the last post was me, banme, tnx.

Well, actually am a muslim... Never the less, I think I have something to say..
A totally different path to take in the game development is to make the judgement only due at the end of the game (or at the ends of life of different people).. So although the player actually finished his goal in a level and then died by an enemy bullet, heart disease, .... He will either go to heaven or will go to hell..

If you will, you can take the idea from here and develop it for different characters and the like...
Good luck

The game the OP mentioned is in the news :)
Left Behind
http://videogames.yahoo.com/newsarticle?eid=498770&page=0

I'm a Christian and take my religion very seriously (though we can all stand to improve!).

So, I think we're missing something crucial here.

First, I think it's absolutely true that making religion a game mechanic trivializes it; I'm not really that excited about Eternal Forces, first for this reason, and more generally because I think the "game for the sake of religion" concept both trivializes Christianity, AND uses the pretense of game play as a mask. I think what we should be focusing on is how to help people FEEL what it is to be a Christian, and the joy and hope and peace that it brings.

How do we do this? Definitely not through clever gameplay mechanics. It is virtually unheard of that gameplay mechanics have ever helped players to FEEL something.

What is critical in that department is Story, Character Development, dialogue and character introspection, etc. I've been thumbing through the book "Creating Emotion in Games" by David Freeman, and while my purpose isn't to advocate a particular text (especially as I haven't spent much time with it yet), I do think those are the kinds of principles we need to apply to games in order to accomplish the objective.

Oh, and what is the objective? We'd better be darn sure we understand that up front! In my case if I'm going to develop a "Christian" game, what I really mean is I have two objectives: To glorify God, and to invite others to Come unto Christ.

There are many good examples in film and literature, but unfortunately I don't know of any in games as of yet.

As far as I can think of right now, there are two different ways to approach this.

1) Use Symbolism -- a technique employed heavily not only by Lewis, but also by the Holy Prophets and Apostles -- and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The idea is to use subtle, yet direct, representation to refer to sacred subjects. That way we're not in as much danger of treading on sacred things, and we don't necessarily have to be 100% precise (Lewis' Aslan wasn't necessarily a PERFECT representation of Christ, but we got the point). We can use some creative license to keep even a unique story cohesive. Also, symbolism has the added beauty of being multi-faceted; a single symbol or combination of symbols can refer to many different principles and aspects.

2) Just tell a story. Make it as real and direct as you like. But be serious about it. Don't put your character in a bogus situation; put him/her in a scenario that we can somehow relate to, even if it's hypothetical. Let the character tell his/her own story. Put him/her in a very difficult situation, perhaps one that tests his morals and his faith. Make it hard for the character, yet easy for the player, to follow the right path. Don't force the player to be the Disciple -- let the player help the character through the physical trials, while the character works out the emotio-spiritual aspects for him/herself as the player observes. Thus the player is free to be drawn into the character and empathize with him/her, without feeling forced into the role.

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Original post by ApochPiQ I think if Christians really care about influencing other people, they should quit dicking around with abstract media and straighten out their lives first. Put a fifty in the guy's coffee cup that sits outside your office. Grab that old lady that always sits around in the subway station and buy her lunch - yes, I know she smells funny. Meet people and do something for them personally. When Christians get around to actually affecting the world positively for a change (isn't that what we're supposed to be doing?) then maybe someone will care about what we have to say in a game. Until then, I'm not interested in hypocrisy and mixed messages. What people with their time do says far more about their values and beliefs than what they cram into a video game.

I think this guy said it best. The problem as I see it, making "Religous" games that focus more on what someone interperts as being the "Correct" way to behave in a religous setting, as opposed to free thinking, and free will. The trouble with making "Religous" focused games is that, SO much of the bible is left to interpertation, that it makes it hard to give the player the ability to make choices freely without making them feel guilty as a religous person, espically since most likely your target audience is a religous person.

I think the best way to go about making games with religon in it is to simply focus more on the historical side of the events that may or may not have occured, and avoid making the player feel or think that they are a bad person because they didn't follow what YOU, as the designer felt was the correct way to behave. I think you should play Fable, if at all possible, because they did an excellent job allowing the player "Free Will". The player was given a background story, and then allowed to choose how to react to that. In turn, they had the choice to get revenge, going off normal human emotions of wanting to get revenge for a loved one. At the same time, the player could also decide not to get revenge and forgive the unfortunate events that had happend to the players parent. One other thing that should be pointed out about this game is that JUST deciding to get revenge or not, did not immeadiately affect how the character was portrayed. How you acted and treated people, also very much affected the characters appearance. So if you went around helping people, and being nice, then the character looked like a very caring and hansom person. However if the player decided to be mean and rotten, steal, lie, cheat, and kill, then they took on the appearnce of someone who was very scary and evil looking.

This allows the player to choose how they as an individual person, with their own set of moral values would react to the given situation.

Follow in the footsteps of Tolkien and Lewis: Just make the game you want. They didn't really sit down and look for ways to translate Christianity into book form; they wrote stories they wanted to tell. Yes, Lewis had to ask himself, "If Aslan is Christ, then what would He do in this situation?", but that's different from asking, "What should I have a Christ-figure do to teach people about Christianity?".

Just keep Christianity as one of your underlying assumptions and you'll make a fine "Christian game".

I don't think Christian games need be (or should be) any different from other games, nor do they need to be based on biblical events or even events similar to biblical events, rather they should focus on Christian values. I don't think Christian games need to "preach" to the player, in fact, doing so may put non-Christian players off playing, but you will probably want a neutral game which Christians would feel comfortable playing.
Also, I disagree to using religion (or a God figure or whatever) as a game mechanic. It seems to me to be like an idol or something and probably anti-Christian and therefore counterproductive. Just a thought.
As far as violence is concerned, I think you would want to downplay it, but you need not eliminate it completely (though the player should probably play a "good" role and you should probably avoid gore and profanity).

Regarding changing mana points to aura and such, I personally don't think thats a good idea really as far as Christianity goes. Spiritual powers sort of seem anti-Christian to me, regardless of what you call them. Kind of like what you said in your third paragraph. If I were making a Christian game, I would avoid things like that, but thats just me.

EDIT: Servant of the Lord pretty much said what I wanted to.

Quote:

Original post by arithma Well, actually am a muslim... Never the less, I think I have something to say.. A totally different path to take in the game development is to make the judgement only due at the end of the game (or at the ends of life of different people).. So although the player actually finished his goal in a level and then died by an enemy bullet, heart disease, .... He will either go to heaven or will go to hell.. If you will, you can take the idea from here and develop it for different characters and the like... Good luck

Actually, I think this is a pretty good idea. The player does the best they can, but you never really know if it's enough until it's too late. I would grade liberally, though.

Secondly, after reading some of the other posts, and taking into account how difficult it would be to make an explicitly Christian game: Consider making the game allegorical. Trying to literally make a game mechanic based on the bible is likely to disenfranchise the people you're making the game for. Christianity is a fairly diverse religion when it comes down to the details, and programs are all about the details. Can you really lay out a path that pleases the Orthodox, Catholic, and Mormons all at once?

Try to create a fictional scenario with characters based on the archetypes of Christianity. Put the player in a position where they are encouraged to act out the basic tenants of the belief.

Lastly, I think that it's too big of a problem to address "Christian games." Try to get a little less abstract. Consider genres individually: What would a Christian FPS be like? Christian RTS? Christian Tetris? (All crosses? :D)

Is there a genre you're specifically interested in, or are you trying to get a feel for which genres would work best, without considering mechanics right away?

OK, one more thing: Have you considered consulting with the leader of your church for ideas? They may not necessarily know what makes for a fun game, but I'm sure they can help you decide what to focus on. Maybe something they say will give you an inspiring idea.

Well as far as christain development goes i would like to see a game that talks about faith in its positive and negative ways. We as christains can say that our faith does good and god is great but... faith does negative things. As a christian our church is prejudice towards different things that the bible speaks out against and does start wars. Take for example the Crusades, those are holy wars and i would say that atleast 50% of wars have something to do with faith.
I think a good christian game would change the way we think through videogames.

Just a note on all those comments about religion being the cause of war: Generally speaking, I don't believe that Christianity (nor most other religions) has caused war, or has been the root cause of a war. War has most often been initiated out of the same root cause: Pride -- selfish men wanting to gain power over others.

Many times throughout history men have used Religion -- Christianity, Islam, whatever -- as an excuse to fight to gain power over another nation or people. The religion itself had little to do with it. There are rare exceptions, some of which we can read of in the Bible, where God commanded His people. But I don't believe the Crusades (the most commonly cited example), nor most other instances, fall under this category.

Now there are many instances in which a religious (or other) group has fought to defend themselves, particularly (for this discussion) to defend their beliefs and their rights to worship as they desire. I don't think I'd consider that to be a cause of war, but rather a natural and justifiable response to oppression -- the oppression itself being the root cause of the war. Again, I don't consider religion to be the primary motivator in such cases.