Linus Tech Tips coverage of PAX 2013 is brought to you by Western Digital,
Intel, and Steel Series. Hey guys, I'm here again at the Indie
Mega booth at That Dragon Cancer. And
this is kind of something really different. This isn't something
that I've seen on the floor. This isn't even something that I've really seen in
a video game very often. And yeah, I I
think that's it for me. What can you tell me about this game?
Well, um, my wife Amy and I have four
sons. Um, and our third son Joel uh has
terminal cancer and we've been fighting that for the past three almost four
years. And so this story uh is about him
and it's about the roller coaster that's our life and and the hope that can be
found the hope that we found in them in the shadow of death.
Wow. That's it. It it is that deep. He's not just exaggerating. I have played
through the game. It is quite a moving experience. Um how how do you go through
this game this story? Well, um this first demo scene takes
place in a hospital and um it retells a
night that I actually spent with Joel um right after they told us that he was
terminal uh and they had started palative treatment. Um he had gotten a
stomach bug and so he was hospitalized for dehydration. And so this kind of
compresses that six or seven hours that I spent with him not not being able to
calm him, you know, like not being able to do anything to help him and uh the
helplessness that I felt in that. Um but then also the grace that I saw
uh at the end. And so like um that's
what this that's what this particular scene is.
I hate this room. I didn't used to.
For um for a moment, it was an
adventure. I was cast as the
compassionate and caring father. Hold up
with his fragile son in a small clif in the rocks. The storm raging, waves
ripping at the sharp black rocks below. And enveloped in my arms, he feels safe.
you really just um you're kind of in my head and you're also kind of outside of
outside of me and uh as I'm kind of stuck in this hotel room with my son.
It's really interesting uh playing through that scene because you feel
really connected uh as a player with the situation. I know I know you were
actually in the situation, but as a player, it's it's obviously not the same
thing, but you can feel a little bit of empathy for the situation. And then one
thing, this obviously won't be in in the game, but in the play test that I just
had, there's the picture of you and your son right to the left. And I felt myself
referencing that picture throughout the playthrough because it's just it's so
deep and you do really feel that connection. And it's it's it's a
completely different thing because it's a true story and because it's coming directly from you. You can tell that
it's just there's that much power behind it.
I just want him to feel better.
It's okay, Jolie.
It's really, really interesting game. Is there anything else you can add?
Um, well, you know, I just I'm I'm a pretty proud father, you know, and like
I put the pictures there because I want people to know that who he is. is and
that picture was taken 2 weeks ago. And I want them to know how beautiful he is
and just how sweet he is. And um and so
I also want people to know that this comes from a very real place for us. I
mean this is something where my wife and I decided that we were going to approach
this project with our dev partners um uh
in the middle of our experience, you know, and um to me that was really
important because I think a lot of times when you approach hard things from uh
afterwards, you know, you have a tendency to like oversimplify those
things that you went through and when you try to pass them on to people, they come off as like laws and rules about
how you're supposed to live, right? And so like for us there's a very important
part of being in the journey and and and choosing to walk that with other people
because you know there's thousands and thousands of people here and they all
have their own pain and that pain is very real to them. You know it's not
something we can compare and I just want to give them a a hand and say hey I have
like just a sliver of experience and I I
I have an idea of what you might be going through in a very small way. So,
and that's it's it's I'm I'm very happy that you have found a way to be able to
develop this while going through it because you're sharing an experience
with many people that can't actually feel it, but this is the closest they
will possibly ever be able to be most likely ever be able to be.
Bounce around.
Is that funny? A bounce. A bunch. A
bounce. Bounce. Bounce.
How will someone be able to get this game? Well, so you know, we kind of
poured our life savings into into doing this, right? And so, uh, and then we
kind of ran out of money. So, uh, what happened was is Ouya stepped up with an
investment and and that allows us to like really commit to this project
full-time and be able to support and love my family, you know, at the same
time. And so, it's like, yeah, it's like a real blessing. And it's it's just tremendously awesome of
them to step up and do that because they believe that what we're doing should be
done, you know, and so we're going to come to Ouya first next year,
right? Um and then after that, we'll see where we go. Great. So if you don't have an Ouya yet,
definitely check that out. And if you can't check that out, just wait because
you should definitely try this game. It is a really big experience. It's totally
surreal. Thank you for developing this game. Thank you for showing me this
game. If you want to see all the rest of our packs content, be sure to subscribe
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