To Light: Ex Umbra is about halfway through its Kickstarter funding period and nearly halfway funded. However, I doubt that To Light: Ex Umbra will meet its Kickstarter goal of $7,500 without divine intervention. While the game does have a unique art style it is clear to me the developers don’t know what they are doing. For one thing, they plan to spend all their Kickstarter funds on art and they really don’t look like tech savvy people. On top of that, they’re making this game as an allegory of Christ.
“Branch Games, the studio behind the game, is a gaming company made up of believers in Christ who know that in all we do, we are to glorify Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a deist, but the Kickstarter page comes off so cringy to me. The developers are very clear that they are devout Christians and that they want to make a game that “edifies Christ”. Now I’m not just knocking them because they’re religious, I just don’t think mainstream religions and video games work well together. As soon as I realized I was reading something by one of those really religious people I had immediate flash backs to Bibleman and rappin’ for Jesus and those are not the productions anyone wants to be associated with. In my experience of gaming the only religions that seem to worm their way in are Odinism and sometimes a vague Taoism-Buddism themes. Sometimes you can trace monsters back to Greek legends or principals to numerology, but it’s usually religions more obscure to the western world. Also, I think Christianity has taken a few major hits in recent years what with conflicts to do with homosexual marriage and the right to abortion. I don’t think it’s a popular place to align yourself at the moment, I definitely don’t think it helped the To Light: Ex Umbra get funding.
I also get the impression that the developers are critical of other games for not following Christian doctrines. It just feels rather cringy to me and I have my doubts about the gameplay since none of the budget is being spent on it. Even if To Light: Ex Umbra got funding I doubt it would have been able to produce a game of any sort of quality. I think it might be time for the developers to get in touch with Saint Jude (The Patron Saint of Lost Causes) on this one, but what do you think? Perhaps I’m a little biased since I’m not too fond of religion, You can let me know in the comments section below.
Tell us how you really feel! hehe
Tell us how you really feel, hehe.
sleepy, generally tired of religion and morally ambiguous :-p
I think that your idea that mainstream religion and video
games don’t work well together is false. There are so many successful games
that have characters based loosey on biblical characters. For instance, Yuna
(Final Fantasy X) and Jesus Christ, Yuna is a summoner who travels around Spira
with her entourage of guardians on a journey to save the world from Sin. Along
the way, she walks on water, makes friends with the societally shunned Al Bhed
and performs a sending that allows the souls of the dead to pass on to the
Farplane instead of being reincarnated into monsters. Also, near the end of the
game, gamers discover Yuna’s pilgrimage is fated to end with her sacrificing
her life in order to defeat Sin.
There are several others and just because Christianity has
taken some major hits, as you say, doesn’t stop or diminish what Christian game
developers want to do, balance the equations. For so long, the gaming industry
has pushed the boundaries in sex, drugs, violence and demonic depravity. I’ll
be the first to say, I played Doom, Castlevannia, Resident Evil and Bioshock
with joy, but I have always wanted the other end of the spectrum. Yes, Bibleman
and Rappin for Jesus were not good. It was done by people who tried to file a
void, but didn’t have the passion for it. Also, as an African American, Christian
and ex-drug dealer and gang member, I do love Rappin for Jesus, funny as hell,
but the Pastor had a good flow.
In 2000 there was a Christian video game that was made, only
in a beta. It tested very well, with Christians and non-Christian gamers. I
wish I could remember the name, the company was in Newberg, OR. It never got finished
due to funding, but all gamers loved the games playability, strategy, power ups
and game style. I work with at risk youth, who are one step away from jail or
prison and even death sometimes. If a game, that is done well can give them a
positive message of hope that there is more to life, then no matter what your religious
affiliation is, you should help encourage them. They are doing something so
different and radical, because for real Christian game developers, it’s not
about the money, but changing lives for the better and having fun doing it.
I always thought of Final Fantasy X as an anti-religious game. I don’t really think religion is displayed in a positive light, as I remember a lot of the religious people were cowards in it though I see the parallels you are pointing out. You’re right though, it would be good to get some games on the other side of the spectrum.
I suppose the thing I find the mistake was so blatantly saying they were of a certain faith, because just look at my reaction as a non-christian. I was already halfway steering out from the get go and I grew up in Ireland and have been on pilgrimages to Lourdes etc. It’s like aligning yourself with a political party, or by extension saying that by supporting the devs you are supporting Christianity. I think it would have been wise for them to not be so open with that. Not hide it or anything, but by putting it on the kickstarter it just put a tint to everything I read. Just my two-cents.
I see what your saying, it’s like introducing yourself, “Hi my names Larry, I’m a Christian, how’s your soul doing today?” It can be off putting. The thing is and this is true with almost everyone in the forefront of media.
The Christians you typically see in the media, tend to be the extreme. Kind of like Black Lives Matter idiots, they are a small majority, that are the loudest, dumbest and the ones the media likes to put on camera. Were the majority tends to not get heard. I have friends who are gay and lesbian, who know I’m a Christian and sometimes ask for advice and ask for prayer when life issues come up. I’ve been on the end of harassed by the best police, LA PD, but I know cops who are amazing, who gave me a break and great advice, this guys your rarely see in media.
Christian Gamers, for the most part, identify themselves so that when people are looking for specific games done by Christian they’re easier to find and least that what think, not all of them do label themselves.
Look your entitled to your opinion and your world view. I think it just needs investors and someone who will back their idea. The idea seems good and the Christian market has appetite and it’s hungry. Is it ready for this game ? Will the quality and game play be there ? Well, we are about to find out. I’m getting behind this game and funding it
ool, well I’m glad I introduced you to it then.
Stephanie,
I respect your opinion. However, to knock a potential game because of a certain religious theme is callous at best. Especially, since you then go on the attack and stereotype an entire religious belief (i.e. “I think Christianity has taken a few major hits in recent years what
with conflicts to do with homosexual marriage and the right to abortion”). Needless to say all Christians do not condemn homosexuals and some even support abortion rights.
You equate all games with a Christian theme to badly designed Mighty Morphen Power Ranger-like Christian children’s videos and video games and then give a free pass to video games based on other religions. Seems a little hypocritical, much less a gamut running through several logical fallacies (i.e. false dilemma, hasty generalization, poisoning the well, etc.). If you think Christianity can be boiled down solely to Bibleman, then you to reassess your knowledge of this religion.
To me you are not critiquing the game concept but rather you seem to have a certain anti-Christian mind frame and from that worldview you are bashing a game concept merely because you don’t care for Christianity. Ok, I get that. However, don’t pretend to be objective and think this is an objective position. All I ask for is some objectivity and removal of bias. Again, just my opinion based on your comments above.
BTW, though I have a Christian worldview. I am pretty center to left of center on the sociopolitical spectrum and I do not know who these developers are. I believe objectivity and logical arguments are more important than just blasting away at people because you don’t like their religious worldview. Just my two cents.
I’d just like to restate that I’m not picking on it because it is religious but because the people behind it do not seem very tech savvy and have put all of their funding into art instead of programming. I don’t think flaunting yourself as a zealous christian is a wise business decision since the world seems pretty hostile to christianity at the moment (and I think that is largely due to the opposition to gay rights and abortion).
I read through each of the team members bios and they don’t mention degrees in programming or a background in it. One of them is an art student and that’s about as high up the education ladder as I can see. So immediately I do not have much faith in the project much less when the quality control was the baby.
Also this was never meant to be a critique of the actual game it’s just an opinion/news piece about the project. If I was going to critique the game I would have barely anything to go on apart from rolling my eyes at the fact that the one girl of the party is of course a pretty princess damsel in distress with a ‘darkness’ in her that is probably going to be sin or something. The screenshot they gave was of her speaking back to her mother and I’m pretty sure that’s one of the christian no-nos. If I went on the information they gave about the actual game I would have next to nothing, but they talked about how they were christian and wanted to make the game christiany so I talked about that instead. It’s not meant to be an attack on christianity, Sure I have enough reason to hate christians considering homophobic slander and religious parents was the main reason one of my friends took their life, but their are good and bad people in the world.
I love how just discussing the stereotypes, or discussing why marketing yourself as christian might be a poor business decision immediately has people jumping to the conclusion that I’m anti-christian I care very little about religion in general, God has never appeared for me or saved my friends from abuse or suicide, he didn’t stop my baby brother dying in his crib and he didn’t stop my friend hanging herself with a dog choke chain. So, I shan’t pray to him, but no i’m not anti-christian, but I don’t think discussing cultural stigma should be taboo just because it is about someones religion. Maybe I was too clinical looking at it from a business standpoint, but I really don’t care which of the thousands of deities someone worships.There is a stigma around christianity and Islam and even though the game is now funded I still think that stigma will follow it in non-religious circles.
We all have had tragedies in our lives and in no way minimize yours. I have had friends and aqiantences commit suicide as well. My best friend died tragically when his moped ran head on into a bus. I had another friend die from cancer yesterday. I will not getting into a religious discussion of trying to explain why God allows these tragedies to occur. However, these are tangential at best to your opinion piece on a game being developed by Christians. Since you seemingly care not about the beliefs of the developers you automatically dismiss anything they do as an utter failure due to the negative attention Christianity has received by the press and public. I am pretty sure the Bible itself says that faith in God is not understood or well received by the world. So in fact you are proving the point. At any regards, my intention is not to get into a bitter debate but rather to say that we all should be less intolerant (including Christians). I wish you the best, take care.
So…let me get this straight…
Because this game is an allegory to Jesus, this game isn’t going to do well? Why? What objective evidence do you have for this?
You repeatedly state that this whole thing makes you feel “cringy”. What does that even mean? Why is someone’s certainty of faith in Jesus a problem for you. You refer to them as “those really religious people…” And your only semi-objective comparison are Bibleman and rappin’ for Jesus. Obviously, you haven’t experienced the higher productions that are out there. Granted, the quality of Christian productions have been seriously behind for many years, but if that’s all you know about, the best I can give you is that you simply have never come across the better productions that do exist (dc Talk, TobyMac, Newsboys, Angel Wars, and VeggieTales to name a few). At worst, you’ve been intentionally digging large holes to bury your head in.
But what doesn’t make sense is how you immediately ostracize Christianity for even attempting to find its own nitch in entertainment media and yet you give unwavering passes to other religions. The difference? Other religious presentations are made in overtones rather than the unabashed manner that Christian material has been. Sorry (not really), we don’t like to sugarcoat the honest message of the Gospel. The ultimate problem, though, is not with the developers wanting to make a Christian game, but your assumptions that it’s not going to be anything better than Bibleman.
You also make the completely unfair and unjustified argument that Christianity is somehow at fault for the conflict with homosexual and abortion issues. Christianity has NEVER supported those issues and has always advocated for human rights (of which gay marriage is not included…seriously, ask yourself where human rights come FROM) and the right to life. It’s the rest of the world that wants to have its cake an eat it, too. And yet you think that this is a popularity contest? That really goes to show how little you understand what Christianity is about. We aren’t out to win favor with the world, compromising the truth all to be liked. And given that the project was already 50% funded by the time you wrote this ridiculous article, clearly being unpopular isn’t stopping people from seeing the value of having higher quality games out there in the Christian sub-market of gaming.
You already admitted that you’ve “have your doubts” about a game you’ve not even played! No, you’re not “a little biased”; you’re EXTREMELY biased. You criticized a project you know little about. You dismissed it all because of a couple of poor examples of Christian media and because it’s Christian at all. You made huge generalizations based not on the game, itself, but because of your own anti-Christian mentality. You express no issues with other religious, citing simply that obscure examples find their way into games (which really makes me wonder how much of a gamer you really are considering that there are many games out there with much more than just “obscure” religious references).
You’ve prejudged this game completely beyond reason. But that’s you’re issue to deal with. In the meantime, Jesus gets the last word: the game is now fully funded because of your pathetic nonsense. And it didn’t take St Jude (who’s dead, by the way…he can’t be reached. Jesus, however, is very much alive).
Jesus is alive?
The empty tomb and thousands of witnesses that saw him walking the earth after the crucifixion would suggest that yes, indeed, Jesus is VERY much alive.
Just too be clear, my reasons for thinking it will be unsuccessful are mainly because they are spending their budget almost entirely on art without any on programming, bug testing, advertising, or ANYTHING else. Then on top of that they were very open about being Christian which I think might be a mistake since today’s world has become increasingly more hostile towards openly religious Christians. I come from Ireland, which is a very Christian country and over the past few years out of all the religions two have been entirely demonised, Christianity and Islam. England, Ireland, Germany, I think quite a few places in America, have taken a more liberal lean to things especially homosexuality and abortion as just two hot topics that stereotypically Christians oppose (Muslims too, but it has become a taboo of sorts to discuss it for some reason, while christians remain fair game). The fact that that stereotype exists is why I think it was not the wisest decision.
Think of it like feminism, a lot of people will see feminism look at the dictionary definitition and say “wow this is a great thing” but then they look at the radicals covering themself in menstraul blood, attacking guys, calling people scum and then those people become heavily associated with the movement. None of the Women Against Feminism are against equality their against the rabid radicals associated with feminism. Same with christianity, Christian virtues are mostly okay in my book, there’s the odd thing I would object to I i don’t really buy into the whole magic snake apple bit, but mostly my values aign with christian one, yet it’s going to always be tarnished by rads.People who hate homosexuals, don’t want evolution taught in school etc rads. Same with muslims too, there are going to be bomb jokes about them for years because of the rads. You see what I’m saying?
Personally, I have never had any bad experience with Muslims, I’ve had a few “you’ll burn in hell for supporting the gayz” and the death of a close friend directly associated with Christianity though, so like I said I might be biased.But just from a business standpoint aligning yourself with a political party or religion is risky unless you plan to just deliver to that audience. Anyway between the 29 people backing the game they have funding, if I helped that happen in anyway than kudos to me. I won’t decry them a chance to prove me wrong I welcome it, in fact I HOPE they prove me wrong and make a great game so I can play it.
Also curious as to what religions you mostly see in video games. I was thinking that bioshock does have a heavy christian theme, but I think that is more of a negative thing than positive. I honestly can’t think of many positive examples of christianity in gaming, you get the occasional demon name or things like the leviathan which is like old testament stuff rather than what most christians follow but I think that sort of counts (?) if not I can’t really think of any new testament examples I’m afraid.
Did it ever occur to you that they may have OTHER funds designated for the other aspects of the game? You are only looking at how the developers plan to use the KICKSTARTER funds. That doesn’t automatically mean that there are no other funds available. Did you even make an effort to research before writing this article?
Usually if a developer has other funds they would state so (Or have someone on their team qualified to program and not just say they were going to do everything themselves). It’s a selling point for a game to have already been partially developed so if they were wise they’d mention it if it were true. I’m expecting RPG Maker to be honest…
Anyway, I hope they prove me wrong! It’d be cool to have a good game with Christian virtues rather than just another thing to add to the cringe pile. 🙂 I can’t wait to read the reviews. I’m happy that my little article was so influential
BioShock has no Christian theme at all. In fact it is loosely based on the writings of Anne Raynd (Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead) who was an avid athiest. Bioshock is in fact about the failings of a godless and amoral society. It shows the failings of Raynd’s moral relativism. Raynd considered altruism as the greatest evil and unfettered, egotistic capitalism it’s greatest virtue. Bioshock shows the failings of this type of thinking and belief in that the utopian atheist society of Rapture becomes a living hell underneath the sea. However, the game in no way espouses Christianity as a valid alternative nor mentions any aspects of the Christian faith.
Unfortunately there those in every religion and worldview who are intolerant of others. Christianity is not an exception. However to stereotype all Christians for the views of a few is not correct either.
Thank you for the negative review of a game that you have never even played, yet still feel qualified to shoot down. Largely because of this review the game is now FUNDED! God can take an attack against His people and turn it into a great victory. This is just a small example of how He does this all the time. God is GOOD!!
??? I haven’t reviewed it yet? Cool my little article was enough to get the game funded? Perhaps I should change my name to Jude, or bible woman. Isn’t a good thing I wrote about it… Hmm maybe /I/ was the divine intervention I said they needed, how cool is that!? Does that make me the holy spirit or a spirit of intervention? Perhaps developers should start praying to me… or preferably emailing Monday-Friday since I’m not psychic. Of course I am simply an instruments of the divine one-may you be touched by his noodly appendage. R’amen
If this isn’t a review, then what is it? You feel comfortable stating that it is clear that the developers don’t know what they are doing (which sounds suspiciously like a “review” type of statement), despite the fact that there is no way you could have played even five minutes worth of the actual game. You are making your opinion based SOLELY on the fact that the developers make it plain that the game is designed to “edify Christ.” The fact is you have never given the game a chance, simply because you seem to be convinced that nothing “Christian” can be of any quality.
Or because they’re spending their whole budget on art and don’t have a qualified programmer and the quality checker is a baby??? Can’t make a game on faith alone. The christian themes are just the icing on the cake. It’s a touchy subject and is bound to polarise at least some of the audience a bit. That’s just the way things are right now and christianity has been demonised a lot by the media in recent years. I still think it was a very unwise business decision to be so loud about their faith, but hopefully things go well for them. By the way it is a news/opinion piece. You can’t review something you haven’t played only speculate.
Well, I would hardly call it “news” since that would require the “reporter” (you) to have at least made some effort into verifying facts before making the report. At best this is like gossip column piece. You assume that the only funds for the game are coming from the Kickstarter campaign, simply because the Kickstarter page only states how the KICKSTARTER funds are being allocated. Did you even make any effort to contact the developers and ask them how the other aspects of creating the game are being financed and developed? Or did you simply read over the Kickstarter page and assume you knew all there was to know about it?
As for the quality checker being a baby, you can’t actually be serious about critiquing the project based on that. It is pretty obvious that THAT was a joke. This is a start up company run by a husband/wife team, and the Kickstarter page was created by an obviously proud Papa, who loves showing off his son, and thought that it would be a funny way to do so.
Well since I have confirmed my suspicion about this being an RPG Maker game, I think it’s pretty safe to assume I’m right about funding. Since my little piece informed a particularly zealous person who then funded the whole project I think it’s safe to say it’s still News/Opinion. As for the baby joke, it’s misplaced at best. If they were a team of skilled programmers, musicians and bug testers etc then I’d laugh at the baby being the quality checker. But it’s a husband and wife with no qualifications they care to put up on the page and an art student. If they’d put a downloadable demo the page or something that showed they new their ass from their elbow in term of programming skill then I’d have changed me tune. But they didn’t, and they have 31 backers, which is extraordinarily low and since I know some of the backers I know some are just backing it to watch it fail.
I’m flattered that someone cares enough about my opinion to drop 3k on an rpg maker game just to prove me wrong XD. Makes me feel powerful
I just wanted to comment to express my opinion, and to clear up some things.
First of all, I genuinely want to thank you for writing this piece! Positive or negative, I do appreciate that you took the time to write about it at all. I think it is incredibly helpful for potential backers to have a place like this where they can hear opinions about a project from someone who has seen a LOT of projects succeed/fail, and make a more educated decision.
I totally get that being so upfront about my faith in presenting this project may not have been the smartest move if I was trying to appeal to the masses, but I did make the conscious decision that if I was going to do this at all, I was going to be 100% honest about why I was doing it, and WHO I was doing it for. Yes, your suspicions were correct that this IS an RPG Maker game. I will be the first to admit that. I personally LOVE some RPG Maker games I have played, especially To the Moon, and I am SO excited to get my hands on YANTH! My goal was to make a classic styled RPG, and RPG Maker seemed like the logical choice, allowing me to not have to spend a lot of money on programming. Do I have a long list of programming credentials, or a background in the gaming industry, no. I am just a determined father and gamer who wanted to leave something positive for his son. Will this game suck? I sure hope not! I also PRAY that is doesn’t at all resemble Bibleman, lol! Time will tell, and God willing, it will be something that shows His love to at least one person.
I plan to release a 1 hour demo sometime this week (just waiting on one more character’s artwork) for people to play to see what they think. I will make sure I email you a copy of it, and if you get a chance to play it, great, and if not, that’s great too! You may love it, and you may hate it. I’d love to know either way! Constructive criticism is always helpful 😀
I also wanted to say that I never expected or intended things to get heated on here, lol! I just wanted to let you know that my opinion is that you have yours, and I appreciate you taking the time to share it all!
God Bless!
It’s all good Craig. I have no issue with you, your religion or your game. I just think that being so open about your faith excludes a lot of potential backers and later consumers. For the past 5 years I have noticed a distinct hatred for openly religious people (especially Christians and Muslims). I never meant to suggest I personally hated Christians as so many of the people who have emailed me have insinuated while wishing me on my merry way to the afterlife. I simply recognize that it is controversial, and polarizing and that is what I wanted to convey.
Before even writing this article I tried to clear my mind of any prejudices I may have. I know I have many reasons to be against Christianity, but even though I will never forget the people I have lost because of it, I still try to judge people on things outside of colour, creed, and sexuality.
I grew up in Ireland and behind our school was a mass grave for unbaptised babies and sailors, who weren’t allowed to be buried in Church grounds. My religion teacher would tell us with relish they were burning in hell and that anyone who didn’t take communion would suffer similarly. Christianity has not left many good impressions on my life so I am aware that my experiences may not be shared by all.
I still think many people have a bias against Christianity, especially those who have been on the receiving end of the hate. That is what I meant when I felt it had taken blows recently, since the Christians were among the most vocal who opposed gay marriage and were written off as bigots and those against abortion were written off a misogynists. I wanted to address what I felt was a mistake on your part and I shared this article across many platforms asking people their opinions on Christianity in gaming vs Obscure religions because I was genuinely interested in what people thought about the topic. I was always willing to be wrong.
It isn’t the first time in my career I have caused controversy, but hate mail aside I also received some less vitriolic messages and passive aggressive “I’ll pray for you” and support on social media. Hate doesn’t bother me any more, because I know that I do far more good than harm in my day today, and I do it out of love not fear of damnation. If I’m fated for hell, then I will not beg for forgiveness as so many told me I will, I will accept it knowing I tried to the best of my ability to be righteous. In the end we all won, you got funding and I got many opinions for my article and my appearance.
I try to be honest in what I write and sometimes I am harsh (a lot of the time probably), mainly because that is how I like news delivery to me. I have never been one for sugar coating things and just want the truth with no add-ons. I feel happy that my article had enough influence to get you funded and all I really want you to do is prove me wrong. My opinions have not really changed, but it appears St.Jude really followed through with this one so don’t waste it. Make a great game, invest in some programming skills and I’ll be first in line at the Steam shop.
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
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