We’re adding That Dragon, Cancer to our list for it’s powerful and immersive storytelling, depicting Joel Green’s 4 year experience with cancer.

Developed as a love letter to his son, the game is an emotional journey, including deeply personal moments from the actual family’s life. The game encapsulates real audio and spoken poetry within the gameplay, which really hit home.

As with a number of our games, this is a heavy play; despite being intertwined with themes of hope and love, I (Rosie) am yet to find someone who has played this and not been absolutely devastated.

You can learn more about Joel and the Green family here.

That Dragon, Cancer is simple to play, with point and click mechanics, which was honestly all I could manage when experiencing this anyway. Players progress through the story through a variety of different locations and memories of Joel’s story, and become a part of that journey.

That Dragon, Cancer Trailer

The game originally started on Kickstarter, with over 3.5k backers. Created by Numinous Games, the team have also developed Painted Waters, a one-button game created for children. The idea behind Painted Waters was to create more accessible games for players with disabilities.