May 2010 Archives

This is the third episode of the Old Testament Adventures Podcast, discussing the development of my Old Testament adventure game, Ebenezer. It's just under 45 minutes long.

Show Notes

Scheduling

• The next goal for the project is to get some users to test it
• We discuss ways of avoiding the danger that the project drags on in the absence of hard deadlines
• Andy talks about some practical things that have helped him, such as storyboarding each section as a separate exercise from coding it up
• We're still looking for Blender artists to help model the environments
• It's a challenge to make long-term goals that are big enough to challenge you yet still attainable

Going for Glory

• When does the desire to make the best possible game for God become more about personal glory?
• In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Paul talks about deliberately not being impressive so that it was obvious that it was the word of God doing the work
• Does this mean its okay that so many Christian games are poorly polished and unengaging for non-believers?
• Ultimately, even if you made the most amazing game ever, people would still hate it because of its association with Christianity, so if you do it for the glory you will be disappointed

Thinking of Random Uses for Items

• Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers" discusses the difference between "convergent" and "divergent" questions in intelligent tests
• An example of a divergent question would be to come up with as many different uses for an item as possible, the quirkier the better
• As practice for our puzzle-writing, we discuss some uses for a lemonade bottle or "War and Peace"
• It's surprisingly hard to acquire items in a Christian game if you rule out theft, making item-based puzzles rarer than usual