Question for Christian Developers

mako_5 · 2007-01-09T19:28:40

Considering the post about the game Left Behind: Eternal Forces (since closed), I was wondering what Christian developers do now. As a new(er) Christian (raised in Church, but went my own way), from what angle should we as game makers be taking on our craft? Considering the wide range of responses from both secular and religious buffs about EF, how is this a further lesson to what needs to be done? Making a game where your character prays to become more 'spiritual' to fight, just seems silly to me. I guess it has to do with making a mockery out of faith, but it seems more to me like it trivializes it or something. I guess some people may be reached by EF, though it seems unlikely to me. Violence is where Churches have different opinions, such as what types are appropriate, if at all. Should we really be printing "made by Christians" on a violent game, or just leave that label quietly behind the scenes? J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis both predicted violent worlds (MiddleEarth and Narnia respectively) metaphoric of spiritual warfare, and yet they seem to be very widely accepted by the church. Honestly, I'm not really sure about what to do about all of this. Right now I'm setting to just hiding behind metaphors, if I were to create a game targeted at attempting to "save" people. In my current project, I changed "mana points" to "aura" , partially for spiritual reasons, though it also makes backstory more interesting and I haven't seen the term used elsewhere (it also has other effects, such as having more stocked aura helps resist opponents abilities). Is there anyone who has guidance on what to do, or has any related tales of what they've come up with about this?