Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
LFTE: The Story of the Year (Feb 12)
I’m not sure how the video game industry ranks when compared with other forms of entertainment, but when it comes to charity and giving back I’m proud of all the work being done out there by gamers at large. (Admittedly, not a lot of it being done by me. Bad me.)
From Child’s Play to the dozens of game-a-thons and events that happen throughout the year, gamers do a good job of giving back. By no means do I want to trivialize or diminish these great deeds, but one thing really blew me away this year – the story of Owain’s Wish and the wonderful people at PopCap who made it happen.
This 10-year old boy was introduced to PopCap through the Make-A-Wish foundation after being diagnosed with pre-B acute lymphocytic leukemia in 2010. Owain’s wish was to make a video game.
I don’t know what you were like when you were 10, but I vividly remember taking pen to paper and designing my own games. Sitting and wondering what could be was almost as fun as the games themselves.
PopCap gave Owain his chance to come in and tell them about his game, as his father had told them, “What he really wanted was to hang out with ‘real game designers.’”
Little did they know what was to come. In their own words, the PopCap team was “blown away when he came with a PowerPoint presentation and basically walked them through the game.” The following is an excerpt from PopCap’s own site.
“Here’s how his first slide began: ‘You are a military genius who has just been released from cryo-sleep. Your brilliance in the Lunar War convinced the A.S.P. (Allied Star Police) to put you in cryogenic slumber, just in case WWIII showed up. It’s not exactly WORLD war three, more Galactic War one...’
Owain described his game in detail as he went through each slide. He had mapped out pretty much everything; storyline, unit types, firepower, shields, respawn times. We were blown away. Clearly, Owain was not your average fourth grader.”
Owain is far from average indeed. This story hit home on so many levels – from challenges with leukemia within my own family, to my dreams as a kid – and it all culminates in the ultimate power of video games to heal and make the world a better place. Kudos to PopCap for doing something amazing, and here’s to Owain for Allied Star Police.
The game is out on iOS now, and it’s fantastic. But the story is even better. As of this writing Owain was being discharged, which is the best news of all.
Email the author Andy McNamara, or follow him on Twitter, Google+, and Game Informer
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
