An unusual approach to grief: Make a video game
The idea of a video game about a terminally ill toddler makes many people uncomfortable. There's a similar unease over the documentary film about the game.
The film, called "Thank You for Playing," will close this year's Twin Cities Film Festival at a screening Saturday night. The filmmakers hope it will spur important conversations.
The parents who created the game "That Dragon, Cancer," about their dying son did not at first agree.
Amy Green said her husband, Ryan, a game designer, suggested the project. She wasn't sold.
"For probably at least a year I told him, 'I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think anyone wants to play that game,'" she said.
Doctors found a tumor in their son Joel's brain when he was a year old. They gave him just a few months to live. However, he kept responding well to treatments.
"We were seeing lots of little miracles with Joel," said Amy Green. "Lots of times, his cancer was responding to things that they shouldn't. And we just believed that maybe he'd live.
"And I think that maybe that's maybe a thing that all parents do when you have a terminal child … You think, 'My kid could be the one that beats the odds.' And we were praying for him and we thought, 'Maybe he'll be healed, and if he is, what an incredible story to tell."
Amy came around and they began working on creating the game. Initially they saw it as a way to celebrate Joel and how much they loved him.
In the game, players travel with the family — to their home, to the playground, to the hospital. The Greens use their own voices and those of their other children. At one point in the game, they feed some ducks together, and discuss why Joel can't talk.
"Why can't Joel?" asks one of Joel's brothers.
"Well, Joel got sick, right after he turned 1," says Ryan.
"Kind of slowed him down a little bit, buddy," says Amy.
The game tells a story of love, family and faith.
Word got out about "That Dragon, Cancer." Documentary filmmaker David Osit stumbled across it on a gaming website.