CRIS Cancer Foundation: The Battle Inside

Cheil Worldwide Spain has created a video game mod for the global cancer organisation CRIS Cancer Foundation. Designed to connect a new generation with the battle against leukaemia and build awareness and support for the independent non-profit organisation, the work is dedicated to facilitating and developing innovative research to beat cancer. The game, called 'The Battle Inside', is a modified version of Doom Eternal, the latest release of the iconic 1993 first-person shooter game. Players of ‘The Battle Inside’ are challenged to ‘fight cancer to beat cancer’ and game play is altered to take place inside the body where it imitates the struggle against leukaemia. The game mod introduces new characters to Doom, designed to bring to life the behaviour of the disease. Players are challenged to overcome the characterisation of leukaemia’s impossibly fast-replicating cells, blastocysts, carcinomas and viruses. Several of Spain’s top game influencers were first to receive The Battle Inside mod, including cancer survivor XYS. However, once inside the game play, even the best gamers find it overwhelming and eventually succumb. Whether playing or watching via live stream, the Battle inside gives an insight into what the body has to undergo when battling leukaemia, a disease that took 40,000 teen lives in 2020 alone. While CRIS cancer Foundations’ objective is to engage a new generation of supporters through immersing them in understanding what an epic battle leukaemia poses for patients, it’s also looking to introduce this generation to giving support for innovative research. The Battle Inside incorporates Spain’s Bizium mobile payment platform, enabling young gamers to donate while playing. The Battle Inside drops, March 3, 2022 and can be downloaded at thebattleinside.es. Twitch streams will be live over the coming weeks as over 20 of Spain's key gamers take on the challenge. As one of the bloodiest first person shooter games, Doom provided the perfect platform to seamlessly replicate an environment that mimics ‘inside the body’ while also delivering the powerful twist of gamers battling the characters of cancer to help beat leukaemia. Cheil created the mod over a 12 month period involving deep research into the microscopic details of Leukaemia cells and their behaviours that were then accurately characterised to bring new characters to the Doom experience. The development of the mod combined in-house and specialist external dev skills to bring the internal physical battle to life with high quality rendering of new characters. Blending with the existing Doom universe and leaning into the game’s fast-paced gameplay, gamers can jump into the action while learning more about this form of cancer. Bringing the cause to one of the world’s best known video games was an obvious choice. CRIS’ scientific director Christina Thomas is a keen gamer who has been a valuable collaborator on the project providing knowledge of the disease with an understanding of the scientific and educational value that can be shared through video games. NGOs like CRIS are increasingly challenged by an ageing donor base. Leukaemia takes the lives of teens and yet teens themselves are not so aware of the disease. Making young people a part of the fight against this cancer and placing the struggle not only inside a game, but inside the human body as a first-person player, brings the urgency and struggle to the generation that is most affected. This is a generation that increasingly makes payments within game-play – a behaviour that if approached right, NGOs can tap into.