A Chinese man, Zhou Yichen, has created a simple pixel video game called Grandma to honour his late grandmother and their daily interactions, according to South China Morning Post. The free, five-minute game invites players to complete tasks like preparing meals, helping her bathe, and pushing her wheelchair after she fell. The game ends with a touching farewell, symbolising the grandmother's passing.
Players are asked to choose "yes" or "no" to do these tasks to complete missions. In the end, the grandma says thank you to the player before she is taken away by a giant bird, symbolising her death, as per the news portal.
Inspired by nostalgic 'Game Boy' graphics, Zhou designed the game to remember the time he spent caring for his grandmother before her death last year.
After sharing early images online, the game drew a large emotional response from players who related to caring for elderly family members. Zhou hopes his creation shows that video games can be powerful tools for storytelling and remembrance.
Zhou, from Wuhan, Hubei province, in central China, said he was raised by his grandparents until the age of three and recalled that his grandmother was "strong and always smiled".
His grandmother had a fall last March, and Zhou took care of her.
After she died weeks later, Zhou began designing the game last July. He finished it in February.
"Since I studied art creations, I intend to turn my important experiences into artworks," Zhou was quoted as saying by SCMP. "I chose to display my game like that of Game Boy because the latter is what I often played during my childhood."
Zhou then added, "I liked taking her out for a stroll. I think she was happy when passing the places where she once worked and meeting her friends."
He said that at first he did not publish his game online, believing that the death of a family member was very personal.
