Pathfinding in Life and Games
How do you find your way in life? In video game development, we use pathfinding algorithms and steering behaviors to move characters around. Looking at Paul's life, it appears God uses similar techniques.
Enjoying Order
It feels good to organize and create order, whether in the real world or a game world. It seems woven into our DNA, but why do we enjoy it, and where does this desire come from?
Beautifully Useless
When you hear the word useless, how does it land on you? You probably wouldn’t take it as a compliment if someone said it about you or your profession.
Authenticity In Games
Artistic authenticity is a complex idea. To begin with, the word authentic has several meanings. Additionally, it is subjective to individual interpretation; this makes the conversation nuanced even before introducing the creative element.
Are You Building Your Game on the Sand?
Jesus told the story of a man who built his house upon some sand, and the results were disastrous. What are the chances you are building your game on the sand?
Regenerative Game Development
Regenerative agriculture is a farming approach and spiritual discipline that prioritizes the health and fertility of the land, as well as the well-being of the people who work it. Could there be a regenerative approach to game development, and if so, what would it look like?
A Theology of Play
It's hard to describe the joy a father feels seeing his children at play, but I can tell you it's real, and I know that God feels it, too.
The Problem With Christian Games
Christian games don’t have a great reputation. In fact, some laughably bad games were published under the label “Christian.” Why is that?
The Beauty of Games
Games have the capacity to beautiful, to be meaningful. But locating that beauty and meaning is not easy.
Where’s The Love? — The Church and Games
In many ways, my adolescent relationships are like the church's relationship with games—lacking.
Goals and Infinite Runners
Infinite runners are the best metaphor for my thinking on goals at the moment. I have trouble with goals because of the tension between the finite and the infinite, the concrete and the ephemeral.
Fighting Over The Controller
As a child, it wasn't uncommon for fights to break out over the controller, and sometimes, those fights would escalate into full-blown wrestling matches. As an adult, I realize I’ve been wrestling with God over the control of my life.
Breaking The Fear of Failure
Through play, we break the spell the enemy has us under and start to see the truth about failure, which is that it isn't to be feared and avoided but to be embraced and learned from as a step toward our purpose.
Hypocrisy In Game Design
No one wants to be a hypocrite, yet everyone knows they are at times. We were made in the image of God, who is unchanging, faithful, trustworthy, and perfectly consistent. So, we expect this consistency from all our interactions.
Selling Safety
Have you ever noticed how many Christian products' unique selling point is safety? It's a little weird when you think about it. The Bible is anything but safe.
The Christian Game Developers Conference
For the past twenty years, CGDC has been a gathering place for Christian game makers worldwide. Though small in attendance, the conference has had an outsized impact on its attendees.
Uniquely Equipped To Love Our Culture
Christian game developers are uniquely equipped to love and minister to our culture in this time of instability, mistrust, and continuous hustle.
Endurance
You may have heard it says that life is a marathon, not a sprint. It's an apt metaphor, especially when trying to follow Christ. When I read the writings of Paul and Peter, the race they describe doesn't sound like a fun run or a couch to 5K or even a 100-meter dash. It's an endurance race requiring perseverance through tests, challenges, and setbacks.
Daddy, Will You Play This Game With Me?
Daddy, will you play this game with me is such a simple, innocent, and intimate question that I was struck with its profoundness when my friend Mitchell said he uses that question as a filter for his design process.
Games Are About Relationships
I was recently on a call that gathered a group of brothers across various vocations. There were ministry leaders, educators, administrators, and game developers, all of whom loved Jesus and liked games. As we chatted and shared our stories and work, I was struck by one idea: games are about relationships.
- 1 Corinthians
- Abundance
- Acts
- Agency
- Algorithms
- Art
- Authenticity
- Authority
- Babel
- Beauty
- Blame
- Bugs
- C.S. Lewis
- CGDC
- Christian Games
- Church
- Colossians
- Community
- Complexity
- Conflict
- Constraints
- Control
- Corinthians
- Creation
- Creativity
- Culture
- David
- Discouragement
- Diversity
- Doubt
- Ecclesiastes
- Endurance
- Evangelism
- Exodus
- Failure
- Flourishing
- Free Will
- Fruit
- G.K. Chesteron
- Game Design
- Generosity
- Genesis
- Goals
- Hebrews
- Honor
- Hospitality
- Humility
- Hypocrisy
- Identity
- Interview
- Isaiah
- James
- Jeremiah
- Jesus
- John
- Joy
- Judges
- Language
- Lies
- Loss
- Love
- Matthew
- Missions
- Mobile
- Moses
- Pathfinding
- Paul
- Peace
- Perspective
- Play
- Poetry
- Power
- Prayer
- Pride
- Priorities
- Programming
- Proverbs
- Psalms
- Relationships
- Romans
- Safety
- Shame
- Sin
- Soma
- Stewardship
- Storytelling
- Success
- Testimony
- Theology
- Timothy
- Truth
- Uncertainty
- Video
- Violence
- Vulnerability
- War
- Wisdom
- Work
- Worship
- Zechariah