born december israeli american writer creative director programmer video game developer known work video games thief end born raised age israel experiences entertainment later influence storytelling techniques studied computer science searching work video game industry video game work intern naughty dog programmer game designer drake fortune thieves later chosen lead development creative director role continued development thief end addition written comic books worked motion comic prior creation graphic novel second chance sarah later wrote american dreams artist received high praise work receiving awards nominations contributions including award writers guild america awards work praised early life born israel december young age older brother showed comic books video games movies forms entertainment particularly video games helped learn english particularly interested story telling wrote comic books moved united_states family attended middle school high school miami florida studied soon research assistant living florida spent year university working lab beginning july time began developing game pink bullet microsoft windows friends point wanted animator required enlisting art classes parents forbade taking programming class realized preference began december completed following year moved pittsburgh attended august began master degree earned april developed game student collaboration fellow student career game developers conference met naughty dog founder gave business card joined programming intern promoted time position gameplay programmer months later development combat racing continued ask president joining design team wells restrained moving design team originally employed programmer agreed review design work completed working hours following development wells concluded skilled field design gave role game designer drake fortune position worked closely construct story working thieves lead game designer involved core writing game worked original design story prior abandonment game high impact games completed development worked motion comic writer director prequel drake fortune eye tells story prior events game graphic novel sarah published february illustrations artist novel relates interest traveling time meet wife younger age cute poetic idea explained felt shares similarities novel protagonist johnny lot johnny flaws fears based shortcomings comic originally released february critics particularly praised illustrations writing character development following development naughty dog split teams work projects concurrently team working drake deception presidents chose lead development new game chosen determination talent design originally set develop new game series team felt weren service fans franchise decided create new game titled ideas concept created student idea merge gameplay story set zombie apocalypse like night living dead lead character similar lead character police officer tasked protecting young girl lead character heart condition players assume control young girl reversing roles based concept replacing police officer naming young girl ellie prior directing game took acting classes order talk actors language game released june critical acclaim particular praise directed work story earned numerous awards work game including bafta award game developers choice award golden award later worked downloadable expansion pack left prequel focusing ellie relationship friend riley received critical acclaim earned additional accolades work left including second bafta particular praised writing scene involving kiss female characters named breakthrough moment video games wrote issue comic book miniseries american dreams writer artist published issue released april lauded writing character development simplistic illustrations following departure naughty dog march announced working thief end creative director game director respectively initial reports claimed forced naughty dog presidents later denied wrote story alongside game released critical acclaim continued praise directed story personal life currently resides los_angeles california wife maya daughter father development daughter huge inspiration writing game found birth daughter reinforced ideas family realizing jewish found regularly writes white straight christian male characters encouraging instead create diverse characters favorite video games include resident evil inspired character focused comics preacher man works video games literature film television awards nominations
Neil Druckmann