That Dragon, Cancer Developer Delivers the Most Heartfelt Game Awards Acceptance Speech
If you caught any of The Game Awards last night then you’ll know it was full of glitz, bright lights, and huge game reveals. One of the categories that perhaps could have gone overlooked was the ‘Games for Impact’ award that focuses on games made to deliver a message or convey something much more real than your average shooter. The list of nominees was impressive but nothing could beat the impact that Ryan Green’s That Dragon, Cancer delivers. A digital punch to the gut the game tells the story of Green’s son Joel and his battle with cancer. Tragically, Joel lost that battle at the age of five but the story he left behind and that Ryan was willing to tell will reduce all but the most stalwart of us to tears.
In his acceptance speech, Ryan Green delivered a tearful address that likely left very few dry eyes in the audience. He thanked people for allowing him to tell his son’s story despite it not being the ending they had hoped for.
Here’s the full transcript of the speech;
That Dragon, Cancer exists because my wife, Amy, my children: Caleb, Isaac, Elijah, and Zoe. My business partner Josh. Our team: John, Brock, Ryan, Mike, and Chris. Our friends who are at Ouya: Kelly, Julie, Bob and Jared. Our over 3000 Kickstarter backers. Indie Fund and this entire industry [that] believed this should exist.
Often in video games we get to choose how we’re seen. Our avatars, and our tweets, and the work that we do are all meant to portray the story that that we want to tell the world about why our lives matter. But sometimes a story is written onto us, or it’s told because of us, or in spite of us, and it reveals our weaknesses, our failures, our hopes, and our fears.
You let us tell the story of my son Joel. And in the end, it was not the story that we wanted to tell. But you chose to love us through our grief, by being willing to stop, and to listen, and to not turn away. To let my son Joel’s life change you because you chose to see him, and to experience how we loved him.”
And I have hope that when we are all willing to see each other, not for just who we want to be, but who we are, and who we’re meant to be – this act of love, and this act of grace, can change the world.”
Thank You.