That Dragon, Cancer Now Kickstarting
One family's hopeful tale of cancer
Any time a limb of RPS has had the opportunity to play That Dragon, Cancer, they've turned it down. As beautiful and exciting as it looks, it also seems harrowing. One needs to be in a certain mood to play a game based on a family's real-life story of raising their young son as he goes through terminal cancer. We've heard wonderful things about it but... it's never been the right time.
While That Dragon, Cancer was once due to be an Ouya timed exclusive, now the non-puzzling adventure game's headed to Windows and Mac simultaneously too. It's looking for funding to finish up, though, so the developers have turned to Kickstarter.
That Dragon, Cancer is a series of point-and-click scenes about the joys, hopes, and difficulties of Amy and Ryan Green raising their son Joel as he went through treatment. When programmer Ryan and the team started working on the game, Joel was still in treatment. He died this March. It's still a game about hope. Please do read about Jenn Frank's experiences of playing an early demo; she writes about that better than I could.
I am uncomfortable experiencing emotions but had a little cry watching the Kickstarter video, so let's move onto talk of cold, hard money. The Kickstarter is looking for $85,000 (£54k) to finish development. Pledging at least $15 (£9.50) will get you a copy of the game when it's finished. More expensive tiers will let you put some artwork or a message of your own into certain scenes.