Growing up with a life-threatening condition, Mika Millard knew from a young age that she was eligible for a wish. But for Mika, frequent hospital visits were simply a fact of life. She felt a kinship with the doctors and nurses she grew up around. “I kind of forgot about the wish, to be honest.”

Then, in the winter of 2020, when Mika was 13, her mom reached out to Make-A-Wish Vermont. Mika kept saying she wanted to design her own video game… was there any way that was possible? She’d been playing games since she was five and saw them as a creative outlet as well as a way to cope with frequent isolation and connect with her friends.

A wish unlike any other presents a unique challenge and an opportunity

Designing a game from scratch is a large undertaking and not something Make-A-Wish had experience with. The big game design companies offered Mika the chance to visit their studios and see how games were made, but to design a game… that just wasn’t possible.

Fortunately, Burlington is home to a leading game design school, Champlain College, alumnae from which had founded nearby video game design firm Rad Magpie. After some initial meetings discussing timeline and scope of the project, Make-A-Wish threw a huge surprise party to let Mika know the good news: she WOULD get to design her own video game, from start to finish.

Soon after Mika's wish reveal party the pandemic hit, putting a damper on pretty much everything.

Mika was not to be deterred. She kept up a rigorous schedule through the entire spring and summer of 2020, moving from concepting to design and finally into production, meeting with the team from Rad Magpie once a week for detailed zooms reviewing progress, deliverables, deadlines, and steadily bringing her game to life.

From start to finish - during a pandemic - Mika designs and creates an original video game

The result of six months of  Mika's vision, perseverance, and a whole lot of hard work, is The Cocoknight – a game entirely conceived and directed by Mika, under the expert guidance of Rad Magpie.

Make-A-Wish Vermont celebrated Mika's accomplishment with a surprise premiere at the drive-in, inviting all her friends and family so she could share a bit of what she'd been so hard at work on, and see messages of congratulations from her teammates at Rad Magpie.

You can learn more and download Mika's game here: The Cocoknight

Mika says she learned a lot from the experience, and now has a new appreciation for the amount of work and time that goes into creating a game. She doesn’t think she’ll pursue it as a full-time career, but perhaps as a complement to her eventual career with NASA.

We can’t wait.

Thanks to all who helped grant Mika's wish, including volunteer Wish Granters Janice Poplawski and Elizabeth Roach, and the entire team at Rad Magpie: Kel Bachus, Dana Steinhoff, Madi Baer, Anna Margotta, Karim Elzanaty, Lillian Vinson, and Petra Jarrett and of course the many individual donors and supporters who make our work possible.