Video games are usually only considered mature in the "may contain intense violence" kind of way, and usually for entertainment purposes. The creators of That Dragon, Cancer seem to be unaware of these rules.
In developer Ryan Green's words, "That Dragon, Cancer tells the story of our son Joel and his four-year fight against cancer. Our desire is to craft an adventure game that is poetic, playful, full of imagination and of hope. This is how we choose to honour him and his memory."
With progress going well the team turned to Kickstarter at the end of last year for funds to complete the game, and bring it to more platforms. The project was quickly funded on 12 December and the team invited supporters to contribute ar work to be included on the walls of a virtual hospital location.
In the game simple mouse movements and clicks navigate a world that is intentionally impressionistic and plays a little like
Myst. Its muted delivery leaves space to allow the narrated poetry, prose and beautiful sound track from Jon Hillman to do their work.
Running through the world, and triggered at particular points, are echoes and poems that hint at the deeper story. Time spent in a park playing with Joel creates a sense of child-like wonder as swings and roundabouts and slides take centre stage. But just out of view are elements we will meet later that foreshadow the brooding challenge both boy and family must face.
This tone is different from early demos of the game, something that has developed in part from the news that Joel died on March 2014. Joel's father, and one of the game's developers, Ryan Green described this when we spoke recently. "It was always our desire that this was not a game characterised by how it makes you cry, we wanted to embody the bitter with the sweet. So recently we've been working on communicating who Joel was, his mannerism, his behaviour and his laughter and the way in which he played."
The unusual decision to create a video game about this topic is matched by the inclusion of the Green's Christian faith. The risk of alienating gamers not usually receptive to mixing faith and entertainment, along with perplexing non-gamers on how a game can address such a sensitive subject, is very real.
Play the game though, even a few early levels as I did recently, and it makes surprising emotional sense. Afterwards I asked Green whether the experience of making the game and Joel's death had altered his faith.
After a pause he answered, "when Joel was alive we were still hoping for the miracle, but I think the real challenge is to find the beauty when the story doesn't turn out how you were hoping to write it... Through this experience god has become bigger and more mysterious to me and it's something I'm learning to be okay with."
With the additional aspects of the game and the new platforms, That Dragon, Cancer is now planned for release late 2015.
Andy Robertson is a freelance family gaming expert for the BBC and runs Family Gamer TV on YouTube.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
