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Original post by robert4818 Depends on the cut scene. You wouldn't be doing Final Fantasy cut scenes. Your cut scene could simply be 5-10 seconds long. Even when I was 8-9 those didn't drive away my attention span.

I find it's far more engaging to do than to watch. Screw the cutscenes (not just in this game, but in most games), let the story happen around the player character without taking control away. They will thank you for it.

This is extremely interesting to me. I mean, if you made a game where "acts" were from each book of a more complete christian bible (not king james :)), I would find that interesting. However, I am not your target audience, I'm older then 25 :D.

For kids wise, my daughter is in K grade. They teach the kids how to pay attention in class if the parents chose not to do so. So maybe aiming a game for 5 year olds and older would be the best bet. I find kids enjoy and pay more attention starting around 4 on up, or even younger if worked with.

Enough about age though ...

If you are looking to make a game on the belief of jesus, and not jesus himself, Genesis might be a great place to start. The forming of this planet (cut scene?), wandering around in the garden of eve (perhaps some "quests"?). What about the eating of the fruits (both trees, mind you :))?

There could be literally tons of quests, parables, and such to teach young ones of the belief ... would probably make a great mmo ...

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Original post by JBourrie I find it's far more engaging to do than to watch.

Not all games have to be 100% non-linear. Some genres, such as point-and-click adventure games, are essentially just puzzle games which use story elements as a reward. A game like "Monkey Island" is basically just a whole bunch of cut-scenes accessed by solving basic puzzles.

I am not advocating long, cinematic cut-scenes like something from a David Lean movie. I'm merely pointing out that you have to tell the player what they're supposed to *do*.

The OP is aiming at very young children, so _some_ explanations of what the player needs to do (or at least how to operate the game) will be needed. People have to learn the "language" of gaming, so it's necessary to teach it first.

A good example is Nintendo's "Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training" series, where a clearly artificial -- the DS is capable of far better rendering than the avatar's crude polygons suggest, but this avoids "uncanny valley" problems -- avatar of Dr. Kawashima himself appears frequently to explain the many sub-games and also explain the context. Without these appearances, the player could easily feel like they were merely doing strange chores or random bouts of maths homework. The context provides the incentive and motivation that would otherwise be lacking and thus these cut-scenes are *essential* to the game. (The avatar is also used to provide a sense of continuity and cohesion for a collection of mini-games.)


Remember, we're talking about a game based on the Bible and aimed at very young children. Parents will be playing alongside -- at least, I hope they will be -- so any game design aimed at this market would need to consider the whole audience.

In a perfect world, I'd suggest something that can be accessed again and again, and will offer new opportunities each time. I'm latching onto the Jesus angle here, and trying to come up with a gaming experience that would parallel a religious education, where you start out believing what you're told, and then as you gain life experience and perspective, you can revisit the Bible on "hard" mode and find out that it's extremely difficult to "do it right" in the context of being a Christian in the really real world.

You're aiming at kids, so you can ignore the advanced stuff and stick to basics, like Bible Adventures did, where you shoot some grapes and then pass a quiz and then throw Moses into the river.

Thank you everyone for your input! It seems the games boil down to 2 different categories. 1) The little ones whom the parents are probably setting the game up for them to play and almost HAVE to point and click 2) The older ones who have grown out of having to just point and click and can move a character around and do this and that. Maybe even a possible 3) for teens and the guy over 25 type people. One aspect of starting with the little ones is the simplicity compared to that of an interactive-yet-linear storyline that is to captivate the attention of the adult who has chosen this over the latest coolest game.

However, some really good ideas for brought forth that I wish to explore further, as my next target audience would be the next age bracket up (getting quite a bit ahead of ourselves though).

The little ones
To start with.. it seems for the current target audience (the really young who have just started to ask "why?" and can learn of good, evil, faith, etc.) it would be best to have a point and click game. It seems having a some fun character give some simple instructions and then having the kid figure out what to do, and them learning the topic through this is the best way to go. To recap - a few second "cutscene" with instructions, then a simple point and click puzzle. For instance: You might start out some happy fun character quickly explaining that God created the sky, the Earth, and people (or Adam or Adam and Eve), and that he made alllll the animals and told Adam to name them. Now the game... animal matching time!! I'm liking this idea very much, and encourage further ideas/opinions/criticisms on the matter.

The little bit bigger ones
Then we have the games for older-than-toddlers people (this may well include adults?). There have been some intriguing responses here. As was stated, ChristianMan X3 isn't going to work for obvious reasons, and would probably end in failure (kinda like Noah having to collect animals? Or having the ability to lose/kill Moses?). Now I can see Noah gathering the materials for building the ark. Perhaps he has to try to pursuade people that a great flood is coming... and no one believes him of course... but this would also serve the purpose of finding out how/where to get the needed materials, and show that no one would listen..

I think the most important issues are: Don't wrap the Bible around a game. Start with the Bible, and wrap the game around it (or part(s) of it). And obviously, it has to be fun!

I really like the idea of making the player *not* be the central character of the story. As was stated.. that leaves virtually no potential for interactivity. Anyway, not only would the player have the benefit of interactivity and being engrossed in the story, but I can see being able to do different things and get different understandings of the story based upon what you do. Replayability and better understanding. The idea about the game getting harder as you get more experience is a really good idea (replayability but its always more difficult)... but also seems like a harder discussion and beyond the already wide scope of this thread.

Anyway, the whole not being the central character thing triggered another thought. Someone had mentioned in another thread (about morals) that the a possible way to even potentially experience a true emotional effect of your actions would be to have to switch characters to the person/people your actions affect. (ex. Do or don't give to the homeless, later in the game you play as this homeless person). What if you don't play as just one follower of Moses or one random person during Jesus's time, but you switch every so often given some criteria? Just a thought...

The Monkey Island style game is a good thought. I don't see much of an action game per-se coming out of the Bible (while intriguing and fun, I doubt a RTS based on Biblical battles would teach much, and also they would be kinda unbalanced wouldn't they?). I am obvioulsy quite interested in some of the mechanics mentioned, but what would you actually do in the game? Maybe a take a page or two from the Sims book? It seems easier to relate certain mechanics to existing games than describe them in detail, so try not to take the comparisons to be rock solid - they're not. And remember we're thinking about games built around the Bible, not the other way around. Anyway, a sort of Sims and a sort of Monkey Islandish game both seem like good ways of portraying the story from a 3rd person perspective while allowing there to be a fun game. I think there would be a lot more "stuff going on in the background" then either of those games exhibit though, albeit very specific stuff.

How exactly would you teach faith/love in a simplistic manner though? The metaphorical approach (ethical dilemmas) is a good idea... but I'm sure there is an easier way? Keep in mind the idea is to teach lessons that Jesus taught to those who want to learn them... not bend a persons morals who might "just so happen" to play the game. This is a deliberate learning.

Thanks again everyone for the responses
-Scott

[edit] Modified a couple careless uses of the word moral