Christian Game Design
From WorkCDN
Contents |
Purpose
The purpose of this page is discuss the various elements that effect game design when creating a game in the "Christian" categories.
What is a Christian Game?
Insert categories here?
Games for Edifying Christians
The foremost purpose of a Christian game should be to provide an experience that is spiritually beneficial. To create a truly edifying experience, the game must not only convey solid principles but also teach and reward responses to moral and ethical problems – something that has been traditionally extremely difficult to achieve in video games. Additionally, for a game to be successful as a teaching tool, it also must be enjoyable. Not a syrupy, silly game that tries to mix in elements of education on the sly. But also, not an educational program that layers some pointless graphics over the top of what would be an otherwise dull teaching tool. Rather, we want to construct something that has the same vibrancy as real life, where children can spend hours learning and playing in the world God has created for them.
In seeking content for Christian a game, the first place we turn to is scripture, and the principles encountered therein. But how do you weave the principles of scripture into an interactive story? How can you demonstrate loving your neighbor or walking by faith in a video game? In the complex realities of life, how do you make sure you’re not misapplying the very truths you want to convey?
Well, the simplest answer is to stick to the literal. Simply find places in scripture that show literal instances of these principles, and then put your players in those positions - where they have to follow the story to succeed. However, the struggle with utilizing scripture to tell interactive stories is that the stories in scripture have already been written. Although it might at first seem fun to put a player in the shoes of David as he faces Goliath, the designer is quickly faced with the challenge: “What happens if David misses?” The possibility of compromising the truths of scripture makes its narrative portions impossibly difficult to tell interactively.
Another choice is to let go of the literal account of scripture, but hold to the literal principles – choosing to convey them through a fictitious world. This method has been used to great success in many works, from The Chronicles of Narnia to Veggie Tales. By creating a fictitious, albeit allegorical world, authors have been able to expound on Christian principles, as well as create their own entirely manipulable storylines without stepping on any historical toes. But this misses some of the opportunities to fully convey the depth of scripture by removing its context. Furthermore, use a fictious world context limits the applicability of meaning in the story, as the things they learn may lack a real world application.
A realistic world can even be more potent if they transport them to a location or time that they have not been to – and that is what I would desire for this story – for I am proposing to use the real places and times of scripture, and to combine them with its principles to write new “untold” stories. The stories we tell would only cautiously weave in and out of recorded scripture, to avoid the risk of contradicting what has already been written.
"But what if you die?"
A classic problem when designing games based on history (such as war reenactment games) is "what do you do if the hero dies"? Various options have been postulated over the year, such as modifying the story and create a hypothetical alternate timeline (while this may be acceptable in Civil War circles, it is less condoned in Christian circles when modifying the Bible). However, I think there are several options that fit better within a Christian context.
- One is to simply make the hero invincible. A secular game that has done this successfully is the game Indestructo Tank (link needed).
- Similar to the above one - rather than making the player not take damage, you could just make the player always "find a way of escape" before they are damaged beyond recovery.
- Another is to "rewind" time when the player dies, and play the sequence again.
