DICE Summit will dive into games for cars, VR, film, and storytelling

The organizers of the DICE Summit, the elite video game conference in Las Vegas in mid-February, are announcing 11 new speakers today to discuss the frontiers of gaming. And, yep, one of those frontiers is games for automobiles.

The new speakers will cover topics on games for cars, virtual reality, film, and storytelling. Staged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the DICE Summit will take place February 16 to February 18 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. The theme is the “Art of Engagement,” or the different ways to “enlist and enrapture” people “as we build the entertainment medium of the future,” the group said.

The event features the 19th DICE Awards, which is one of the peer-based awards that is like the Oscars of gaming. I’ve been to every single DICE Summit since the event’s inception.

“Engagement is central to both business and art,” said Martin Rae, the president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, in a statement. “This year, a variety of talented people will explore engagement and how it deeply affects what they do – whether it is advancing automobile technology, building boundless entertainment franchises, or creating open worlds based on experience. As always, our audience will be treated to big ideas that will help drive their own creative pursuits forward.”

The opening keynote will be a conversation between Penn Jillette — the author, actor, and half of legendary magic team Penn & Teller — and Randy Pitchford, a magician and the co-founder and president of Gearbox Software. They will talk about “Assumptions and Expectations with Interactivity and Magic.” The session will incorporate some lessons in misdirection of attention, expectation disruption, and just plain old-fashioned lying.

One of the more interesting sessions called “Automobiles, the Next Mobile Platform” will be a panel discussion about how to make games played in cars. Hopefully, that doesn’t involve the driver.

Rich Hilleman, the chief creative director at Electronic Arts, will moderate the panel. Participants include Frankie James, the managing director at General Motors Advanced Technology Silicon Valley Office; Sahin Kirtavit, the senior director of automotive solutions at Nvidia; and Oriol Servia, a partner and managing director of Formula E team Dragon Racing.

Other speakers include film and television producers Roy Lee and Adrian Askarieh. They will be joined on a franchise panel by Steven Weintraub from entertainment website Collider.

And more speakers include Tommy Francois, the new IP editorial director at Ubisoft, and Rhianna Pratchett, the lead writer and narrative designer for the Tomb Raider reboot.