Table of contents for The Making of a Christian Video Game
- The Making of a Christian Video Game – Starting Thoughts
- The Making of a Christian Video Game – Ethical Dilemma
- Christian Video Game as a Master’s thesis?
- The Makings of a Christian Video Game – Facebook
I was reading a book on design research recently, and my mind returned to the topic of Christian video games. Lately, I’ve been exploring Facebook and Facebook applications, and how everyone in the industry is saying that social networking is going to be the next big thing in games. This train of thought merged with another one, which noted that many Christian groups are going online nowadays, through Facebook, and meeting and supporting each other online via social networking sites.
Is there any way to combine the two, I wondered?
You see, one of the primary difficulties I had, when thinking about how to design Christian video games that would be fun as well as accurately reflect the Christian lifestyle is the fact that Christianity is very much founded on lifestyle choices and relationships. Much of what happens in daily Christian living takes place through social interactions between people… and it was very difficult for me to reduce that to a mathematical model in a single-player game. I would effectively have to build a simulation – sort of a SimChurch – just to accurately reflect Christian living. And then, I would also have problems with my players perhaps not being able to relate it back to their real lives.
But what if I made a game which intertwined their game lives with their real ones? What if I broke the magic circle that most games have, that place the game outside of reality? What if I deliberately designed a game which would take advantage of the social connections between Christians that are starting to grow on Facebook, and used that as a platform for them to continue to build relationships with each other, while teaching some aspects of Christianity at the same time? And that could also be used as a tool for outreach too, especially to their non-Christian friends on the same social network?
I think I’ve got an idea for such a game. Admittedly, it’s not groundbreaking. I’m basing a lot of the design off similar patterns I see in other games on Facebook which have proved to be successful, like Mafia Wars, Restaurant City and FarmVille. All of these use a design and business model that heavily capitalizes on the social aspects of Facebook, getting people to post messages to each other, and interact through the giving of gifts or cooperating to solve missions. I want to go along with that trend, but create a slightly deeper game (though it’s still going to be casual), with Christian themes in it.
I want to create a game about missionary work, where players take the role of missionaries doing outreach work at remote mission fields, each with their own challenges. And there are missions which they have to accomplish, which require the cooperation of friends as well, like smuggling Bibles into the village, or raising of funds to build a school, or similar things. Essentially, this game is targeted at young people (or older people, even), Christians who have never gone on a mission trip. I want to expose them to some of the challenges and activities that underlie a mission trip, as well as include a follow-through action in the game which would perhaps mobilise them to volunteer for missions. I could include links to real mission organisations, and others. Basically, the goal is to raise missions awareness, and educate the uninformed about what Christian missions is all about.
Am currently investigating Facebook developer’s platform. But I’m not sure if I have the time to work on this game. I’ll probably also need partners and money to develop and launch this.
It’s not the most original of ideas. Sure, it can probably be quite popular, if it’s launched now, because there’s quite a number of games that are similar already on Facebook. Still not my most ideal game, but it’s a step closer. The trouble with Christian video games is that the message or core values of Christianity don’t often mesh well with the strengths and techniques of the video games as a medium. Video games are very good at process, and systems… at teaching people how to DO things, and work their way through problems, and gives rewards for successfully achieving something. Christianity focuses not on works, but on faith, surrendering to God all of life’s problems. It focuses not on achievements, but on relationships. How can you merge the two? That is the difficulty of design in this field. I need to find the rare instances in Christian living where the two can meet. Missions work is one of them (maybe). Social networking games can put relationships in their proper place in Christian games. But what else is there?
October 17th, 2009 at 9:07 am
We know that being saved is not based on works, but faith, however many reach this conclusion by first trying to earn salvation. Countless games may be considered do it ourselves stories. What about a challenge concerning attempts to surmount our missions we face in a game on our own throughout its duration till a turning point? As a player’s quest concludes what if he realizes the limitations we face in life apart from Christ through personal trial and error? Those previously insurmountable enemies we could defeat by a kind of magic seldom alike what we’ve come to expect through video games. Divine magic that comes not from a mechanical source like nature but a supernatural relationship, with A Being, more fulfilling than that with every human or anything else in our physical world can offer.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Hi Clint,
Yes, you’ve nailed one of the cardinal difficulties I’m facing when creating a Christian game. To really get to the roots of what a Christian game can be, I need to be aware of the differences involved between what my message is (submission to and faith in God instead of human works) and what my medium is good at conveying (working through problems to gain rewards by improving a skill).
Games are good at teaching people skills which they can acquire through practice and trial-and-error… that’s why so many games are based around physical actions in the gameworld (running, jumping, shooting, etc.) Furthermore, many gamers like the feeling of agency – of being in control of their actions, making their own decisions and seeing how the game will respond to it. To create a game about submission and the worthlessness of the player’s efforts to solve the problems may get the message across, but it won’t be a very fun game. People will not recommend it to their friends to play, nor come back to it once they have “got” the message. I’ve actually seen an example of that sort of game… been trying to find it as a reference for some time now, but lost it – it’s called “The Shepherd” (I think), and I think it was a Flash-based game, parodying a typical point-and-click action/adventure game. That’s precisely the sort of game I don’t wish to make.
I want to make a game which both accurately conveys some part of the Christian message and values (it may not necessarily be ’salvation is by faith, not works’), and yet still be fun for people to continue playing and recommend it to friends. I’m pretty sure it can’t be the Gospel message, because games are simply not suited for it. But what is? How to create a Christian game that can have viral appeal? That’s the difficulty I’m trying to work out here. Not a very easy task, though.