Huh... I know that's quite hard thing to find good story for such adventure. Don't you have any ideas ? It should be something entertaining and maybe a little educational ... thanks, peter

Hmmm... Your post is very vague. I suggest you read the excellent "Sticky: Going to post your game idea? Read this first" post so that you have a better idea of how to frame your question. People will have trouble helping you if you have not thought things through yourself more thoroughly. Have you tried using Google to search for games or stories with Christian themes?

Quote:

Original post by misakp Huh... I know that's quite hard thing to find good story for such adventure. Don't you have any ideas ? It should be something entertaining and maybe a little educational ... thanks, peter

I hear the Bible has some fun little fables in it. Why not pick one (or more) of those?

I should mention that saying you want to make a game without having even the faintest idea what it'll be about doesn't really bode well for the longevity of your project. If someone else is providing the story, another is providing the graphics and so on, what, pray, do _you_ bring to the table? A programmer isn't the same thing as a project manager.

--
Sean Timarco Baggaley

- Sorry that was rude.
-Frank

[Edited by - FrankCashio on March 9, 2005 4:00:23 PM]

Ah...

Ok.. I apologize for my post, it was absolutely not detailed and specific.
But hey, you know that I don't want a game where Jesus throws grenades!

What I meant is a point&click adventure, which could also have some RPG features, and through interesting story some christian message could be told. It should be a game for teenagers (14+) as an alternative to games full of blood, death and killing... Some kind of adventure like Syberia, Neverhood, etc.. but with more or less hidden christian meaning.

Please notice, that I am a student working 3/5 a week in a soft company and my two friends are also workers, so we do not have "resources" to make a huge complex rpg with extreme non-linearity and world like morrowind.. Not right now.

I had just an ide like this:
It could be a little sci-fi game :) .. in the future (year not specified), a man is a witness of a crime - a man is murdered and this witness is our hero. He tries to find out what's going on.. and investigates a little. After some time he finds a way to a hidden illegal group of people (needs a lot of affort to get there..) called Christians.. and they're persecuted. Finally he finds out that killed man was one of these Christians and he was killed by government - it can be country-specific :).. or not. Or it can be even historical game.. from the times of first christians.. or it can take place in Nero's Rome.

The primary goal: To make a low-cost point and click adventure which could tell some christian ideas (but do that in some interisting, rather a little hidden way, not attacking player by christian ideology that would confuse him.. i.e. every second sentence would be a quotation from bible and/or contain word Jesus in it) for young people, preferably teenagers.

peter

If you don't mind ripping off someone else's material, take a look at C.S. Lewis's "Perelandra" trilogy. It's a soft* science fiction series that gradually reveals a highly allegorical Christian message. Specifically, the series is about the origin of sin and evil, and the nobility that can arise from overcoming it.

It isn't action-oriented, and there are a number of neat puzzles that I think would manifest nicely into a point&click adventure. The environments and technology are fantastic, and the main character is a highly cerebral philologist. I recommend that you limit yourself to the first two books, since the third one is a little bit more abstract, and far less entertaining. Heck, it's kinda dumb.

_Perelandra_, the second book in the trilogy, is my favorite, and it culminates with a series of brilliant philosophical discussions and a spectacular fistfight. The fight is a backdrop for an impressive sililoquy from the main character summarizing the argument and telling the reader outright what might have been gleaned from the rest of the book.

It's never an in-your-face piece of propaganda, but it's careful not to let you miss the point. Give it a try, and even if you decide not to use it, it's a great example of form, and an entertaining read besides.

Since it's for older audiences, try not to "sugar-coat" the message. That kind of Sunday-School applesauce is what gets Christian games and media such a lousy reputation. Christianity is a serious, difficult, and grueling path through life, with difficult questions to ask and a great deal to demand. Read a little Thomas Aquinas or Kierkegaard or St. Augustine, and let your players take a shot at the higher levels of the religion. At its core, Christianity is a very hard-core faith. Let your audience see a little bit of the sharp edge, and I think they'll respond more favorably than they would to a story in Watchtower about how super Jesus is and why everyone likes to sing hymns.

And please do better than Syberia when it comes to interface. If she had said, "No point going down there," one more time, I would have put my foot through the television.


* - "Soft" denotes a less rigorous allegiance to things like physics and astronomy, contrasted with the "hard" science fiction typified by Robert Heinlein or Isaac Asimov, both of which are heavy with scientific theories, data about distances between stars, and the mechanical workings of futuristic technology.

I see what your getting at. Well, I don't have any story idea's per se, but it sounds like you have the start of a workable idea yourself. I can point you to some sources of inspiration, though. J.R.R. Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and his Lord of the Rings trilogy (you may have seen the movies or read the books) contains a great many Christian themes without being overt about it. I think that this is the kind of effect you are probably going for.

In Tolkiens works, no one character represented any one biblical person, but they all exibited characteristics that mirrored aspects of Christ and various biblical themes. Gandalf was reserrected and acted as a messenger of hope (Tolkien himself said Gandalf was an angel), Aragorn had to redeem the dead and was a returning king bringing about a new age of peace, Frodo was willing to suffer the weight of evil for the sake of everyone else, and Samwise was a loyal companion. None of these characteristics are overtly Christian, but taken together, one can see the Christian principles Tolkien believed coming through.

I'm not saying you should try to make a game like the Lord of the Rings, or even a fantasy, but you can use the works of certain Christian authors as inspiration to create something that isn't going to preach at people, but will still convey the message that you, as storyteller, want to convey with the game.

I find the best story ideas come from other stories. Here is a list of books that may give you some good story ideas:
The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (Awesome new fantasy series)
Chronicles of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander (Listed as childrens story, but still very enjoyable as an adult)
The Song of Albion trilogy (The Paradise War, The Silver Hand, The Endless Knot), by Steven R. Lawhead (Fantasy)
The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King), by J. R. R. Tolkien (Fantasy)
The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis (Fantasy)
The Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength), by C. S. Lewis (Older Sci-Fi and a bit dry, but still interesting)

I also would recommend the game Beyond Good and Evil as an example of a game that has great gameplay and an engaging story that doesn't have it's primary focus on doing violence. You play a journalist in an alternate world trying to uncover a government conspiracy. I really enjoyed it as a nice change from what most games are like.

I hope that these sources can give you some ideas. Good luck.

Edit: The Space Trilogy I listed is what Iron Chef Carnage refered to as well.

Thank you guys for really consturctive suggestions. In fact, I have also thought about The Space Trilogy (I've read it all) .. and also about Narnia. I think they really hide lots of ideas. They are I think rather philosophical and.. I agree that they're a little dry, but maybe some ideas will be used.

I've also read The Lord Of The Rings trilogy (and also seen a movie), maybe just some basic ideas can be used..

I'll try to check out the other books you mentioned and I'ld like also to read Pilgrim's Progess - I've heard that that's a really good resource.

Btw. I've found Syberia a little slow and boring sometimes, especially when I was in that university town (I can't remember the name of it) ... and spent hours walking and clicking without any clue what to do ;) Yes, the interface should be more friendly - I've seen a new 'Still Life' game demo and I think it's a progress :)

peter

OT: Syberia is the only videogame my mom was able to play, besides solitaire.
I call that friendly. What issues did you find? (I'm really curious... trying to do something that can't be done and getting a "nope" answer is very normal to me)

Further OT: I didn't like the fact that objects would be marked for interaction when there was absolutely nothing that could be done with them, ever. Furthermore, attempting to interact with them resulted in my being punished with a long "nope" message, which I heard a dozen times for every time I actually managed to get something to happen. Later, I would return to failed endeavors, thinking that something might have changed, and run through the whole series of errors again and again. If I had been able to move during the "nope" or otherwise continue to play, it would have been bearable, but having the game stop completely for the umpteenth time in order for me to hear the same failure message drove me bonkers. What's worse, it led me to hesitate before trying new things. That's no good at all. The game was gorgeous and stylish, but that aspect of play, combined with the awkward controls (worse than Resident Evil, even) made me long for a point&click adventure with text instead of voice.