Wrote character dialogue for mid-mission beats, cinematics, and loading screens;• Supported VO recording sessions and casting;• Led a team of narrative designers, triaging and delegating tasks based on strengths, interests, areas of growth, and project needs;• Collaborated with Marketing and Art in creating promotional material;• Owned the localization pipeline for the project, serving as the point-of-contact between the Loc team in Europe and the designers in-house;• Presented project pitches and directed prototypes for expansion content;• Created and managed documentation and tracking solutions for narrative content, including pipeline stages, current line counts and other narrative metrics;• Implemented and scripted dialogue in Relic’s proprietary Essence Engine; • Fixed narrative bugs and answered translator queries. -
Rpg Lab InstructorVancouver Film School May 2020 - Sep 2022Vancouver, British Columbia, CanadaRan the D&D club for the Game Design program at Vancouver Film School, DM'ing 9 D&D 5e campaigns and introducing 50+ students to tabletop RPGs and the narrative/game design principles associated with them. -
Narrative DesignerLucid Games Ltd May 2021 - Apr 2022- Devising and leading narrative features for multiple projects, taking a holistic approach and focusing on the player's role in the narrative;- Creating characters, lore, world-building, writing plot outlines;- Proposing and iterating upon features and systems that combine narrative ideals and gameplay needs in ways that promote coherence and consistency;- Infusing existing mechanics with narrative purpose;- Collaborating with Concept Art, UI/UX, and Branding in developing characters and visual identities for several elements of the projects' fictional universes such as companies, manufacturers, factions, etc;- Acting as the narrative representative in the conception and development of different projects, owning all narrative documentation and best practices. -
Narrative DesignerThe Coalition Studio Mar 2018 - Nov 2020Vancouver, Canada Area- Scripted dialogue in Unreal Engine 4, resulting in a cohesive branched narrative experiencefor multiple levels from the core campaigns of Gears 5 and its DLC Hivebusters;- Implemented accessibility features in subtitles that won awards from specialized media;- Wrote thousands of battle chatter lines for dozens of diverse characters, from classic heroes to promo appearances coming from real-world IPs;- Designed and populated unscripted dialogue pools using custom tools;- Responsible for the quality of all VO material to assure its narrative consistency, bridging between creative vision and gameplay flow;- Prepared dialogue scripts for recording, overseeing sessions and coordinating their audio files from delivery to implementation (recording, mastering, editing);- Collaborated with the localization team to provide them with support material and estimates;- Wrote comprehensive documentation guides that other designers and new hires used tonavigate the project’s complex pipeline processes. -
Narrative DesignerFableware Narrative Design Apr 2016 - Mar 2018Handled in-game text, dialogue, narration, barks, item/skill descriptions and narrative documentation. Created lore, worked on world-building and brainstormed narrative elements for multiple projects, such as Sword Legacy: Omen (swordlegacy.com), winner of the Best Storytelling Award at SBGames 2016.Published by Team17, it's a dark re-imagining of the King Arthur mythos in the form of a challenging tactical RPG. I was responsible for all narrative content and in-engine implementation, collaborating with Game Designers and the Narrative Director, editing scripts, codex and lore pieces. I've also directed multiple Voice Actors for narration and grunts and provided consulting for localization (FR, DE, RU, PT-BR). -
Freelance TranslatorQuoted Tradução E Localização May 2016 - Jun 2017São Paulo E Região, BrasilFreelance Translator / Localizer working mainly with games, but also with TV shows, online articles and PR releases.
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Game Design Honours GraduateVancouver Film School Sep 2014 - Aug 2015Vancouver, Canada AreaAt VFS, I focused on the Narrative Design, Mission Design, Cinematic Design and Level Design areas of the program. I graduated with honours in August 2015 and received an "Excellence in Story" award for one of my projects (featured below).
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Indie Game Designer / Narrative DesignerOctoplus Jan 2014 - Aug 2014São Paulo E Região, BrasilIndie developer working on personal projects acting as Narrative, Game and Level Designer, Writer, Producer / Project Manager and 2D keyframe animator.
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Audiovisual Student / ScreenwriterSenac São Paulo Jan 2010 - Dec 2013São Paulo Area, BrazilDuring my projects at Film School I specialized in screenwriting and creative direction. -
Video Editor / Videographer (Intern)Sabesp Nov 2012 - Nov 2013São PauloInstitutional video editing, event filming.
Pine Education Details
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Graduated With Honours
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Audiovisual -
Quanta Academia De ArtesComic Book Writing -
ArtacademiaTraditional Animation
Frequently Asked Questions about Pine
What company does Pine work for?
Pine works for Highdive
What is Pine 's role at the current company?
Pine 's current role is Senior Narrative Designer.
What schools did Pine attend?
Pine attended Vancouver Film School, Centro Universitário Senac, Quanta Academia De Artes, Artacademia.
Not the Pine you were looking for?
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Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada (WPEFC)
Conservation, Restoration, RecoveryKimberley, Bc -
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1telusplanet.net -
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