Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man and Jesus Christ could be the faces of the video game industry's Mount Rushmore if Christian game developers have a say.
The video game industry saw record sales of $13.5 billion last year. No Christian games cracked the Top 10 sales lists, but gamers at this weekend's 2007 Christian Game Developers Conference pray that soon will change.
They're starting not just with Best Buy and Circuit City outlets near you, but also in the churches and youth ministries in your neighborhood.
Teaching tools
Parents at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Naperville are using "Gospel Champions" to supplement summer Bible readings. The church lets parishioners download the game from its Web site right onto their home computers and activate it with an access code for the church's licensed copy.
The game changes monthly to match Bible readings. July's reading is the Good Samaritan story. Characters in the game controlled by kids act out a computerized version of the parable, complete with rehearsing basic Christian prayers in various spots."As a parent, and knowing how much kids are on the computer, I thought this was something that we actually want kids to know," said Patti Dougherty, the parish's religious education director.
The popularity of "Gospel Champions" is unknown, but interest seems to be growing.
Armageddon on PC
On a national level, the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" game is arguably the Christian game that's attracted the most interest.
The electronic adventure is modeled after the best-selling Christian book series about the aftermath of the Rapture - when God takes all faithful Christians from the earth.
"Eternal Forces" lets players lead a group of Christian forces against demonic soldiers resembling United Nations Peacekeepers in hopes of converting them. There's no blood, and prayer is the best weapon against guns, an aspect of the game that stifled most, but not all, Christian fears about violence in the game.
Lake Villa's Cheryl Gress founded the Web site Christ Centered Game Reviews after encountering too many games with "cult" themes that she felt uncomfortable playing after being inadequately warned by the game labels.
Gress said "Eternal Forces" probably had the biggest budget, name recognition and marketing effort of any Christian-themed game she's reviewed.
Indeed, Left Behind Games, which is tied to Carol Stream's Tyndale Publishers, reports more than 1 million requests for pass-it-on trial versions of the game from churches and ministries.
Still, Gress slammed the game in her personal review, as did most of the national video game press.
"I just found it really hard," Gress said. "And the online help community is not exactly there for it, because it's not a mainstream game."
Finding an audience
The challenge facing developers of Christian-themed video games is difficult, according to Bill Bean, president of the Association of Christian Entertainment, one of the organizations behind this year's Christian gaming conference.
They must create a game capable of not only making it to store shelves - but selling once it gets there.
"No one's looking at our packages and saying, 'Wow, that's good, and look, it says God on the box,'" Bean said. "We, as Christian game developers, need to provide games that are really fun to play, have a message in it and are reasonably priced."
Price is part of the reason John's Christian Stores throughout the suburbs aren't selling nearly as many video games as they do music CDs.
Brian Cook, a buyer for the chain, said his stores have only sold two copies of "Eternal Forces" since it hit the shelves in time for Christmas last year. The $59.95 price tag is one of the reasons.
"The quality doesn't match what you would expect to get out of a $60 game," Cook said. "But it's a unique market. There are very little Christian games, and there are always customers looking for it."
If a developer produces a Christian game that's both high quality and decently priced, Cook predicts the product would sell well.
"There's definitely people out there waiting for something," he said.
A dancing success
One Christian-themed game has sold out at John's Christian Stores.
It's called "Dance Praise Party." And Steve and Katie Willemssen count themselves among the fans of the Christian clone of the popular "Dance Dance Revolution."
Every Friday night at the their Aurora home, the couple and many of their 30-something friends gather around the television for a "Dance Praise Party" contest.
Only they're not bringing "SexyBack" with Justin Timberlake. Instead, they're getting down to Audio Adrenaline, a Christian band.
Steve Willemssen is the decided John Travolta of the group - wowing the crowd whenever it's his turn on the dance mat.
"We probably wouldn't have gotten one if it wasn't Christian, because the music these days is horrible," Katie Willemssen said. "The lyrics today, we would never appreciate something like that. So it's cool that the Christian market is coming up with something - that kids and adults now have an alternative to DDR."
Bean is one of the creators of "Dance Praise Party." He said the reason for the product's success is a lot of time spent on his knees asking God for guidance.
"You really want to make sure that this is what the Lord wants you to do," Bean said.
To that end, Bean said the future for Christian video game makers is to produce products for the big console systems like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
"You ask yourself: What Christian titles have come out that have used good technology, had a good story and glued together good activities with a subtle message?" Bean said. "Is the product of equal quality as the same non-Christian games released at the same time, or did they do a value job on a Christian product?"
So where can Christians find those games?
"I haven't seen it," Bean confessed. "But I'd like to see it."
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