He wants a "more or less hidden" Christian meaning. Does that not distress anyone else?

I'm sorry, but...well, no I'm not; teens aren't even going to be interested in this sort of thing, hidden or not.

When the OP said "hidden meaning," I interpreted this as a poor choice of words for "theme".

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Give it a hidden meaning, and either it is hidden enough so that no one actually uncovers it, or it is NOT hidden enough, everybody sees it and only those that are interested in it actually buy the game and play it in order to find what they like in what is hidden...

I agree, which is why I took the actual intended meaning to be theme. Themes in stories and games are not usually immediately obvious, but they are revealed through the course of the story/game. If you take theme in a more literary sense, it also reveals something about the human condition and/or a truth about the world. The plot, setting, character interactions, etc. may never directly address the theme (in fact if they do it is usually a lame story), but the theme is present in the kinds of choices made by the characters, the effect of those chocies on the world, and the effect of the world's response to those choices on the characters. So I took "hidden meaning" to be the theme of the story, which is only revealed as the player interacts with the story, rather than being revealed through a dialogue or some other direct means. In that sense the theme is "hidden". I see no problem with having a game with Christian themes. After all, look at how popular LOTR is with people of all ages.

Yes, that's how I meant it. A christian theme, but not directly.. f.e. a game about Paul and his journeys through cities.
I always liked adventure games with surprising endings, or with a 'deeper' idea.
It is not necessary that the game itself will have direct christian theme. But it could 'act' as a game that is christian. It's too general, I know, but we don't want it to be interesting just for some really devoted christians, but for everybody.

[Edited by - misakp on March 15, 2005 12:29:13 PM]

Hey,

The idea of such a game seems pretty fun, I'd buy the game if it was a bit nice (ie, not entirely crap :P). Just do not try to touch the real people described in the bible - more the settings. Many Christian people could be scared of by the idea that Paul actually appears in a game.

Instead, try to make the player follow a certain scenario that is described. To go with the Paul example, let the player travel trough some cities Paul has been going to, the same for many other biblical stories.

You could also go the other way, and make a game that does not directly relate to Christianity, such as the great Space Trilogy books indeed, or the Lord of the Rings. And don't push the beleive - if people aren't interrested by the fundamentals of Christianity, they won't play it if it's 'hidden' anyways.

Anyho, good look, and keep us updated,
Sijmen Mulder

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Original post by Anonymous Poster P.S.: whenever a moderator feels sympathetic enough to go, look and find out why I still can't get my login and password back, whereas my E-mail adress seems to be recognized by the server, Be assured I would apreciate it very much. Logan13@caramail.com

Perhaps you could contact webmaster@gamedev.net. As far as I know moderators don't have access to that sort of information.

Video games are a popular medium. An unpleasantly large number of games, movies, etc. have a (usually trite and poorly written) philosophical "moral" to them. Does anyone remember the "just live your life" sililoquy at the end of Metal Gear Solid? Made me gag. I don't object to Christian ideals being espoused, as long as it's done in a semi-competent way.

As to the knee-jerk anti-evangalical reaction--get bent. You don't have to play the game. If you honestly think that a Christian message in a video game will lead to hordes of mindless WWJD zombies, then you should keep away from all video games, especially violent ones, not to mention most books, newspapers, and song lyrics.

It isn't unethical to promote what you believe to be right thinking and good morals. Heck, if nobody did that, how would we learn how to live? If everyone had to come up with their own personal philosophy, communication would be unnecessary, except for knock-knock jokes, and even some of those carry moral innuendos.

It's true, that to have good morals you don't have to be a christian and a lot of christians don't have good morals. That's why I don't want that game be just about good morals. There's a lot of games (especially made by Lionhead) that are about good vs bad.
In christianity, morality comes from knowledge of redemtion, forgivness,... In fact, good deeds aren't what makes christian to believe that they have salvation. It's the grace, love, ... Maybe it would be better to base the game upon a theme which is near to C.S.Lewis' or other similar works ... (like so many people here already suggested) and, of course, it should also include many moments when the player has to choose, it would make the game less linear and more interesting. But I absolutely agree that it is not good to make a game that is attacking player with quotations from Bible and tries to convert him. Altough there are many games and of course adventures that are presenting some magical, occult themes, people play it. The first Broken Sword's theme was also connected with Christianity, but in other way.
I think it would not be uninteresting to have a christian theme in a game .. and moral decisions can be there just to make it even more interesting, to point to difficulty of some moments, when you have to decide (see Kierkegaard's Fear And Trembling).