That Dragon, Cancer
An interactive memoir of a family's journey with childhood cancer.
That Dragon, Cancer is a 2016 video game from Numinous Games, created by Ryan and Amy Green, Josh Larson, and a small team. It is an autobiographical work based on the Greens’ experience raising their son Joel, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at twelve months old. Doctors initially gave him only a short time to live, but Joel survived for four more years before passing away in March 2014 at age five. The game is structured as a point-and-click adventure, using interactivity and immersion to let players experience both the low and high moments of that period in a way that film cannot.
The idea for the game came from Ryan Green when Joel was four. Both Ryan and Amy, devout Christians, considered the extra years they had with Joel a miracle. Ryan had previously made smaller, emotional games, including *Giga Wife*, which compared spousal interactions to a Tamagotchi-like game. At church, Ryan conceived *That Dragon, Cancer* while reflecting on the past few years—specifically a hospital night when he could not stop Joel from crying until he prayed, which reminded him of a video game with subverted mechanics. He wanted to share his experience of raising Joel with a broader audience and believed an interactive game was the best medium to express a message of grace. The game’s title comes from an allegory the Greens told their other sons, in which Joel was a brave knight fighting a dragon named Cancer.
Ryan and Amy worked with Josh Larson, a developer Ryan met in 2010 while at Soma Games, a Christian video game company. Their friendship deepened after a 2011 game jam, and Larson suggested that the Greens’ hardships with Joel would make a strong project. By late 2012, Larson agreed to forgo contract work for a year, living off savings to help develop the game. After discussion with Amy, Ryan also committed three months to the project.
The game was initially planned as a time-limited exclusive for the Ouya, whose makers helped fund development. With expanded funding and a larger scope, the team launched a Kickstarter campaign in association with Ouya to secure additional funds, promising simultaneous releases on other platforms like Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It was released on January 12, 2016—what would have been Joel’s eighth birthday. An iOS version followed in October 2016.
Quick Facts
- Title
- That Dragon, Cancer
- Developer
- Numinous Games
- Designer
- Ryan Green
- Writer
- Amy Green
- Programmer
- Josh Larson
- Composer
- Jon Hillman
- Engine
- Unity
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows, OS X, Ouya, iOS, Android
- Released
- Windows, OS X, Ouya / WW · January 12, 2016iOS / WW · October 5, 2016
- Genre
- Adventure, art
- Modes
- Single-player
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
That Dragon, Cancer bore out from experiences that Ryan and Amy Green had after their third child Joel was diagnosed with an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor at twelve months of age. By November 2010, the doctors had given the child about four months to live, but despite developing seven additional tumors, Joel continued to live for four years following his initial diagnosis. Joel's condition left him mentally underdeveloped, being unable to speak even by age 2, and he required additional parental care and supervision, alongside numerous visits to doctors and hospitals for palliative care and chemotherapy treatment. In early 2014, Joel's condition worsened, and the Greens temporarily moved from Colorado to San Francisco to take part in an experimental drug trial. The new drug failed to relieve the boy's new symptoms, so the Greens, following the advice of the hospice, decided to remove his feeding tube, and he died on March 13, 2014, at the age of five.
The game is played as an exploration game from both third- and first-person perspective through a number of abstracted scenes based on the Greens' experience with raising Joel from learning of his condition through his death. The player takes the role of Joel's parents in fourteen small vignettes that capture some of the emotional moments they had to face during Joel's life expressed as interactive art. The player can interact with the characters and make certain choices, similar to those faced by the Greens. The game includes fantasizing and imaginative reconstructions of some of the real moments the Greens experienced, such as a wagon ride in a hospital being envisioned as a colorful racing game. Alongside the interactivity, the game includes narration from Ryan, Amy, and other family members, as well as recordings such as voicemails that they had made during their time with Joel.
Ryan Green came up with the idea for the game when Joel was four. He and Amy, both devout Christians, felt that the added years they had with Joel from the original diagnosis were a miracle. The name of the game is taken from a story that the Greens had told their other sons about Joel's illness through an allegory about how Joel was a brave knight fighting a dragon named Cancer. Ryan and Amy worked with Josh Larson, a game developer who Ryan met in 2010 while working at Soma Games. The Greens and Larson created the studio Numinous Games to distribute the title. Ryan secured a deal with funding from Ouya to develop the game, in exchange for a time-limited exclusivity for the micro-console. The game was released on January 12, 2016, on what would have been Joel's seventh birthday.
Reader's Guide
That Dragon, Cancer is significant as a landmark in the discussion of video games as an art form, praised for its raw autobiographical experience from the parents' view, making the player deal with difficult emotions and the strength of the Greens' faith. The game was initially developed to relate Ryan and Amy's personal experience with Joel when they were uncertain of his health, but following his death, they reworked much of the game to memorialize and personalize their time and interactions with Joel for the player. Its development was supported by a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in association with Ouya, and it was released on multiple platforms. Alongside the game, a documentary, Thank You for Playing, documenting both the last few years of Joel's life and the development of the game, was aired in 2016. The game's legacy includes demonstrating how interactive media can convey deeply personal and emotional narratives, and it remains an example of how video games can serve as a medium for memorial and coping with loss.
Did You Know?
- The name of the game comes from an allegory the Greens told their other sons about Joel being a brave knight fighting a dragon named Cancer.
- A documentary, Thank You for Playing, documenting the last few years of Joel's life and the game's development, was aired in 2016.
- The game's initial demonstration at the 2013 Game Developers Conference caught the attention of media and investors.
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