What would make a Christian video game good?

BlueTheComposer · Aug 27, 2020

Since I like making games and we have a few gamers here, I thought I'd ask what would a Christian video game be like? All the so-called "Christian" games out there already are pretty bad, but why? Is it the genre? Story? Gameplay? If I were to make a "Christian" video game, what do you think it should be like? I know there's a lot of historical stories in the bible that make great movies, but I couldn't not see them translating very well into video games. Well, not unless they had a Lego rendition of them or something like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings since they would be pretty linear. What are your thoughts?

Lynx · Aug 27, 2020

The answers you get will be as varied as the gamers here who answer, and they will depend on why each player likes to play video games. And if you try to follow all of them you will go quite insane.

Lynx · Aug 27, 2020

When I think of "What makes a good video game?" I think of "Dust: An Elysian Tale." Ever played it?

It was a side-scroller. Nothing fancy, but kind of pretty. It had good action, tight controls, an interesting story to tell and a good theme that it conveyed well without being so heavy-handed that it squashed it.

Where most christian video games go wrong is, they start with "we want to make a good christian game for people to play, as a viable alternative to all the gory, sex-loaded games the world has." Then they try to make a product they think will sell. So what we get is a game with a trite story, a moral spread so thick it smothers everything, clunky gameplay... because really, that's a secondary consideration when we're trying to get a moral across here... and just the general blah of a product that was formulated to try to appeal to what they thought people would want.

Go to youtube and watch a let's-play of Dust. Or play the game yourself - it's fairly cheap to pick up on gog. You'll love it, and you'll get some good pointers about what a game should be. Even if the game you want to make has totally different gameplay, different kinds of graphics and etc. you can get a good feel for what a good game should be.

SoulWeaver · Aug 27, 2020

Ever played Balance?
A game does not even have to be "Christian" to be Christian friendly, even for the highest of expectations.
It's actually pretty good for exercising patience.

Usually when people try to make a Christian video game, didactics chokes the art and like @Lynx said, game quality takes second place. Majority of players then bash the disappointing gameplay and preachiness.

The answer I've come to with that notion, is that if you want to make something with a storyline, you need to hide your message as a parable or analogy. So a player will not really notice it, but for a Christian it will be a little "Easter egg". There are a lot of Christian ideas/messages packed in Tolkien lore, per example, but it's not preachy. Also it is better to put your message into the main storyline in a simple way if you want to have one, as opposed to preaching in every detail of the game, that way you're not putting it in people's faces all the time.

Scribe · Aug 27, 2020

A WOW like environment with towns and people of the 1st century customs and architecture. Missions to meet people and engage and preach and teach the Gospel in synagogues public places etc.

Your prayer time gives you power and preaching abilities. Study time, etc reaps rewards and leveling up.
The more people you win to Christ the more effective you get at winning others.
Converting entire villages is possible with the right message and gifts. Gifts like healing, prophesying, etc. converting people from pagans to true Christians who live like the book of Acts Christians (no catholic culture from the middle ages)
Casting out of demons always results in more than just the person delivered being converted. These abilities are increased by fasting, praying, etc.
So you could use the same engine of other games like WOW but trade out leather working, fishing, etc with bible study, prayer, etc.
Capturing that "quest element" and missions to save the world would be fun if you could include all of the elements that are necessary in real life to say planting churches on the foreign mission field.

So a quest would require you to start with some conversions that would expand by your efforts (these mini quests) that build on one another to produce a bigger quest say a Mega Church.

Thinks like starting bible studies in a home. Various outreach ministries. Visiting the sick, visiting prisoners in jail, one of these NPC in jail comes out and helps you defeat demons that are keeping teens on heroine, then the teens join the church, etc etc. and you are playing a game that has real life truth behind it. One could learn how to plant a church in a ghetto by playing the game for hours and days and months. I can think of many many quests and adventures that would make it educational as well as fun.
The game could give people many ideas for real life ministry they may have never thought of but learned about it in the game.

The goal should be to help people see the REAL LIFE adventure that is serving Jesus Christ in the eternal purpose of advancing the Kingdom of God that he has called us to. We should have a mind renewed to this reality of the invisible but real purpose that we are engaged in everyday if we are surrendered to following Him and being used by Him. Many do not have this joy and sense of adventure. They have need of an awakening to their purpose that God has called them to.
It is possible to use a game that is well designed to remind them of what they should be doing in real life every day and to recover that zeal for the work of the Kingdom of God they are called to. RISE UP!

It would take an army of programmers to make that game. Good luck!

Lynx · Aug 27, 2020

SoulWeaver that looks a lot like Neverball... Different mechanics though.

Lynx · Aug 27, 2020

Scribe said:

A WOW like environment with towns and people of the 1st century customs and architecture. Missions to meet people and engage and preach and teach the Gospel in synagogues public places etc.

Your prayer time gives you power and preaching abilities. Study time, etc reaps rewards and leveling up.
The more people you win to Christ the more effective you get at winning others.
Converting entire villages is possible with the right message and gifts. Gifts like healing, prophesying, etc. converting people from pagans to true Christians who live like the book of Acts Christians (no catholic culture from the middle ages)
Casting out of demons always results in more than just the person delivered being converted. These abilities are increased by fasting, praying, etc.
So you could use the same engine of other games like WOW but trade out leather working, fishing, etc with bible study, prayer, etc.
Capturing that "quest element" and missions to save the world would be fun if you could include all of the elements that are necessary in real life to say planting churches on the foreign mission field.

So a quest would require you to start with some conversions that would expand by your efforts (these mini quests) that build on one another to produce a bigger quest say a Mega Church.

Thinks like starting bible studies in a home. Various outreach ministries. Visiting the sick, visiting prisoners in jail, one of these NPC in jail comes out and helps you defeat demons that are keeping teens on heroine, then the teens join the church, etc etc. and you are playing a game that has real life truth behind it. One could learn how to plant a church in a ghetto by playing the game for hours and days and months. I can think of many many quests and adventures that would make it educational as well as fun.
The game could give people many ideas for real life ministry they may have never thought of but learned about it in the game.

The goal should be to help people see the REAL LIFE adventure that is serving Jesus Christ in the eternal purpose of advancing the Kingdom of God that he has called us to. We should have a mind renewed to this reality of the invisible but real purpose that we are engaged in everyday if we are surrendered to following Him and being used by Him. Many do not have this joy and sense of adventure. They have need of an awakening to their purpose that God has called them to.
It is possible to use a game that is well designed to remind them of what they should be doing in real life every day and to recover that zeal for the work of the Kingdom of God they are called to. RISE UP!

It would take an army of programmers to make that game. Good luck!

This is a good example of killing the game with the moral.

BlueTheComposer · Aug 27, 2020

@Scribe, sounds like SimCity, only SimReligion, lol

BlueTheComposer · Aug 27, 2020

SoulWeaver said:

I didn't mean to suggest a game has to be "Christian" in order to be Christian friendly, but mainly wondering what people's expectations of a Christian game would be.

Scribe · Aug 27, 2020

Lynx said:

It would only appeal to a select audience that would be thrilled by that kind of content. Grown ups who feel video games are a time waster.
Like me. There are many like me. It is the only kind of game I would consider playing and that was my answer to the question of what would make a christian game good.

It would need to be designed in such a way that the addictive questing would be justified by an almost guarantee that you would learn something new every time you played. The more advanced levels delivered such a solid education that you feel like you have been to Bible College after spending a few months playing the game. No guilt from time wasted.

If a few seasoned evangelists advanced in Bible knowledge and the deeper life were to brain storm over a period of months and years they could develop such a game that would make most of the people who played it become a better christian as a result. That is what would make it a GOOD game.

Scribe · Aug 27, 2020

BlueTheComposer said:

I have never played that game. Except for the first version when it was just building and putting out fires. LOL
My idea has great potential. Someone should get with Craig Rochelle and see if he will fund it. I don't have enough time left, I am working on planting real churches over the next 15 years but I could consult on the quests, challenges, rewards, puzzles, that would make it spiritually edifying and educational.

SoulWeaver · Aug 27, 2020

BlueTheComposer said:

Thank you for clarifying.
I kind of got the impression that you were more asking what kind of game would be a good idea to make.
That depends on how you define a "Christian" game.
Is a "Christian game" a Christian friendly game?
Is a "Christian game" a game with overtly Christian thematic and story?

Expectations on my part:
- no vulgarity/nudity
- no cussing
- no casting demonic spells by the character named by/invoking/worshiping/revering pagan gods or angels, in short I'm not calling upon any other name except Jesus
- I do not like abilities with demonic/occult animations or icons such as pentagrams, etc.
- no demonic presence suggesting abilities like necromancy, voodoo or divination, and if there is such in the game, I want ability to play another race/class/skill so I can avoid that on my character
- I am generally cool with various supernatural powers like healing, making myself invisible, buffs (except if through vampirism, necromancy, or alike), teleporting, telekinesis or other kinds of attacks through supernatural power, unless it's by a demonic or otherwise evil force
- no woke propaganda, it destroys immersion
- no gore/extreme graphic violence

For some other people, they might want to avoid all magic and play without anything supernatural on their character; for yet other people, they will not play at all if there's anything supernatural involved. The swords most often break on magic and violence and to what degree people allow it so you're going to get very different responses.

SarahUmbreon · Aug 27, 2020

Hooray, this is my kind of thread! :3

Anyway, I went to college for this stuff, to become a story-writer and art designer for videogames, because I believe there is soooo much potential in videogames to tell great stories. Like I have seen some great stories in RPGs, but I think it is a format to consider for storytelling, because the amount of different story possibilities is high, cause of all the different ways to design and create games. Like letting a story have full player control to determine how the story ends, or something more linear, or maybe even something in-between, to where choices could lead to different endings,but with gameplay leading the player to said choices, like "a fork in the path".

But for christian videogames, this seems to be the norm:

Either too preachy and gameplay gets boring:

(Warning video will have bad language, but gets the point across)

It seems the people that made the game...have never made a game:

I'm just also adding this video cause from what I can tell, it would be a interesting watch for everyone on here:

So yeah, christian videogames haven't had the best history, so I think it can only work in these two ways: For it to be a "Edutainment game", you know, a game a kid would play to learn about the bible, it is fun to play and not pandering, or the other way: It involves christian morale themes in a interesting way.

I can't remember the author, but I was watching a book review series on "Empress Theresa" (Infamous book on the internet, considered to be one of the worst books ever, if anyone is interested to hear about it, I can leave some YouTube links) and the guy reviewing the book said this christian fiction series where it's a detective and he goes through stuff, and the detective sometimes questions God like "Why did this happen?". I believe that can be a complex story for a videogame, I'd play it. Also, I gave up on writing because I didn't think most of my writing ideas were not christian, but I thought about it while driving home:

What if we had a game where we see the after effects of rapture? Like doesn't it say in the bible that those who accept God when the rapture has already happened, don't they get to go to heaven? I'm sorry if I'm wrong cause I'm only going on memory, but this was a story idea I came up with awhile back: "Hell took over earth, all humans were taken over, all heaven did was watch as it happened". I came up with this idea before knowing God and I know it doesn't sound the best, but I think it could be re-worked into a story about how somehow wasn't saved during rapture, but then seeing the effects of rapture, accepted God and made it to heaven. That could be such a thought provoking story.

I never thought I would be sharing one of my original writing ideas on CC, cause I've given up on writing, cause I want my writing to be christian, but couldn't figure out how to do it. I think this thread might help, thanks ^_^

BlueTheComposer · Aug 28, 2020

SarahUmbreon said:

This sounds like a good idea. It sounds like the book series Mandie. I haven't read it but I've heard a little bit about it. From the description it sounds like Nancy Drew or something but with more of a Christian theme and perspective. If I ever read that book series I'd be interesting in how it might turn out as a video game, even if it's like an original spinoff story.

SarahUmbreon said:

There was a strategy game that came out I think just over 10 years ago that was about after the rapture. It was based on the Left Behind series, iirc. Yeah, here it is. It got a ton of controversy and was on the news because apparently it wasn't possible to beat the whole game without commanding troops to killing non-Christians, lol. It's kind of a weird game to think about though. Who was the target audience, Christians or non-Christians? Was it supposed to be entertaining or educational? It kind of came off as neither. Some kind of weird game that didn't know what it was. Then again it seems like most "Christian" games are like that. Anyway, I've always felt a bit off about end-times stories/scenarios because while we do know how it's going to happen, there's a lot of speculation about the details and creating a story around that just feels weird to me. Kind of like if B.C. Isrealites were like "Let's make a game about the messiah coming based on the descriptions of the prophets" but they get it all wrong because they weren't expecting the messiah to come as Jesus did, lol.

Lafftur · Aug 28, 2020

BlueTheComposer said:

A game that takes a person through the process of getting saved by faith in Blood and Body of Jesus Christ, water baptism, and being sealed, baptized and Filled with the Holy Spirit. Then, renewing their mind with Word of God and accumulating the Armor of God.

Fighting spiritual warfare with kindness and mercy and love..

Grand finale - book of Revelation.

Lion222 · Aug 28, 2020

SarahUmbreon said:

I think Good games are about discovery you might say discovering the truths of the game
Then taking a character(s) through the process of becoming something greater.
Beyond that there is a team/fellowship element and an aspect of creation.

For it to be christian and be any good it would have to not be "Christian" which usually means people in rows being board with instruction, preaching.

I have been working on some designs for a game with the goal of introducing people to the who God is and who they are through a process of discovery of truths hidden away behind false truths that seem right but are not.
Each major truth is a quest and minor related truths are side quests.
truths (true or false) empower the characters affecting them in various ways.
Some strengths that in fact are overall weaknesses and some weaknesses that are in fact needed overall strengths.
you play the game based on the truths you acquire and each truth is followed to it ultimate quest line shows it hidden nature.
In general biblical rules apply in the game but you dont preach them chapter and verse until the major quest transations.
was thinking about doing a text based game to get started but it is a project bigger then me.

Lafftur · Aug 28, 2020

Lion222 said:

I think Good games are about discovery you might say discovering the truths of the game
Then taking a character(s) through the process of becoming something greater.
Beyond that there is a team/fellowship element and an aspect of creation.

For it to be christian and be any good it would have to not be "Christian" which usually means people in rows being board with instruction, preaching.

I have been working on some designs for a game with the goal of introducing people to the who God is and who they are through a process of discovery of truths hidden away behind false truths that seem right but are not.
Each major truth is a quest and minor related truths are side quests.
truths (true or false) empower the characters affecting them in various ways.
Some strengths that in fact are overall weaknesses and some weaknesses that are in fact needed overall strengths.
you play the game based on the truths you acquire and each truth is followed to it ultimate quest line shows it hidden nature.
In general biblical rules apply in the game but you dont preach them chapter and verse until the major quest transations.
was thinking about doing a text based game to get started but it is a project bigger then me.

No! It MUST be Christian and lift up the Name of Jesus Christ. This is a territory of witnessing that has not been done yet.

We desperately need Christin games to be created!!!!!

SarahUmbreon · Aug 28, 2020

BlueTheComposer said:

I didn’t know about that “Left Behind game” till you mentioned it/the YouTube link I sent on the history of Christian videogames, that game looks legit awful, lol. But yeah I can see where you are coming from, to be honest most of my story ideas are more like setups that haven’t been built upon yet like: “School has a fighting tournament they hold after school, main character focus is on a group of kids with each one having different colored hair, plus they each have their own story (I was getting into fighting games and wanted to see if I could make a story...can you tell I used to be into anime? Lol), lots of my ideas are “people teleported to a new realm for a reason and must survive”, I had an idea of “After World War 3, the humans have left earth and have created a new earth: Neo Earth (Yes I’m awful at naming things): a completely metal sphere that can be seen from earth, like the moon can be seen, but all the time cause it has lights on it, one character learns the history he has been taught is a lie because they taught him that earth is no longer live-able and has no life. He somehow ends up on earth and sees Neo Earth from earth, letting the harsh truth take place”, and then I had an idea for this environment of a “Great Gatsby inspired steampunk setting, with the levels of the city showing wealth, the higher the better the city looks, with the highest level having a “futuristic look”. I actually finished one story, it is awful, wrote it before I went to college, it was my take on a Pokémon videogame, as in you know in the anime, they usually have a party of 3 people? Well what if there was a Pokémon videogame built around that idea? It would be like “having scripted battles” for some of the people in the group of 3, so you couldn’t be slacking on a team member.

But yeah, I understand how trying to do a game on end times might not be a good idea, especially since no one is supposed to know the end time. Maybe it could be “vague” (Like what MegaMan does with 21XX or 20XX) but even then I don’t think that would be good enough.

ArtsieSteph · Aug 28, 2020

Hmmm...probably good art, good story, good game mechanics, enjoyable UI, just like any other game.

Obviously it needs to be biblically sound in what it’s teaching. But in an entertaining way.

Jimbone · Aug 28, 2020

I think a game about the pre-flood world, the fallen angels, Giants, and mixed breed creatures would be so full of ideas for games it's ridiculous. Also playing through stories like David and Goliath, Samson, all of Josephs conquests and eliminating the remaining Nephilim would be awesome ideas for gaming.

What would make a Christian video game good?

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