Come January 12, 2016, everyone will be able to get a taste of what it's like to care for a young child with cancer.
Four years after doctors found an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor in Ryan and Amy Green's son Joel, who was only 1 year old at the time, Joel's parents are finally releasing the video game they've been working on for the last couple years.
It's called "That Dragon, Cancer," and it's a far cry from the conventional gameplay experience.
The game gets its name from how Ryan and Amy would talk about cancer with their other three sons. They'd call the disease a "dragon."
In the game, users experience the four-year battle Joel fought against his cancer. They see Joel playing, laughing, struggling to keep food down, vomiting that food back up. They hear Amy's voice, telling her husband over the phone about how happy she is the treatment is over. They see a doctor deliver the bad news.
Unlike most other video games, which let users throw winning touchdown passes, kill zombies, steal cars, and conquer foreign lands, "That Dragon, Cancer" strips away adrenaline-filled excitement.
It's slow, because cancer is slow. It's procedural, because cancer has very specific treatment demands. And it's exhausting, because the unknowns are constant."That Dragon, Cancer" falls into a genre known as "empathy games." When players see Ryan in distress, or Joel slumped over and sickly, they're meant to feel and learn something.
"I'm asking you to walk along with me," Ryan Green told NBC News in 2013, when the game was still in its early stages. "I want to show people what the face of fear looks like. I want people to love my son like I love my son."
One of the things Green has said he wants people to take away from the game is that cancer doesn't always end with a miracle. Sometimes people pull through; other times, they don't.
The game is meant to be a way for people, especially those in similar circumstances, to emotionally prepare themselves for that darker outcome, he says.
"That Dragon, Cancer" will be available for PC, Mac, and Ouya. You can also preorder the game on its website.
