That Dragon, Cancer — Redefining Video Games and Empathy

An extraordinary, soul stirring and heart wrenching experience like never before.

The most difficult part of creating an effective narration / story telling is to make the audience feel the empathy you want to, especially about difficult topics like a child struggling through cancer at the age of 1. Narration in video games have been long existent but have rarely ever created such a strong impact as this game: “That Dragon, Cancer”. For the final project, I am looking to explore this delicate relationship through the means of digital video. Since I am still in the process of interviewing people and cannot show a rough draft yet, I am talking about one of the games that forms a perfect example of exploring the idea of empathy through video games and narration.

Ryan Green, a game developer and his wife Amy Green began this project to cope up with the pain through the process and ended with the sad demise of their beloved son, Joel at the age of 4. It is an exceptional depiction of their abstract world in continual search of grace and respite for themselves and their lost child. Not so much of a wining- losing game, it is more of weaving an emotional bond with the player as they lift the burden of sorrow and pain while interacting through it. I had to play this game in parts, spread over a period of time because it was so very emotionally draining for me. I just couldn’t stop crying! I honestly don’t remember playing a game in the past that was so damn heart wrenching that it took me hours to get those pictures out of my mind.

Using small vignettes, the Greens have tried to show you the journey they went through with their kid, from happy times to sad ones to extremely difficult ones. The scenes are apt reflections of the parent’s hopes, grief and numbness through various situations. While the models are anonymous 3d poly structures that do not show any facial expressions, the hand gestures, sound and the words come together to create an immaculate aura of emotions. There are parts of audio recorded from their own lives like the kid’s giggles and family’s conversations,that creates an atmosphere of intimacy and deep connection while maintaining authenticity of all those experiences and emotions.

The interactions of the game are pretty basic and leaves you to explore through the space and react to them. An interesting shift between first and third person perspective plays with your freedom or control over the game as you move through the different scenes. The mechanics are kept simple that maintains the needed balance and does not upset the emotional experience the player is going through. But all these elements combine together to create an extra ordinary and soul stirring experience to express emotions that are sometimes too difficult to just express through words.

For me, the most traumatic experience was when no matter what I do, I could not stop the child from crying. It literally pierced my heart so hard in just 10 seconds that it felt completely unbearable. It was only made worse by the thought that this is just not a game. Joel was a real child and so would have been this situation when he must be in so much pain that he would not stop crying. How heart breaking would it have been for Joel’s parents to cope up with many such similar situations. And I believe, this is exactly where the game has succeeded i.e. diminishing the line between the real life and the virtual one. You feel the pain as if you are physically there, you feel the emotions of drowning and experience it as the doctor tells you that there is nothing more they can do, you feel the empathy through an unforgettable experience.

This game undoubtedly redefined the meaning of games. It showed how strong the medium can be, it showed how strong the emotions it can create, it showed how strong the empathy can be! In my process to develop my final project, I intend to explore this relationship of video games and empathy through research, interviews and examples. I feel this game was a perfect example of this relationship and communicates the essence of my final project.