POSTED: Feb 14, 2003 - 23:35:28 PST

God in the machine?

Local designer is part of a new trend: Christian video gaming

By Carol Reeves
Gazette-Times reporter

Tim Emmerich works hard during the day as an engineer at Hewlett-Packard Co. But after hours, this 35-year-old husband and father of two often retreats to what his wife Jane teasingly calls "the cave," a converted room in their garage, to tinker with his computer.

Wedged between bookshelves and bulging cardboard boxes filled with hundreds of computer and video games for inspiration, Tim Emmerich has spent many a night pursuing a five-year-old dream of creating his own computer game.

But this isn't just any game. Emmerich is one of a growing number of Christian game enthusiasts committed to developing more wholesome fare than the blood and gore many computer and video games offer today.

A work in progress

"Jarod's Journey" is what the gaming industry calls an interactive fiction game. A player reads about the adventures of a young man in the first century who is told by his dying father, a Roman centurion, to find out who Jesus is and report back to him before he passes away. The player then becomes Jarod and chooses where he will travel and who he will contact by typing commands to which the software responds. With seven different locations and several characters, such as a shepherd boy, a shopkeeper and a sail maker, the possibilities are endless.

No one attacks or kills anyone else. There's no profanity or promiscuity. Just an opportunity to explore the world of early Christianity.

"My desire is to share Jesus. But the hard part is you don't know where the person sitting down at the computer is in their Christian walk," said Emmerich, an active member of the Circle Church of Christ. "I just pray that no matter who sits down to play, they get closer to God."

"Jarod's Journey" can be played by downloading it from Emmerich's Web site, www.

GraceWorksInteractive.com.

Only three of the cities Jarod seeks during his mission are fully "populated" at this point — Capernaum, Nazareth and Caesarea. Jerusalem will be next. Emmerich also wants to improve the game's graphics and sound effects. Someday, he'd like to create a 3-D version; the final step will be to develop a printable Bible study curriculum that will correspond to each player's ability and activities in the game.

Jordan Strawn helped Emmerich test the game in its early stages when he was a member of the youth group at Circle Church of Christ. Now a sophomore at Oregon State University, he says it's a little tough to get into at first, but "Jarod's Journey" is still rewarding.

"It takes a little more dedication than just moving around and clicking the mouse because you have to think about what you would do in different situations. It makes you think about important questions about the Bible and God," he said. "But at the end, you feel like you've accomplished a lot more than just going around shooting things."

Game options

Emmerich is the first to admit "Jarod's Journey" won't appeal to everybody, since it relies more on a player's imagination than dexterity. Most game enthusiasts are attracted to flashy products like action adventure, first-person shooter or role-play simulation games.

Popular Christian versions of these kinds of games exist as well. "Catechumen" challenges players to rescue their fellow Christians trapped in the catacombs during the Roman persecution. "Saints of Virtue" provides the player with the "full armor of God" and scrolls of truth to fight enemies of the heart such as pride, fear and vanity.

"Catechumen," developed by a team in Medford, has sold about 40,000 copies in the last two years. "Saints of Virtue" reports online sales of about 25,000.

Electronic Christian games have been around since the 1980s, but the industry is just now beginning to gain more exposure. The Wall Street Journal carried a front-page story Dec. 17 — including a reference to "Jarod's Journey" — that estimated the emerging industry's sales could reach $200 million this year.

Emmerich thinks that figure is too optimistic, but shows the enormous popularity of video and computer games.

"People like the way they offer instant feedback," he said. "TV is totally passive, and with books, yes, you choose to read the next page, but games are the extreme of interactivity.

"Some people will never pick up a game that's overtly Christian," he continued.

But there are some like "Eternal War: Shadows of Light" (which takes place in the mind of a suicidal teen) that aren't marketed as a Christian game, but can still cause people to think about spiritual matters.

Promoting the industry

When he's not refining his own game, Emmerich works on a central Web site, www.ChristianGamesNow.com, that offers information about games for all ages and links to the Web site of each game's developer. He also writes game reviews for various Web sites and single-handedly organized the first Christian Game Developers Conference in Portland last year, an event that will be repeated July 25 through 27.

Christian game developers are looking forward to the opportunity to network and discuss how to strengthen their industry, Emmerich explained. Most are still self-published and can only be found online.

Only a few of the most popular ones are found in Christian bookstores or, on occasion, in large superstores like Wal-Mart.

The bottom line for most Christian game developers, however, is not the number of sales they generate but how many people actually play their games. Knowing "Jarod's Journey" may be making a difference in someone's life is what keeps Emmerich going.

"This is more of a creative outlet and a ministry for me, rather than a business," he said.

"The industry has definitely touched lives. We just won't know how much until we get to heaven."

Carol Reeves covers religion for the Gazette-Times. She can be reached by e-mail at reevesc@gtconnect.com or by phone at 758-9516.