(CNN Money) – When his one-year-old son was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Ryan Green turned to videogames. It was in part an escape, but also a way to share the the ups and downs of his family’s experiences.
In January 2016 – two years after four-year-old Joel passed away – ‘That Dragon, Cancer’ was released.
The two-hour game is less choose-your-own adventure and more about immersive experience – putting the player right in the center of the Green family’s battle for Joel’s life. You see the diagnosis, the tears, the desperate prayers – but you also hear Joel’s laughter, lots of it.
Green said that people have embraced it, despite the fact that it’s not the type of game you’d sit down to play over and over again.
“It was incredible, the groundswell of interest,” said Green, onstage at the Wired Business Conference in New York City on Thursday. “We were able to share our story and that gave other people permission to share theirs. That grief process – that’s all I could hope for.”
Green said the game was a team effort. There were four full-time people working on it, and his wife Amy wrote the script.