It was plain, old disgust that drove Shawn Nicholson from his cushy video game programming job in Texas to the uncertain road of a Christian game developer in Tallmadge, Ohio. It was the virtual violence and sexually explicit characters.
Nicholson, 26, is part of a new breed of programmers who have followed their morals to a sprouting side industry–Christian video games.
But these games aren’t wishy-washy moralizing. Only quality titles make the cut and earn their creators’ admission to a loosely organized group of Christian game developers.
“In order for games to succeed, they need to be high quality,” said Ralph Bagley, chief executive of N’Lightning Software Development, arguably the most successful Christian game company.
“The last thing the gamer wants when he walks in to buy a game is to be preached at. It’s a game first.”
The idea, Bagley said, is to create morally sound alternatives to the wave of explicit video games such as Grand Theft Auto III. Only games with slick graphics, complex story lines and riveting action can compete.
Christian games don’t have much of the market right now; the $100 million in annual sales barely registers on the radar.
But Bagley and others hope that’s about to change as the industry expands from its core audience of Christian bookstores.
In 2001 and 2002, the video game industry pulled in more dollars than Hollywood.
Game sales have surged
Gaming hardware and software made $9.4 billion domestically in 2001, while U.S. movie box-office sales totaled $8.5 billion, according to market research firm NPD Group Inc. That same year, the music industry made $13.7 billion domestically.
In 2002, worldwide sales of video games reached a record $16 billion, and analysts expect that figure will grow to $18.5 billion by the close of 2003.
“If anything, I think we’re about to ride a wave,” Nicholson said.
NEI, or Nicholson Entertainment Inc., has a long way to go before its game, Spirits, is ready for commercial release.
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The rendering of some characters is unfinished and the background is too dark, Nicholson said from the Ohio home he shares with his wife, children, sister and her family.
More work to be done
Nicholson, a veteran of software giant Acclaim Entertainment, has done a lot of the work on Spirits himself.
He has 15 employees, all of whom are working without pay until the company can secure operating capital for the next 26 months.
“There’s still a massive amount of work to be done,” he said. Spirits, when it’s finished, will be a story-based, action-adventure game targeted at teens and young adults.
The main character is David, a “discerner of spirits” who can call on angels to kill a family of demons infesting Diamond, Ohio. The demons live to “destroy any good work that would bring glory to God.” David also must find his friend, the town pastor, who has gone missing.
Jim Colledge, pastor of Hudson Community Chapel, said he’s concerned that games like Spirits just put a religious spin on secular violence.
“Does it teach Biblical principles in a way that is consistent with the authority of the Bible?” the evangelical conservative asked. “If so, that’s great.”
Nicholson said he’s aware some Christians might find the game disturbing because of the demons. But he said Spirits strikes the right balance between religion and game play.
“The game is spiritual warfare,” he said.
With the right investments, Nicholson said his team could finish Spirits in about 18 months and market the game in eight months after that. But it will cost $3 million to do that, two-thirds of which will go toward development.
The hefty price tag is because Spirits, unlike most other Christian games, is being developed for Microsoft’s Xbox console. It’s much cheaper and easier to develop games for the PC, but the return is much greater in the console market.
“Applying for an Xbox license is kind of like applying for a job: They check you out,” Nicholson said. “When you develop for the PC, there are no restrictions.”
Distribution is limited
Bagley said he and others are working on getting more recognition. Part of the problem is Christian developers have to market and distribute games by themselves. They don’t have the advertising machine of Electronic Arts or Acclaim. Nor do they have the shelf space in major stores such as Electronics Boutique or Best Buy.
The developers do, however, have the loyalty of most Christian bookstores.
But as West Nihei, editor in chief of GamePro magazine, pointed out, those aren’t the same customers who shop at Electronics Boutique.
“It’s important that they get in front of Wal-Mart and Target and other retailers,” he said.
Bagley said he and others are trying to set up a distribution network for N’Lightning and other Christian game companies. They also are considering a pitch to retail chains such as Wal-Mart and Babbage’s.
Nicholson Entertainment Inc. has signed up.
“While we have Christian content in the game, our goal is to get into Wal-Mart and secular stores,” Nicholson said.