'The Last of Us Part II' News: Game Director Neil Druckmann Confirmed To Speak at DICE Summit

By Jessica Ferrera, Christian Post Contributor Sunday, January 21, 2018

It has been confirmed that "The Last of Us Part II" game director Neil Druckmann will be appearing and speaking before the attendees of the 2018 D.I.C.E. Summit.

The annual D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertainment) gaming event is organized by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. Though the affair is not as big as other trade shows like the Electronic Entertainment Expo, its program is filled with speeches and panel interviews from some of the biggest names in the video game industry.

The game director will join Dan Trachtenberg, who is known for writing and directing "10 Cloverfield Lane" and an episode of "Black Mirror" titled "Playtest," and the two will discuss "the creative process in crafting character-driven experiences for video games" and the "unique challenges presented by, the interactive and non-interactive mediums."

Druckmann and Trachtenberg are some of the newest additions to the lineup of speakers in the D.I.C.E. Summit. Their attendance as speakers in the event was announced along with Baobab Studios CEO Maureen Fan and Maja Moldenhauer, executive producer and artist of "Cuphead."

The AIAS previously confirmed that the D.I.C.E. Summit will be attended by Bossa Studios creative director Chet Faliszek, Ubisoft Strategic Innovation Lab's director of insights and trends Lidwine Sauer, and Xbox boss Phil Spencer, who will be giving a keynote speech.

While the D.I.C.E. Summit is one of the highly expected video game events in 2018 so far, it is unlikely that Druckmann will arrive with hefty updates or new teasers for their much-awaited release, "The Last of Us Part II."

For fans who are looking for the latest official update on "The Last of Us Part II," Druckmann previously hinted in an interview last month that the game still had a long way to go before it can be released.

While speaking about the game's trailers at the AIAS Game Maker's Notebook podcast program, Druckmann said: "This and some other parts are like the most polished parts of the game because we knew we were going to show them, and now it's like there's a daunting task ahead of us."

"We've got this slither of five minutes, now how do you make that into tens of hours of experience to look and feel that visceral, that kind of intensity? ... People don't see that the rest of it – at different stages – is a broken mess," Druckmann added.