Thought #1: My favourite genre of games is the life-sim, or the raising-sim. This involves managing the life of one or more characters (with distinct personalities), arranging activities for them that will raise or lower different statistics, in order to arrive at a specific ending after a fixed period of time. I just realised that these sort of games build on a very specific type of emotion – that of naches – the feeling of pleasure/pride you get when you watch someone you have taught (eg. a child, a student) succeed at something. When I design a game, I should keep in mind that this is the emotion I want to bring forth in the player. And this emotion appeals to conservatives – the people who WANT to pass down traditions and values to people under their care. Which is why the Western game industry – comprised mostly of liberals and rebels (though increasingly less so) – hasn’t really built many games supporting this emotion.
Thought #2: Most Christian games aim at imparting knowledge. That’s not my goal. My goal is to create games about Christian PRACTICE. Let the player feel what it’s like to be a Christian, by putting them into a shoes of a practising Christian. Not by telling them the theology or history or message of Christianity. Show, don’t tell. And it’s very possible that my game really will appeal a lot to the casual game crowd, who want to experience games which put them into familiar roles they see, with ordinary people in real-life settings doing their everyday activities.
Tags: Christianity, Games
