Arabic studio develops platform to help kids with cancer

Lebanon-based game developers Wixel Studios has launched an Indiegogo campaign to develop a game that will help children with cancer.

The project, currently called Aurora, will help fund and financially support cancer research centres focused on treating cancer in children and is described as “a mobile gamified international platform to support kids with cancer”.

The studio is creating a game and an interactive story book and the price of the content, when released, will cost $1 USD. 60% of that dollar will go to cancer research centres and treatment while the other 40% will be used to create more content for the app.

The project was inspired by the child of the studio heads, Reine Abbas and Ziad Feghali. He approached his parents after he’d found out his six year old relative, Diamand, was diagnosed with leukaemia and he was convinced that a game would help her during treatment and give her strength to fight the cancer. Abbas and Feghali were only weeks away from completing the game before Diamand sadly passed away.

Not only is Wixel Studios trying to change the passive way in which cancer research is funded, but it gives kids the opportunity to feel part of a community, with Aurora offering various social media platforms for kids, supported by international organisations that support cancer research.

The game will feature personalised super heroes, which the kids create.

We think this is a fantastic idea, akin to what author of Peter Pan, J.M. Barry has done for Great Ormond Street Hospital by giving all the rights, and therefore continuous stream of royalties, from the story.

We will be talking to Wixel Studios in more detail about this project, but for now we urge you to check out the page, donate and watch the video Wixel has done outlining the project.