It is unusual to take on the role of a man diagnosed with terminal cancer in a videogame knowing that he will die for sure. In Between is doing so. It was the first game by German developer gentlymad that started out as part of a university assignment to deal with the taboo topics of death and dying within a video game. Find out more about In Between and the intentions and inspirations behind the game in this short developer interview:

Daniel, could you please tell us a bit about yourself and gentlymad?
Hello, I am Daniel Denne, Art Director, Co-founder and one of the in total six members of gentlymad. We’re a game developing studio from Germany.

On your website you talk of a ‘Gently’ and a ‘Mad Vision’. Would you care to elaborate on that and how your game In Between fits into your vision?
In Between actually started out as an assignment for a university project and helped us to define and flesh out structural processes within the team. Since it was our first commercial project, it really laid out the groundwork on which our company was founded, as well as helping us to generate attention within the industry.
In retrospect though, it was quite the huge risk we took – building a company on such an artistic project but ultimately that decision is characteristic for the core values of our company; thinking outside of the box and mustering the courage to be mad. In many ways In Between influenced the values of our studio – to create games which do not conform but deviate from the Norm and established patterns. This mentality was manifested as our ‘Gently Mission’ and our ‘Mad Vision’.

In In Between you take on the role of a man diagnosed with terminal cancer. Early on, it is made very clear that there is no way of escaping his fate. Ultimately, players join the protagonist on his journey to face his own mortality and accept the inevitable which is rather unusual as game plots go. What inspired you to do so?
There were two key motivations which drove us to develop a game like In Between.
The challenge of dealing with the taboo topics of death and dying within a video game, was an extensive and with regards to content a very interesting task. At the time we felt that it would do our assignment’s requirements justice, in both theory and practice. It was especially exciting to overcome initial doubts about focusing a game around such dramatic and difficult topics, since games as a medium usually concentrate on empowering the player.
Besides this, personal and familial experiences with death and cancer played an important role in the project’s development. Especially during the initial phases of development, back when there were no commercial plans, these experiences were significant sources of motivation, which drove us to realise our idea. For me personally, I was confronted with death early on when my brother took his life.
To me, In Between was more than just a thematically challenging project, but in part it became a form of self-therapy with which I was able to process the experiences I had made. At the same, it gave us the opportunity, to give people an idea of the emotional and mental burden that is placed upon people in such situations.

The levels’ designs and themes are modelled after the Kübler-Ross model of grief, specifically the five stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Were there any particular challenges, in transforming a concept from Psychology into a gameplay experience?
On one hand the biggest challenges during development were to handle the topics of death and dying in an atmospheric and serious manner – to not depict it in a way that was too corny or cliché. But rather to tell a story, which would allow players’ own interpretations and present them with different possibilities of self-identification.
On the other hand, from a gameplay-mechanics perspective, it was difficult to create and assign a specific set of rules for every stage of death from the Kübler-Ross-model, out of which you could then create interesting and diverse challenges.

From 1st November 2018 till 31st January 2019 50% of revenues from purchases for In Between will go directly to the Cancer Research Institute. You can track the current amount of donations HERE.