Isn't It About Time Somebody Makes a Christian Game?

[GrayJedi_Lightshade]

interesting idea. I've got a somewhat similar idea, but not close enough to say it's the exact same.

I'm working/writing for a movie series idea that will eventually be developed into a video game.
It's called Before the Fall. It's about how Satan turned away from God, got 1/3 of the entire angelic population to turn away, and the war that ensues. The series ends with a scene of Adam and Eve walking up to the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil - fade out, credits roll.

After that first series is done, I'm wanting to do a second series, and this one will probably be a mini-series that you'll see on the silver screen. It's about spiritual warfare, and the battles that angels and demons have over us. For the video game of this series, you will NEVER play a demon/fallen angel. Any angel you play as, you are assigned a human to protect and guide. You fight for windows to be opened that they might receive God's truth. The demons try and thwart this.

In order for you to proceed further in the game, there are barriers you must cross by solving puzzles or riddles. And to solve these puzzles and riddles, you MUST use either one of two things. A Bible, or a Strong's Concordance.

Each angel and demon, as a part of their character, are given control over certain elements. (i.e. fire, wind, water, light, shadow, dream/spirit, so on and so forth) Gameplay style will be VERY similar to Devil May Cry and maybe God of War.


...sound fun?

 

[Free]

http://www.cracked.com/article_15672_praystation-6-most-misguided-christian-video-games.html

Check out Catechumen at the bottom. That is the FPS I had heard about.

 

[Twisted Hawk]

I really think that the Metal Gear solid series coudl be easily converted into Christian games. Every game is about the same idea: sacrifice for others. The only real problems I had in the 4th one was the languate and the way Naomi was dressed. I know the main bosses wore skin tight clothes and walked in sexual manners, but this was seen as something to stay away from and fight back against. Just change a few things up, and it will be a very positive series.

 

[Sound Silence]

Years ago a few friends and I tried to play Dungeons and Dragons, but as christians. It can't be done.

It can, actually. But as a roleplaying system D&D has issues anyway and I find other, more generic rp systems are better.

 

[Mikey]

I totaly want a 'Pokemon type' game where you go around healing people in Jesus's name in "Acts of the Apostles " days....
There's a good title ...

Acts of the Apostles

For modern day:
Acts of the Apostles 2: Rise Of Satan :ohwell

And for all the end-times lovers:
Acts of the Apostles 3: The Savior Returns

 

[GrayJedi_Lightshade]

well, the AO rating caught me completely off guard. If you have that much blood in it, I have two things to say. 1: chances are if you just put lots and lots of blood in it, they're just gonna rate it M for Mature. Look at NanoBreaker. No nudity or language...just TONS and TONS of blood. Bloodrayne had tons of blood, AND scantily clad women, and it was only rated M. 2: Don't try and impress the world with magnanimous amounts of gore just to sell a game.

My game that I mentioned above that I wish to make, Before the Fall, will have some degree of violence. I do agree with you about what the Bible does in terms of interpreting a few things that have happened or will happen, and that it's not a pretty sight. I also believe in a kind of spiritual violence which I believe that even Jesus fully took part in. But I'm not putting in EXTREME violence in the games...only as much as needed. However, the fact thay you say the game will be rated AO just for the blood tells me you're gonna go overkill, which will ruin your testimony to a serious and frightening degree.

In BTF, you don't really "kill" demons. If you completely incapacitate them or give them a completely fatal wound (i.e. gutting them with a sword, shooting them in the face with an arrow, or bludgen them to kingdom come), they wilt away back to their place of residence, and wallow in their failure until Judgment Day. If an angel is mortally/fatally wounded, an angel specializing in healing or medicine will have to come retrieve them. You can also cut off wings of demons and fallen angels. (There's a scene in the movies where an angel is tortured by Satan's cronies and has only but one of his wings cut off. NOT gonna be pretty.)

But the amount of blood isn't going to be so brutal that I'm gonna make it spew out from 50 psi out of any wound or gash. It'll probably look more like Braveheart violence if anything.

 

[Sound Silence]

Sadly, a game like this would sell well with the Secular world.

Nah, it would get riffed to no end.




To be honest, I don't think making "Bible Games" is the way to go. I think far too much of Christian works focus on being overly "Christiany" to the point of being silly. You don't need to make "SimMissionary" or whatever. You just need genuine Christian worldviews and morality. It's the same with preachiness in a lot of Christian fiction. It's like every Christian story is there to act as a tract.
Don't rewrite the Bible guys. If you want to preach, write a tract. If you want to tell a good story that keeps within Christian morals...write a good story that keeps within Christian morals.

 

[GrayJedi_Lightshade]

To be honest, I don't think making "Bible Games" is the way to go. I think far too much of Christian works focus on being overly "Christiany" to the point of being silly. You don't need to make "SimMissionary" or whatever. You just need genuine Christian worldviews and morality. It's the same with preachiness in a lot of Christian fiction. It's like every Christian story is there to act as a tract.
Don't rewrite the Bible guys. If you want to preach, write a tract. If you want to tell a good story that keeps within Christian morals...write a good story that keeps within Christian morals.

Amen to that, brother!!
Well said!

 

[Michae1]

I saw a Bible Trivia game in a Christian book store. I am thinking about getting that for Christmas for the family.

There are a few other Bible version games out there. I see a lot of them on Amazon. Such as Apples to Apples and Outburst Bible editions.

 

[ydoaPs]

I played Noah's Ark a lot back in the day.

I seem to remember the Left Behind people making a game where you either convert people or kill them, but I don't think it was very popular or Christian.

 

[GrayJedi_Lightshade]

You guys remember the old "Spritual Warfare" game that they TOTALLY ripped off Zelda for the Nintendo? You ended up finding pieces of the spiritual armor (Galatians), and throwing fruits of the spirit at demons and getting dove points to buy stuff.

lulz

 

[walter]

Years ago a few friends and I tried to play Dungeons and Dragons, but as christians. It can't be done.

It can, actually. But as a roleplaying system D&D has issues anyway and I find other, more generic rp systems are better.

How so? All we could do was wander around. No magic, no violence unless we were attacked.

 

[Sound Silence]

Years ago a few friends and I tried to play Dungeons and Dragons, but as christians. It can't be done.

It can, actually. But as a roleplaying system D&D has issues anyway and I find other, more generic rp systems are better.

How so? All we could do was wander around. No magic, no violence unless we were attacked.

Well, D&D is pretty geared to the hack 'n' slash, which is a major flaw to me.

But, you don't have to worship the gods and cast necromancy and stuff like that if you don't want to.

Most people I know who play D&D are in it for the storytelling anyway, and they rework the mechanics to fit their personal flavor.

 

[Davidlionheart]

I could totally see a samson adventure game, i mean wrestle a lion and fight 1000 men with a donkeys jawbone. How others fights in the bible. You could probably make a Joseph/David real time strategy game, where you create an army and defend your city. Of course sticking to the Bible for storyline. In my opinion it can be done, you just gotta make it fun.

 

[GrayJedi_Lightshade]

Real Time Strategies ARE fun. Command and Conquer 3 is quite awesome. But yeah, it's hard to make a good game like that without giving the option of being an opposing side. Choosing to be The Hand of Nod in C&C, or the Soviet side, doesn't seem NEALRY as daunting as being the Persians, the Muslims, or the Philistines fighting against the armies of God. Being the bad guys in C&C games can actually be somewhat fun, but...yeah, I'd feel terrible killing off God's chosen people. That's just plain wrong. lol

 

[XianGothDude]

Spiritual Warfare: The RPG http://www.golgothagames.com/

Spiritual Warfare: The RPG was written and published by my youth pastor, when I first got into RPGs several years ago (Pen & paper ones anyway, I was already a big fan of RPGs in general), my pastor told me that our own youth pastor had written his very own RPG; and this is how I came upon SW:RPG, its a good system, skill-based instead of class based and its very intuitive.

Ironically there is another Christian pen & paper RPG but it actually heavily discourages and TRIES to say fantasy races are evil, its called Holy Lands: The RPG, while Spiritual Warfare is set in a fantasy world much akin to Middle-Earth or Narnia with Christianity as its core belief systems and origins; Holy Lands pretty much is a sad excuse by Christians at an RPG

The reason? Because Holy Lands is set in the middle ages aka the dark ages if any of you know about the dark ages and more specifically the church OF the dark ages.... it ain't pretty. in the FAQ for Holy Lands (which I'll copy and paste): several good questions are asked and half-baked answers are provided:

Why the Dark Ages as a Setting?
Since Holy Lands is an alternative to the fantasy RPG's of the world, the Middle Ages is the perfect setting to bring myths, legends, and other elements of wonder to life, including ancient dragons, great kings, brave knights, mysterious castles, burly dwarfs, evil giants, and countless other beings of fantasy.

What About the Terrible Tragedies of the Medieval Times?
Holy Lands is not a vehicle to reenact the tragedies of the Medieval Church in any way. The historical Dark Ages were a very turbulent time for humanity, and many awful deeds were carried out "in the name of God" from several religions. As stated above, the Middle Ages is a perfect setting for fantastic adventure, not for power-laden persecution.

Historically, one Church was the primary, dominant Christian power until well after the Middle Ages, which spans the setting for Holy Lands. Nevertheless, Holy Lands is designed for interdenominational entertainment to use the fantasy elements of the Middle Ages, not necessarily the historic elements. Though some name designators are used to keep some aspects in historic perspective (such as Bishop So-n-so or Father So-n-so), the idea of Holy Lands is to only represent a very holy time for the Christian Church. Holy Lands eloquently combines the essentials of high fantasy with the most constructive fundamentals of the modern and medieval Christian Church, all in a historic setting.

What About the Politics of the Middle Ages?
As stated above, Holy Lands incorporates modern Christian fundamentals and historic settings with the wonders of high fantasy. The politics and political structure of the different lands are as different as the rulers of the lands themselves. Some are noble and orderly, where others are evil and unstable; but most are somewhere in between. This includes both Christian and non-Christian lands and rulers. In any event, Holy Lands stresses that murder and cruelty to any human by a character is forbidden, regardless of religion, social class, or any other factor (a stark contrast to the actual Middle Ages and secular RPG’s, but a key principle nonetheless). It is always important for the player’s character to do right regardless of what other people do or expect.

Can You Play other Character Races in Holy Lands, such as Dwarves, Elves, etc.?
Currently, Holy Lands characters can only be of some form of the human race since PEOPLE were created in the image of God with a soul for eternal redemption. Having said that, there are gnome, dwarf, and giant “forms†of the human race, all of which are human but take on drastically different physical shapes and sizes than the average human. Most other races are considered to be a Demi-Race, which is a half-human half-demon race of beings, including elves, trolls, goblins, etc. Though individuals of a Demi-Race can be morally good (extremely rare and shunned by their fellow clansmen), overall, they are corrupted, soulless, and non-redeemable beings with a fundamentally cruel and untrustworthy nature.

http://www.holylands.net/#FAQs

You be the judge.

 

[GrayJedi_Lightshade]

Can You Play other Character Races in Holy Lands, such as Dwarves, Elves, etc.?
Currently, Holy Lands characters can only be of some form of the human race since PEOPLE were created in the image of God with a soul for eternal redemption. Having said that, there are gnome, dwarf, and giant “forms†of the human race, all of which are human but take on drastically different physical shapes and sizes than the average human. Most other races are considered to be a Demi-Race, which is a half-human half-demon race of beings, including elves, trolls, goblins, etc. Though individuals of a Demi-Race can be morally good (extremely rare and shunned by their fellow clansmen), overall, they are corrupted, soulless, and non-redeemable beings with a fundamentally cruel and untrustworthy nature.

http://www.holylands.net/#FAQs

You be the judge.

hmph. I have different theories on elves, dwarves, and centaurs. Sure, they could have been Nephilim, but who says they didn't have souls? Both angels and humans have both souls AND volition (freedom of choice), so if you cross breed the two, naturally, the offspring will have the same choices to make. Follow God, or not follow God? But, having taken into account what the Bible says about the Nephilim in Noah's day right before the flood, they were a deciding factor for God wiping out everybody else except Noah and his family.

But, this is about GAMING! lulz. I'll incorporate my theories elsewhere.
I tend to make my own RPGs with RPGMaker 2000. I can do whatever I want with that program, and I often find myself writing in Christian undertones and abilities based on Faith and Constitution.

 

[XianGothDude]

[/quote]But, this is about GAMING! lulz. I'll incorporate my theories elsewhere.
I tend to make my own RPGs with RPGMaker 2000. I can do whatever I want with that program, and I often find myself writing in Christian undertones and abilities based on Faith and Constitution.[/quote]

As a gamer, a fan of RPGs and a Christian; I do not like heavy-handed approaches to present the faith in a game; it comes off way too preachy and no doubt, totally undermines any attempts at crafting a good story; however when undertones and other subtle storytelling themes are used to present faith; they can typically come across very powerful and convicting at times. I'll give you all an example; a PC game from 2000 which was based on a very popular (and still popular despite now have a reimagined gameline), pen & paper role-playing game; Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption. You assume the role of Christof Romuald, a crusader in 12th Century Prague, during a battle he is wounded and is taken up for recovery at the local nunnery in the town, by nightfall creatures attack the nunnery (long story short, they're creatures of one of the more monstrous vampire clans; Christof the next day sets off toe vanquish the creatures and their vampire creator, he does but in doing so earns the ire of the residual clans' numbers). His deed also does not go unnoticed by the other clans of vampires either, he is "embraced" (transformed) into a vampire for clan "Brujah", Christof at first despairs at his new existence as a vampire who was once a noble crusader for God. The game (when not being a dungeon crawler) deals heavily with the themes of faith, damnation, redemption, love, commitment; characters along the way are fleshed out and discuss these things with Christof. Although its not a Christian game by any means; the fact that these themes are talked about (and not mocked) but actually clearly given thought, to me these are what make a good game.

 

[azlan88]

I picked up a Left Behind game for the PC. It might be good, and it might be bad, but the creators want our feedback. It's called Left Behind Tribulation Forces, and it's an RTS. Have you guys heard of it?

 

[XianGothDude]

Yes it was released a few years back the reviews (from secular gaming sites) were not that great; gameplay wise, the game was glitchy and unpolished, also theologically the game received criticism; there is an option that lets you play as the antichrist forces, when a player wins the game the ending cutscene for the antichrist's forces shows them burning in the eternal lake of fire.

Although this is true scripturally I don't think it was all that wise to 1. include an option to play as the antichrist's forces and 2. have an ending (although true to scripture and befitting the theme) it was just a bad idea.

There are also charges of racial stereotyping among other things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Behin ... ontroversy

Most of all ironically, anti-video game crusader/debarred/defamed attorney Jack Thompson (a long-time critic video games and video game violence); bashed the game as a Christian, calling it hypocritical of Christianity and THAT'S saying something.