What can we learn from Day of the Tentacle?
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In the process of writing my own Point & Click adventure game, so I put together this article about the things I've learnt by studying the LucasArts classic "Day of the Tentacle". Any feedback is very welcome!
The good thing about Day of the Tentacle is that it is fun, in a zany way, and very sarcastic. It doesn't take itself seriously at all.
I hardly see how you're gonna do that in a christian context, since that would mean laughing at religion more than anything else.
I'd recommend to use a more "serious business" approach with investigations and such if you want your game to be about any religion.
Anyway since I personally don't find any religion to be credible (they're all silly indoctrination full of demagogy instead of the use of rational thought), I hardly see how you can do a pro-christian game/movie/whatever without it being corny.
I hardly see how you're gonna do that in a christian context, since that would mean laughing at religion more than anything else.
I'd recommend to use a more "serious business" approach with investigations and such if you want your game to be about any religion.
Anyway since I personally don't find any religion to be credible (they're all silly indoctrination full of demagogy instead of the use of rational thought), I hardly see how you can do a pro-christian game/movie/whatever without it being corny.
While I'm on the same side of the fence as loufoque in terms of religion, I don't necessarily agree that you need to take things so seriously. You probably can't market the game to hardcore bible thumpers in the bible belt, but is that really your target market (for the record I have no idea whether or not they're a viable market for video games)?
As long as you present your game as a tongue-in-cheek look at religion, I don't think anyone would give you too hard of a time. Maybe even give the true story before a "level" and then people will be able to tie your gameplay back to the "real" story.
As long as you present your game as a tongue-in-cheek look at religion, I don't think anyone would give you too hard of a time. Maybe even give the true story before a "level" and then people will be able to tie your gameplay back to the "real" story.
Author
Quote:Original post by loufoque
Anyway since I personally don't find any religion to be credible (they're all silly indoctrination full of demagogy instead of the use of rational thought), I hardly see how you can do a pro-christian game/movie/whatever without it being corny.
Without wanting to get dragged into an argument, I think this is something of a caricature, since you'll find a great deal of the Bible consists of sustained, strongly reasoned arguments where rational thought is highly prized.
I totally agree with your point, though, that the great sense of humour is the very essence of what made the LucasArts adventure games so brilliant. I disagree, though, that you can't tackle serious subjects whilst at the same not taking yourself too seriously - I know I'm biased, but I think my story does a good job of being light hearted and using humour where possible, whilst still staying faithful to the original text and message. It's all about the characters, imho, and like any good adventure game, I have a large supporting cast of fun characters to balance the more serious aspects of the game.
i think the big issue here is that you are playing with matches while swimming in a pool of gasoline.
if you upset even a minority of [insert religion of choice here] then you will no doubt be hearing about it, and suffering whatever consequences that follow. whether that be bad media coverage due to 'the loudest voices getting all the say' or simply having to defend your game / idea / own religious beliefs / choice of pet dog / etc simply because you managed to upset some people. the thing with religion is that if you upset one person of a religion you upset them all, as they generally all will have the same mindset regarding said religion and so will have a similar reaction to each other, or one loud voice recruits an army of smaller voices beneath them. you get my drift.
agree with religions or not the fact at the moment is that they can have a loud voice when they want to, whether they deserve it or not. whether they are RIGHT or not!
of course what i've mentioned above might not be necessarily a bad thing depending on how it plays-out. perhaps you will spark a greater interest than you would have and more media coverage than you could dream about. the bad could in-fact be the good. then again you could end-up with crowds of crazies... err i mean religious people, ahem... at your doorstep hassling you day-in day-out, or worse depending on their level of mental issues / fanaticism. clearly i think religions recruit the mentally unequipped (if the lord is our shepherd, then it looks like that makes us the sheep? BAAAH, BAAH!)
then there's also the area of pain where people are going to pick you on every little detail they consider inaccurate or wrong and nitpick ever last pixel and letter, but then again if the whole game is perceived as one big 'up yours' then yeah.... duck and cover!
at the end of the day your intentions do not matter, only how others perceive things. i think toying with the subject matter of religion is just asking for a crucifixion though (did you see what i did there???)
if you upset even a minority of [insert religion of choice here] then you will no doubt be hearing about it, and suffering whatever consequences that follow. whether that be bad media coverage due to 'the loudest voices getting all the say' or simply having to defend your game / idea / own religious beliefs / choice of pet dog / etc simply because you managed to upset some people. the thing with religion is that if you upset one person of a religion you upset them all, as they generally all will have the same mindset regarding said religion and so will have a similar reaction to each other, or one loud voice recruits an army of smaller voices beneath them. you get my drift.
agree with religions or not the fact at the moment is that they can have a loud voice when they want to, whether they deserve it or not. whether they are RIGHT or not!
of course what i've mentioned above might not be necessarily a bad thing depending on how it plays-out. perhaps you will spark a greater interest than you would have and more media coverage than you could dream about. the bad could in-fact be the good. then again you could end-up with crowds of crazies... err i mean religious people, ahem... at your doorstep hassling you day-in day-out, or worse depending on their level of mental issues / fanaticism. clearly i think religions recruit the mentally unequipped (if the lord is our shepherd, then it looks like that makes us the sheep? BAAAH, BAAH!)
then there's also the area of pain where people are going to pick you on every little detail they consider inaccurate or wrong and nitpick ever last pixel and letter, but then again if the whole game is perceived as one big 'up yours' then yeah.... duck and cover!
at the end of the day your intentions do not matter, only how others perceive things. i think toying with the subject matter of religion is just asking for a crucifixion though (did you see what i did there???)
Author
Quote:Original post by nb
but then again if the whole game is perceived as one big 'up yours' then yeah.... duck and cover!
Well, as it happens, I am a mentally unequipped religious 'fanatic' myself with my own mental issues... er... Biblical convictions, so I'm hoping that it won't be perceived that I am "toying" with the subject matter. Nice to see that tolerance is alive and well in our online society though :-)
IMHO nb is sorta (kinda) right (except for the part about all religious people being crazy and agreeing on everything). In reality, there is a very small percentage of loony motherf***ers in every possible demographic.
The problem you may face is that those handful of crazy Christians will pick apart any minor detail you include that they do not agree with, and they may get media attention. Imagine if you pissed off Jack Chick with your game. Now imagine you pissed off someone similar to him, but who still has an iota of credibility. Next thing you know, your game is being smeared as Satanic and gets banned in Utah.
The problem is, religion is a sensitive subject, and easily causes strife between different religions (and also with the non-religious as you can see), as well as within the same religions (your red and blue teams for example). Your game would have to be pretty damn good and extremely non-preachy for you to get anyone interested who wasn't already interested in your specific version of your religion.
I read through your website btw. It would take Jesus himself jumping out of my monitor and showing me a miracle that couldn't be reproduced by Criss Angel for me to believe in any supernatural anything... but from what you wrote I would give your game a go anyway (and quit if it seemed preachy, I had enough of that when I was younger).
The problem you may face is that those handful of crazy Christians will pick apart any minor detail you include that they do not agree with, and they may get media attention. Imagine if you pissed off Jack Chick with your game. Now imagine you pissed off someone similar to him, but who still has an iota of credibility. Next thing you know, your game is being smeared as Satanic and gets banned in Utah.
The problem is, religion is a sensitive subject, and easily causes strife between different religions (and also with the non-religious as you can see), as well as within the same religions (your red and blue teams for example). Your game would have to be pretty damn good and extremely non-preachy for you to get anyone interested who wasn't already interested in your specific version of your religion.
I read through your website btw. It would take Jesus himself jumping out of my monitor and showing me a miracle that couldn't be reproduced by Criss Angel for me to believe in any supernatural anything... but from what you wrote I would give your game a go anyway (and quit if it seemed preachy, I had enough of that when I was younger).
Author
Quote:Original post by krez
The problem you may face is that those handful of crazy Christians will pick apart any minor detail you include that they do not agree with, and they may get media attention. Imagine if you pissed off Jack Chick with your game. Now imagine you pissed off someone similar to him, but who still has an iota of credibility. Next thing you know, your game is being smeared as Satanic and gets banned in Utah.
I can't help but feel "Banned in 49 states!" would be quite a cool marketing slogan :-) And bound to make people desperate to go out and play it!
Quote:Original post by krez
I read through your website btw. It would take Jesus himself jumping out of my monitor and showing me a miracle that couldn't be reproduced by Criss Angel for me to believe in any supernatural anything... but from what you wrote I would give your game a go anyway (and quit if it seemed preachy, I had enough of that when I was younger).
Cool, well that's exactly what I'm hoping will be the case - that it won't feel preachy, but will be accessible to anybody. We'll have to wait and see whether I succeed or not!
Spot on about the mattresses :) Don't stop at providing a sweaky mattress, make the player swap them
Another guy riding the non-christian train here, but I must say that, having read many of your blog writings, that I respect the fact that you don't appear to be a (stereo?) typical "blind faith" christian, and that you think deeply about your own belief system. I may disagree, personally, however I can respectfully disagree with a well-reasoned, well-studied individual rather than dismissing a simple believer out of hand.
To draw a sort of weird analogy, those people are like the kid who reads "Learn OpenGL in 21 days" and upon finishing it begins writing their regurgitated "tutorials" of unconfirmed, uninvestigated and, in all likelihood, misguided understanding as fact. You could draw a certain parallel to those who participate in the "become a christian in one hour a week" school and then believe themselves worthy to tell others what is wrong with them.
You seem to be an analytical guy and have avoided this latter classification; I think you stand a good chance at what you're setting out to do, which is something different than what's been done before. Good luck.
To draw a sort of weird analogy, those people are like the kid who reads "Learn OpenGL in 21 days" and upon finishing it begins writing their regurgitated "tutorials" of unconfirmed, uninvestigated and, in all likelihood, misguided understanding as fact. You could draw a certain parallel to those who participate in the "become a christian in one hour a week" school and then believe themselves worthy to tell others what is wrong with them.
You seem to be an analytical guy and have avoided this latter classification; I think you stand a good chance at what you're setting out to do, which is something different than what's been done before. Good luck.
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