Ben's Game

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Ben's Game
Developer(s)	Eric Johnston
Publisher(s)	Make-A-Wish Foundation
Designer(s)	Ben Duskin Eric Johnston
Version	4
Platform(s)	Windows and Mac
Genre(s)	Therapeutic action game
Mode(s)	single player
Media	download

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

The game was conceptualised by Ben Duskin—an 8 year old American boy in remission from Leukemia. When interviewed by Make-A-Wish, he asked to design a video game to help other children endure cancer treatments. He remembered his oncologist telling him to visualize chemotherapy eating cancer cells and came up with the idea to create a video game. Eric Johnston, a software engineer from LucasArts created the game. It is freeware, available in Mac and PC formats, multilingual (9 languages) and can be downloaded on-line. Duskin and Johnston were awarded the "Unsung Hero of Compassion" by the Dalai Lama on 6 November 2005. Ben got cancer twice.

[edit] Theme

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: