Emanuele Feronato

Talking about Flash, Game development and Users contributions.

I am used to see Flash educational games, but I don’t remember any Flash game based on religion.

And I don’t mean something like “you are God and must obliterate a village”, but a game entirely based on the Bible.

Now Gabriel Walter talks about Verse Vessel

« The working demo of Verse Vessel is ready now!

The idea now is to promote it and I’m open to suggestions as its a “casual-to-hardcore-rpg-word-matching-bible-game”, which is not the easiest “category” in the world to get across!

The technology used is mainly flash (css for text) because of its range of output for Pc, Mac, portable, and (most) browsers. It’s also the simplest to set up and export (no sdks).

But why did I select the bible? Before I explain here’s how I came up with the concept.

I have made games in the past of varying themes. One game I did for Neutrogena was a “clear the pores” mini-game! Another game I made revolved around a construction sim with Rts elements.

I have created other games I’d like to post in the future that are educational (which is a popular theme). But right now I felt there is a major subject missing.

I’ve played all types of games ranging from sports to music based, but the one factor I’d like to see more of has to do with the bible. One day my father suggested why don’t I do one based on the bible, and I thought “yes, I’d like to have a game representing the bible in these modern times”.

And I don’t mean a five minute kids game, or a wink-wink humorous satire thereof! I’d like to see a fully featured, accurate representation of the bible that’s done right.

This is important to me and making a game you like is always fun (even if others don’t like it) but only for one person- the game creator! At least “officially”, hopefully others will like it too. But that’s not just the focus in the case of Verse Vessel.

Even though I have one religion and the person helping with duel player code has another (coming soon God willing), and the qa tester has another, it all comes down to the bible going BEYOND religion.

And even beyond that, it reaches everyone in one way or another.

In other words, everyone has an opinion either for or against the bible.

The game is not set up to “preach at you”. There’s no “moral meter” (although I personally think that could be exciting if done well). Playing from a “non religious” view can be enjoyed as much as someone with religious background because there is no “interpretations”of the bible, it’s straight bible text.

If you know what your particular religion teaches about a particular verse that’s all well and good but different religions teach different views.

Here, the verse can’t be adapted differently- its still the same verse! So its “system independent” (hey its better than saying “religious agnostic”) and can reach not only certain religions, but as mentioned, someone with no religion at all.

You don’t have to know certain doctrines that comes with religion to select the right choices. Some of it is just common sense. You could be playing this from a scholarly standpoint or out of curiosity and not have to be concerned with anything but enjoying the game.

The fun of being an independent game developer is no one is going to dictate that the game has to appeal to certain religious leaders or take out certain things because some non/religious people don’t want it there. There are no advertisers to worry about having to please or any other specific group for that matter!

Another reason I wanted to focus in on the bible and not religion is that anyone can own a bible and I’m sure there are some in your/your parents house.

But how often is someone going to actually read it is another thing altogether! I know we live in a digital age and picking up a huge book is not going be at the top of the attention-getting list when there’s so much media available.

If there was some way to be able to pick up the bible digitally and be able to read it from any point AND have some in game goals then I figured it would be fun AND informative.

So far some of the immediate goals are to collect experience points by getting the most correct answers as well as collect inventory. Soon there will be options to trade and compete against another person.

Another is having the animals get off of Noah’s ark first and there are some unusual animals in that particular version! This is only the beginning.

More chapters will come soon hopefully. Of course I’ll always be open to feedback from suggestions for things I may not have thought of.

So I’m glad I could share a bit about the purpose behind verse vessel. Check out the demo at www.versevessel.com if you are interested or email zartan917 [at] aol [dot] com for feedback. »