Thank You for Playing (2015) – Review

A couple of years ago it was easy to classify games into various genres. There were some experimental games, but there weren’t that many of them and they usually didn’t get much attention. But indie games (which are made by small teams) have become a lot more popular. They can offer something you haven’t experienced before and Ryan Green is a developer who offers a very emotional experience with his game. The title is That Dragon Cancer.

The reason he decided to start making this game was that his youngest son Joel was diagnosed with a tumor in his brain at a very young age. The doctors thought he would only have a couple of months to live. Ryan wanted to share his experiences with the world, with the goal to make the pain and frustration thousands of people go through something which can be discussed. He was surprised to find out that in the hospital someone who was experiencing the same in the room next to him didn’t share what he was feeling. We share all the great moments in life, but the end of one is something we don’t like to discuss. This documentary documents the process of creating the game, but also follows the life of Joel and what kind of impact his illness has on the rest of the family. You see how Ryan and his wife try to put their experience into the game.

&nsbp;That often leads to difficult conversations between them. Ryan does want Joel’s laughter to appear in the game, but not him crying and use another child for that. I previously heard about the development of this game listening to an episode of Reply All. A couple of levels needed lots of redesign in order to show the world exactly as they wanted with the goal of a gamer feeling what they have gone through. When Ryan presents the game for the first time during an event many of the people who try it leave the booth in tears and Ryan knows the game does what they set out to do. It made me think of the moments in games which made me feel something deeper and there weren’t that many (Ico and Shadow of the Colussus are the two which came to mind). I still haven’t played this game myself, but this emotional documentary does make me curious about it.