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Loss and grief are difficult subjects to portray in many mediums, and video games are no exception.
But one new PC and Mac game out this week is trying to do just that. That Dragon, Cancer tells the real story of Ryan and Amy Green and their young son Joel, who around his first birthday was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
Though he was given just months to live, Joel fought the disease until he was four years old, passing away in March 2014. The game was coded by Ryan and Amy themselves – with some additional artistic help, and it soon became part of the family’s tribute to Joel to complete the game, and all the narration you hear within the game comes from Ryan, Amy and their sons.
The game is almost not a game, there are seemingly random moments dotted throughout what is better seen as an “experience” – from a sombre doctor’s office ready for bad news to suddenly pushing Joel down a hall in a racing car-style mini-game.
But those who have experienced grief suggest this mish-mash is accurate – that there is no patten to it. The Guardian’s Keith Stuart, when writing about the game and comparing it with the death of his own father said of the scene jumps: “To some, this has proved very odd and distracting, especially at a point where the game seems to be preparing us for terrible news. It seems like it doesn’t fit, like it breaks the flow. But the truth is, it’s an exceptionally pertinent intrusion – because, well, there is no flow to this. There is no defining mood, no smooth descent. This process is chaos.”
But there is hope here too. Ryan himself has said that he would understand some people not wanting to go near the game, before adding: “I hope they know that our intention isn’t to drag people through it. There are a few hard scenes, but there are sweet scenes and funny scenes and silly scenes, and then there are some magical scenes.
“I think that’s one of the things you find out in the hospital – you’re crying one minute, then you’re talking about these things you never thought you’d have to talk about, then you’re laughing the next. Life is all of that.”
This is clearly advice that has been taken on-board, with the game having received positive reviews across the board so far.
