Making games for God

by Ross Miller { Dec 20th 2005 at 3:15PM }

If the sales figures from the Chronicles ofNarnia game are any indication, there is a definite market for Christian games. The Kansas City Star has a greatarticle up discussing the void in the games industry of Christian-Based products, citing how movies (The Passion ofthe Christ) and books (The Purpose Driven Life) have already capitalized on the market.

There is a serious dearth of decent Christian games on the market, save for maybeThe Bible Game, a trivia title. Could one make asuccessful game with Christian overtones, yet market it to mainstream audiences to ensure financial success? Somebodyget Peter Molyneux to start work on a God game about God, that would be a big-seller.

[via NextGeneration]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Admomatic @ Dec 21st 2005 6:06PM

I think this game should be called R.P.Jesus

(you will get it if you say it out loud)

Wonderflex @ Dec 21st 2005 7:43PM

I worked as a volunteer youth pastor for two years before moving to Seattle, and I found it amazingly hard to find any Christian video games to use with my group that were worth anything. My friend on the other hand had, "Spiritual Warfare," for the NES, which is Bible Trivia/Zelda Knockoff, and that was actually decent.

I think the problem that Christian based gaming efforts have is that they are usually based around triva, which doesn't bridge the gap to the secular crowd. It's the same thing that plauges pastors. If you teach a heavy lesson then those who aren't well versed in the Bible, or matters of the spirit, feel as if they aren't good enough, or smart enough, to attend the church. If you lean to much to the charasmatic side, or "entertianment-church," as I call it, then those who truly need spiritual growth in their lives are held back.

Great missionaries know that the key to winning souls for Christ is to use what naturally appears in a cultures surroundings and apply that to universal spiritual truths of the Bible. These are called Parables, and are the crux on which Jesus taught.

In this same manner Christian game developers who which to score on a universal level need to use the same tactic; blending the world of video games that already exist with universal truth. This could be done via choices that characters make, or even through alegorical means, such as Narnia.

A good example would be the good deed, bad deed, system in Fable. A game could be built around the necessity to make the right scriptual choices in order to complete tasks, and since most right and wrong in ingrained into humankind as it is, this wouldn't be something too hard to do, but would instead reimburse correct behavior.

I've personally felt for a while now that this could be achived, and that Narnia would help to start a bridge over this gap. Sadly though, despite it's very direct references in the first book to the trials of Jesus, most movie goeres don't seem to know that it was written as a Bible alegory; nor that the total body of C.S. Lewis' work is filled mostly with Christian theology writtings.

san @ Dec 21st 2005 8:11PM

Oy vey.

How in the hell is Narnia a Christian game? Narnia is a tie-in game based on a movie, which in turn is based on a series of children�s stories � or one of them anyway. Thank God � no pun intended � it�s a *good* movie-based game, a bit of a rare thing.

Narnia wasn�t written as a Bible allegory. Don�t take my word for it. Take Lewis�s word. He said he began to write the books as purely children stories, and then the Christian symbolism and influence crept in as he worked on them. He was ultimately wise enough not to mess with the gems he had created. Lewis stuck to this explanation. Why would he lie? Nothing unusual in a straight story coming up into a plot influenced by the story of Christ. The Bible and its related writings are of course a significant influence on modern Western culture. Nothing way out about Lewis having some Christian theology drop perhaps uninvited into his work as he was, as Wonderflex notes, a masterful writer in theology, one of the most important of the previous century.

But Narnia is hardly a Christian game. Give me a break. Narnia isn�t even a Christian movie. Is the Da Vinci Code a Christian novel? Will it be a Christian movie?

P.S. Narnia is a wholesome story � and movie and game � appropriate for all age ranges. Why does this have to be Christian? Why does everything else have to be not-Christian?

Josh @ Dec 21st 2005 8:49PM

NARNIA IS A CHRISTIAN STORY! the writer even says so. That was the whole point of the books was to put the bible story into a way that is more interesting to kids. There are christian allegory all through out the books. Though Disney have tryed to keep the christian stuff as low key as possibly in the movie, some still is very clear.

You're damn blind if you dont see the christian stuff in it.

The problem with christian games is there are no companies that have the fundings to make good games, willing to make christian video games. Fan made games have been made and sold but they are ones you would compare to games in the early 90's.

There are tons of good ideas for christian games from Third person games to FPS to RPG. The games can rate from E to M, another problem is that christian game companies dont want to make any games that has any type of violence or cant be played by little kids.

An apocalypce game would be cool, or taking stories from the bible and making into games, or games with christian themes and challeges to them.

They are making a Left Behind game but its only a RTS game which most people dont like. Now if they would have made it a third person type game, it would have been good.

Megido: The Omega Code would be a good game to. Some of the puzzles could be cracking bible codes to find out the next move of the anti christ and try to stop him.

if 3D0 hadn't of gone under, The Four Horses of the Apocalypse would have been a good M rated game, only it needs to have better graphics and pyshics to it.

Wonderflex @ Dec 21st 2005 9:33PM

Sorry about the alegory reference, you are correct in that it is not a direct correlation alegory; although Lewis states that some things are direct alegory. He just wanted it to be known that it is not a blow for blow correlation between the Bible and his work.

san @ Dec 21st 2005 9:47PM

Left Behind? Megido? You mean games not so much based on the Bible as based on Revelations, which has at best a tenuous relationship with the rest of the Bible.

"That was the whole point of the books was to put the bible story into a way that is more interesting to kids."

Not so much. The whole point of the books, as affirmed by Lewis himself, was to write fantasy stories for children. Lewis had no intention to create Christian allegory and certainly no intention to make the Bible story more interesting to kids. Lewis's stepson has recently confirmed this.

"You're damn blind if you dont see the christian stuff in it."

I didn't say there aren't Christian themes in Narnia. I said Lewis did not specifically intend them, and they only exist to support the structure and plot of the story. Narnia is not a Christian story. It is a fantasy story -- or series of stories -- in which the author's familiarity with Christian theology predominates. Yet I say again, it is not per se a Chrisitan story. Ipso facto, Narnia is not a Christian game.

It's a sad tale that there is contemporarily such a lack of good writing in Christian theology that the only thing to do is co-opt some perfectly innocent children's stories from the middle part of the last century.

RighteousDork @ Dec 21st 2005 10:43PM

I can see where people would find that The Chronicles of Narnia are a type of Biblical allegory. I haven't read enough about C.S. Lewis to know if that was his intention or if he was simply crafting children's books that had a positive message in them. He was a Christian though and wrote about Christianity, so it's only natural for some of his theology to work its way into his books. I think you can watch The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe though without ever picking up on the Christian ideas. It's just a great family movie for all ages. Disney is the one who's trying to market it to a Christian audience. In all honesty, I think the Matrix had more Christian symbolism in it then this film did. And that doesn't surprise me in the least.

I think some of the greatest movies that have ever been made deal with these hard-hitting concepts that can be found in The Bible. Themes like self-sacrifice and salvation permeate some of the greatest movies and stories I've ever witnessed. You can never be entirely sure what the director has in mind when he or she crafts a movie but there are certain elements that strike an emotional chord with humanity. But I digress...

I've been saying for a while that Christian games are an untapped market. There is a void that is just waiting to be filled by a team of visionaries who can create fun and enthralling games, that just happen to have a Christian theme to them. There are side scrollers and RPGs just waiting to be made that deal with the characters and stories in the Bible. Imagine a Pokemon type of game where you are Noah and you have to go around the Earth gathering two of every animal. Moses and his story could easily be a trilogy of games. Any game developers out there listening? Call me.

Rare Hare @ Dec 22nd 2005 12:47AM

Battle of the Christs: Jesus vs. the Spawn of Satan.

it would be a fighting game with only two characters. Jesus's special ability would be that anytime the Antichrist got his lifebar all the way down, he would resurrect.

Sean @ Dec 22nd 2005 6:45AM

I am currently have aspirations of designing games as a career, and I am particularly interested in creating something that might be what you would call a "mainstream Christian videogame."

Like Wonderflex said,

"...use what naturally appears in a cultures surroundings and apply that to universal spiritual truths of the Bible."

I would put it thusly: the game needs a reward/punishment system solidly based in Christian values. I don't mean, sin in-game and God smites you, but that the game would through some mechanic encourage good deeds and discourage bad ones.

Now, I must say that I have played Spiritual warfare, and I would have to assert that it is the best Christian game ever made. Then again, that speaks volumes about the *other* games that were made.

The problem with current morality systems in video games is that they are all inherently based on a continuum not unlike the D&D alignment system, and most are not as complex as that. They allow any good deed of equal replace a bad deed of equal madnitude, without requiring atonement of any sort. I never have to go ask forgiveness from the shopkeeper I stole from, or the families of al the enemies I killed. I merely have to be just as charitable as I was greedy.

The current morality in (most) games produces a vision of hypocrisy and self-righteousness instead of wisdom and true righteousness.

The current crop of games is not necessarily "evil" for this. They're games, and inasmuch are only as harmful as the player allows them to be. I just want to see some more thoughtful games! Just because a game has a Christian theme does not necessarily make it "good" either. However, the designers should hold themselves to a higher standard. After all, those "other" games only have human standards to be judged by. ;)

Josh @ Dec 22nd 2005 3:06PM

You guys are so very wrong about CS Lewis, Narnia and the rest.

Heres about Lewis and what he said about Narnia and what its all about

http://www.slate.com/id/110460/

one line says that his intention was to make the Lion represent Christ becuase he saw Christ as a lion and refered to one of the mentionings of it in the bible. He also got really made about people talking about taking out or down playing the christians things of the books.

and here is more on him http://www.cslewisclassics.com/cslewis.html

Revelations is as much part of the bible as any other book. The writer being the apostle John, who was shown the end times by God, wrote many of the same things in Revelations that christ speaks of in the gospels. And since Revelations speaks of our present time, it would be alot easier to make games from that connected with people of today.

So Lewish did specificly intend it to have tons of christian themes in it.

You dont have to make games directly of stories out of the bible, though that would be fine to, they would be just as good just using the morality and teachings of the bible and put into a game.

There are many many more christian games then just Spirtual Warefar, some alot better but as I said since funding is so low, graphics, gameplay and so on is very crappy

here are some christian video game sites

The Rebel Planet is so far the biggest and best christian game there is

http://www.therebelplanet.com/

http://www.christiangaming.com/

http://www.cgalliance.org/

http://www.n-lightning.com

http://www.christiancoders.com/

theres a few more sites

Theres even christian CGI movies called Angels Wars http://www.angelwars.com/

san @ Dec 22nd 2005 8:24PM

I'm not sure about the sources for that Slate article. Numerous

sources confirm that Lewis did not set out to write a Christian

children story, but rather just a children's story, and that the

Christian elements crept in as he composed the plot and wrote the

stories. Of course he didn't want the Christian themes bowdlerized

once they were in. I don't blame him and I don't think anyone has

any business reworking Narnia to suit purely secular ends. You can

read the stories from a secular perspective just as well as any

other. But the Slate article: Lauren Winner wrote that piece and

Winner -- well known for writing about her conversion from Judaism to

Christianity -- has a distinct agenda. I wouldn't fly my whole flag

on Winner's wind, if you know what I mean.

Revelations was written at the end of the first century AD by John of Patmos.

It's not particularly likely that John of Patmos and St. John the

Apostle were the same person. Also, Revelations is, as you say,

about the end times. Whether or not it's about "our present time"

is a matter of individual church doctrine and teaching.

Josh @ Dec 23rd 2005 10:50AM

I've looked up as many sources as I could and I did not come by one saying he didn't set out to write christian stories. Thats all he wrote after he became a christian was christian themed works.

St. and John of Patmos is the same john. I've been doing religious studies and research heavly for the past 5 years and there is no way you can think other wise unless you disregard many key things. And Revelations was not the last book writen and it was more so written around 80 AD, also just incase you didn't know, the bible took over 1500 years to write (before, doing and after Christ) with over 40 differnt writters.

WKelly @ Dec 23rd 2005 12:49PM

Lewis sisn't set out to write an allegory, but he certainly meant to include the Christian symbolism. As he said himself, (paraphrasing here) the Narnia books were written as a what if -- What if there was a world like Narnia, with talking animals, etc., and God decided to send a Savior there (as He did with Christ here) -- what would it be like? Lewis said that he wrote the series to describe what that world would be like.

Lewis did not set out to write an allegory -- but he firmly believed that the writer's worldview would always show through in his work. Lewis' worldview was decidedly Christian, and it shows through.

If you want to read a more allegorical Lewis story, read Pilgrim's Regress. The Space Trilogy is also more tied to Christianity than the Narnia books -- but Narnia is definitely a book with a CHristian theme and Christian world-view. Sorry to disappoint.

san @ Dec 23rd 2005 6:11PM

This is annoying. I never said Narnia stories don't have a Christian theme and a Christian worldview. In fact you would expect writers, any writers, who are Christian to write with a Christian worldview -- unless they specifically choose to write against that. I said, and Lewis said, that he did not set out to write Christian stories. They are not properly Christian stories -- not like, for example, these Christian romances that are written specifically to be about Christians doing Christian things, and to appeal to Christians; these are stories written by a Christian writer which reflect his view of the world.

This is almost becoming a distinction without a difference. I think this discussion has gone, partly my fault, far afield of my original assertion: that Narnia is *not* a Christian game. And I'm right about that.

P.S. As for Revelations. I can go on about the well-supported theory that Revelations was written as a Greek stageplay. I can make a good case that St. John would have had to have lived a little too long, and lived well, to be John of Patmos (Revelations was probably written more like 95 A.D.) 90 is pretty old today. In the first century, before cardiac care units and antibiotics and all that racket, it was *really* old. But let's just say that the exact origin and authorship of Revelations remains disputed amongst historians and religious scholars with much greater knowledge of the history of the Scripture.

Still, the alleged divinity of the Narnia game is an interesting topic. Anyone who can stand any more discussion of it, go to ww.gamegirladvance.com and I'll post something about it there.

Andy Havens @ Dec 28th 2005 12:22PM

As a Christian and father of a 6-year-old, a huge fan of Lewis' work -- both Narnia and his specific theological non-fiction -- I've got to ask a pretty irritating-sounding question about this argument:

Who cares if we call it a "Christian" story or a game?

At some point, I hope my son enjoys my reading the story to him. We started it this year, but the description of the White Witch scared him too much. So, regardless of the Christian underpinnings (or lack thereof), he ain't ready for it.

On the other hand, he loves Captain Underpants. Which, (and I don't think any of us will argue this point), has no real, direct Christian flava. That being said, we still discuss many of the things we read together in terms of our Christian beliefs, morals and background.

Where should you go for direct Christian learning? The Bible.

Where should you go for everything else? Everywhere else.

The movie "Forest Gump" can be said to be a "Christian" movie. There's all kinds of Christian symbolism in it. Big deal. Same with "Apocolypse Now." The list goes on. But if you want to *teach* your kids about Christ, use the Bible. If you want to have interesting discussions about how your Christianity is going to impact in their world, use everything you can get your hands on that won't directly harm their minds, spirits and emotions. In the case of "Narnia," we have an arguably Christian work that is, at this point, harmful for my son. So I won't use it yet. But other, less Christian works can be used to teach. So I uses 'em.

In the world but not of it.

I think one of the reasons there aren't many "good Christian games" is that it's probably just a bad idea. What are you going to do? Smite the enemies of God? That's pretty Old Testament, eh? Jesus says to pray for our enemies and forgive them 70 x 7 times. In a truly Christian game, you'd win by following Christ to the cross. By dying for someone else. By letting your health bar reach zero.

Not the best fodder for a video game. Or maybe I'm just not thinking creatively enough about it. Maybe somebody could come up with "Grand Theft Sin of the World" where the hero attempts to convert all the badly behaved people by showing them how they can achieve more by working together. Or "The Sins," where you control the lives of little people and they get happier or sadder based on how well they conform to the mercy and grace of Christ.

But shooters based on the End Times? Fight games? RTS... "Who would Jesus frag?" At this point, I'm just as glad there aren't Christian games out there like that, as I'd then have to explain even more "strange, seemingly un-Christ-like Christian behavior" to my non-Christian friends who are confused by much of what goes on in the community of Saints.