I've had an idea for a Christian game for about a year. The goal of this game would be to tell the story of the Bible through an RPG. The game was inspired by "The Bible" mini series. I liked the idea that you got to watch the story events happen. In a game, you would be able to be a part of the story.

I know that Christian games are not very popular. I find it a bit sad that a lot of them are either rhythmic music games or old NES games. So, I was wondering what y'all might think of this idea.

I know this is a really big idea because the story is so huge. I would probably turn it into a series if people showed interest in it.

So, basically:
Thoughts/ feelings
Suggestions (tittles, mechanics)
Would you play it?

Creating a good world, story, and plots are the hardest part of a RPG.

Write a story explaining exactly: how the character in the RPG will progress through the world, who he will interact with, the plot lines, towns, and anything else interesting.

Once you have a good book written ( and complete strangers like reading it ), translate to a game form.

To prototype the RPG ( after you are done writing it ), you do not have to use anything fancy. You could use something as simple as Xtreme Worlds

or heck, even ZZT will work for a decent RPG mockup .

Once a good prototype is created, you might be able to recruit others to help you program a custom game engine ( or attempt to adapt an existing one ), but be aware that unpaid volunteers do not last very long .

I had thought of that before. I think one big obstacle is that the bible doesn't offer enough details to make a compelling rpg story and you might upset some your audience if you invent details and they feel these filler details aren't in line with the bible. It may still be worth a try.

I noticed that right away when I was thinking of the first level. What did The Garden of Eden look like? The tree of life? The Tree. Of Knowledge of Goo and Evil? I guess potential customers' Feedback on concept art and screenshots during development will be important here!

The goal of this game would be to tell the story of the Bible through an RPG. The game was inspired by "The Bible" mini series. I liked the idea that you got to watch the story events happen. In a game, you would be able to be a part of the story. ... Would you play it?

Sounds like something different from an RPG.

The goal of an RPG is to give players a direction and allow them to make their own choices, decisions that modify the details of gameplay, and allow the player to feel like they were the reason for the ultimate outcome.

Most biblical stories are moral stories where we see the consequences of choices, sometimes as those are played out over multiple generations. Most biblical stories require a historical viewpoint that may be difficult to communicate to players. Few biblical stories would work if you gave a player a critical role in the story.

A popular story is that of Ruth. It involves the social programs of the day. Today we have many social programs and life insurance and retirement funds. It is largely the story of a woman whose husband and sons had died. Her mother-in-law was both a widow and had lost all the male support (which was a major thing back then). Everything that follows is the social program of the day. Gleaning in the fields was a social program. Eating together the way that was described was a social program. Wedding the nearest relative of the deceased husband was a social program. The inheritance system that her husband's nearest relative was wary about was a social program. Having the new husband's children be considered legally the children of the original husband was a social program. Most people today would look at the story, say things like "Aww, how sweet he would let these people in the fields" rather than it being a legal mandate. Others think "Gross, he's considering polygamy", again rather than it being a legal mandate. There is not much room for an RPG in that story.

Or another big story is that of King Saul. Those who read the story at first may see the "most goodly" statement in the KJV and assume it means he was a very nice person. Nope, it means he was the richest person in the kingdom in terms of goods. He was incredibly wealthy with goods rather than cash. More like Sam Walton (of Walmart and Sam's Club) rather than Bill Gates. When Samuel tells him to burn everything from the war, including all the stuff that is normally spoils of war, he ends up taking some political and financial gains out of it. On its face most people don't consider it, but if you understand the history he was told "It is a religious war and you are forbidden to profit from it", and then he decides to leverage it into a few business transactions, it gives it a much bigger moral component. There is not much room for making that an RPG, either. Guy is told not to make a profit, does so anyway. Guy offends various groups by thinking in terms of wealth rather than as a leader. Then you have is son establishing a friendship with a poor guy who is ordained to be the next king. Saul tries many times to murder his son's best friend and his successor, David, and after multiple murder attempts David shows him some of his humble life, has the opportunity to kill Saul, and chooses not to take it because doing so would mean validating that it would be appropriate for others to murder him when he took up the mantle of king. Perhaps there is TINY amount of role playing as David is fleeing for his life, but not the style most RPG gamers enjoy.

Or you've got Samson, a mega-buff warrior type. He was in several wars and conflicts. While those might be fun to play, like uses foxes to light fields on fire, that isn't the critical part of the story. He was also abandoned by those he loved, was spurned by every woman in his life including his mother, his fiance, and his wife. Political and military leaders treated him like a tool and ordered him to attack the families of people he loved. All he wanted was for someone to love him back, eventually even turning to a prostitute who claimed to love him. Eventually he realized that basically everyone in his life had betrayed him. He was brought to face them and conveniently most of his major lifelong betrayers were all in the same room. He committed suicide in a final act of revenge against those who made his life miserable since his earliest childhood memories. Might make a very tragic RPG, but either the player is focused on betraying and ruining the man, or they are living the character whose life is a living hell who ultimately decides a murder-suicide is the way to go. Do you really want to show your players a life so bad that for almost 3000 years it has been celebrated as a situation where committing a murder-suicide is the ultimate good answer?

There are a great many stories in the bible. Lots of intrigue, double-dealing, murders, wars, religion, and other things that make memorable and powerful stories. The problem is the stories are very linear and too much player choice eliminates or reduces them significantly, so they don't really lend themselves to gameplay.

Maybe I've used the wrong genre? I've thought of ways you could take small details and make them into mechanics so that the player can play through the story.

Example: The Garden of Eden
The bible says that all the animals were brought to Adam to see what he would name them. The player helps discover some animals by finding them in a maze (the garden). When the player finds an animal, they must defeat it (final fantasy combat) in order to give it some name that would be used throughout the game for that animal. After finding all the animals, the player returns to the beginning for the final boss fight w/ the serpent.

I think that if yhe player can participate in the story, it might give it more meaning.
I guess I thought of it as an RPG because i want to use mechanics that are commonly found in them. Maybe I mean Adventure game? Would that suit it better?

Your idea, your game, make it what you want.

Making a Garden of Eden scenario into a FF or Pokemon style 'beat them into submission' doesn't exactly seem like a peaceful paradise to me. If it was so peaceful, why do they need to be defeated?

considering how many people got murdered in the bible by god I think it would make a great FPS... think about it, "god mode" will be built in as a game feature.

Example: The Garden of Eden
The bible says that all the animals were brought to Adam to see what he would name them. The player helps discover some animals by finding them in a maze (the garden). When the player finds an animal, they must defeat it (final fantasy combat) in order to give it some name that would be used throughout the game for that animal. After finding all the animals, the player returns to the beginning for the final boss fight w/ the serpent.
I think that if yhe player can participate in the story, it might give it more meaning.

.

We went from RPG to "puzzle / adventure" with turn-based-combat.

In your example, having Adam look for critters while fighting off "temptation" monsters would make more sense .

<offtopic> God's name in the hebrew Bible is "Yahweh-Elohim"</offtopic>

Frob:'I'd suggested the battle idea to keep things active and exciting. But that can still be taken out and the level could be used as a tutorial where each animal teaches you a new mechanic in the game.