The Bible is an interesting case: it's so deeply embedded into Western culture that we're all familiar with it on some level, even if we're not religious at all. It's part of our collective unconscious. At the same time, very few people are aware of what's actually on the page. Even in religious services, we'll often see just short excerpts or summaries, if we get anything at all. Other times, the stories just trickle down to us through the culture at large. But the thing is, if we haven't read the text closely, we can't think critically about its implications, and we can't often see the impact it continues to have on us.
So Chucklehead started exploring the Bible, and very quickly realized that it's a ridiculous gold mine of short video game concepts.
Practically speaking, the Bible is a collection of short stories or vignettes. Often they're very short indeed: the entire Tower of Babel story is just nine sentences. Each story is meant to be absorbed repeatedly, over a long period of time. Sometimes they contain multiple versions of the same event, like the two creation stories. Conflicts are always externalized, and we're often told explicitly who's righteous and who's wicked. Actions are simple and based in the physical world, but there's almost always a deeper thematic resonance. Due to the nature of the main character (God), the customary laws of physics and biology can be ignored to best suit the story.
They're largely a set of great, interesting stories. They're also, in many cases, deeply fucked-up and disturbing in a way that's hard to consciously grasp. Generally this makes them better, assuming you're into that sort of thing. However, to put it mildly, many of them are also extremely troubling on a moral/ethical level. That stuff is important to know about.
By making games about these stories -- which fall all along the spectrum in terms of being weird or unethical -- Chucklehead is both taking advantage of the interesting adaptability of Biblical stories and shining some light on a deep, strange part of our collective culture.
Note:
This particular series of Bible games was commissioned by a secretive organization called the Family Videogame Association of America. Chucklehead can't really get behind their political agenda, but since they gave us full creative control we were willing to compromise our core values. If you're having trouble passing the "morality test" that we were asked to include on some of our Bible games, please contact us for guidance.