Ben's Game

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Ben's Game is a video game about fighting cancer.

The game is a brain child of Ben Duskin—an American boy who is in remission from Leukemia. Eric Johnston, a software engineer from LucasArts helped Ben create the game. It is freeware, multilingual and can be downloaded on-line.

Theme

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

With a child patient as the hero miniaturized to microscopic level adventuring inside the child's own body, the object is to destroy all cancer cells and to collect the seven shields against common side effects of chemotherapy. Each shield is guarded by a "monster" -- an incarnation of one of those side effects.

Three health levels serve as ammunition in the game:

Health that the child gets from the hospital.
Ammo the child gets from the pharmacy.
The attitude the child gets from home.

Trivia

The game is free and downloadable.
It's available in 9 languages.
It uses some of LucasArts' copyrights (including effects used in the Star Wars game series).
Players can customize the image of the hero.

Also, defeating cancer in the context of a video game is considered therapeutic.

External links

[Ben's Game - Make-a-Wish] — Official site hosted by Make-A-Wish Foundation)

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