Shouldn’t the Bible be obvious gaming material? After all,
in Scripture we have the greatest story ever told. It tells of God’s love for
humankind, demonstrated through the dynamic personality of Jesus, who (spoiler
alert!) dies and then rises from the dead. If that’s not an ending with punch
then I don’t know what is!
And regardless of your spiritual background, there is no
denying that the Bible is great source material. It covers the full gambit of
human experience, from the most grueling lows to the most ecstatic highs. Its
themes are timeless and universal. Plus, the Bible has more action and
adventure in a few pages than most games have in their entire storylines.
Am I crazy or are gaming studios missing out on a tremendous
opportunity? The popularity of recent Bible-based movies shows that the market
is viable. Gamers would flock to the store to try out a quality Bible game. I stress the word quality, though. In order for
a gaming studio to design a great game, they would have to answer 5 questions
in the design process:
1.
How does the game handle moral choice?
A vital aspect of any successful game is player autonomy.
Gamers want the freedom to make their own choices. Yet if a game were truly
focused on the Gospel message, the underlying hope of the game would be to
encourage players to make faithful and God-honoring choices.
Would a Bible-based game allow the player to go through the
full consequences of their decisions? Or else, how does the game keep the
storyline on track without taking away the player’s ability to reject certain
options?
My suggestion: don’t make the player any of the named
figures in Scripture. Instead, the player should be the “everyman” that is able
to choose how to be involved. Leading up to the crucifixion, for example, a
temple guard might choose to hang out with Christ’s disciples or else take the
alternative quest line with the priestly leaders of the Pharisees.
What do you think – how would you handle moral choice if you
were designing a Christian video game?
2.
How much violence should a Bible-based game
contain?
A Bible-based game with no
violence is being disingenuous. In order to stay true to Scripture, a game should
at least acknowledge the violence that takes place in biblical events. The
difference, though, is that describing violence is not the same thing as
prescribing violence. The Bible often depicts violence that is outside God’s
desired plan.
This question encroaches upon one of
the age-old debates we see in video games: does allowing a player to be violent
in the game constitute encouragement of that violence? In other words, do
violent games create violent kids?
My suggestion: as best as
possible, try to resist pressure to make the game more or less violent than the
actual biblical text. Every detail in the Bible is there for a reason; there is
nothing gratuitous. So in the case of violence, context and proportion are your
friends.
3.
How does the Bible avoid info dump?
The Bible is a big book with lots of dates, places, and
names. It is no wonder the majority of current Bible games is trivia based. If our
hypothetical game attempted to teach the player all these facts exhaustively,
the player would get bogged down and never get past the prologue.
A common “solution” to this problem is to compress the story
of Scripture into a more universal, summarized form. This approach leads to a
whole different set of problems, however, because the final product ends up
vague and preachy. Have you ever watched a cheesy Christian film that attempts
to summarize all of Christian belief in a couple compact speeches? Doesn’t the
result feel didactic? I agree.
My solution: tell a specific story with lots of up-close
details. We learn more about love when we see it demonstrated by a single
person than we do hearing abstractions about love. The player can pick up
additional background by exploring the environment and straying from the main
quest.
4.
How does the game visually represent God?
This is a toughy. God is the main
character of the Bible so surely He has to be shown visually? But to be honest,
this question is exactly why God sent Jesus. When we look at Jesus we see not
only a perfect example of what an Israelite was supposed to be, we also see God
represented physically.
Jesus came to give us a better
idea of what God’s love looks like. Otherwise, when God the Father or the Holy Spirit
were being revealed to a human, it was done in a shrouded or symbolized way.
God was not the burning bush in front of Moses, for instance, but He was
representing His power in a way that Moses would understand and appreciate.
My suggestion: don’t show God as a
bearded man on a cloud. Show God as the Bible shows God.
If you have read this far, and
particularly if you are a gamer, I would love to hear your thoughts! What other
challenges do you see in making a Christian video game? How would you go about designing
a game that answers these questions?
