R
randyness
Guest
I read on this forum where someone posted questions about our video game, its development, and what we were trying to do.
My name is Randy Blackwell. I am the CEO of Lamplight Media, and this is a bit of a long story. But I promise to post links with pretty pictures in them in hopes of keeping your attention. I grew up on comic books so I know pics help. ***oops, tried to post links but had to remove them to make the posts... sorry
Before I was a Christian I ran Dungeons and Dragons games for a good six years. When I got saved, I found these games too dark for me to play even in a redeemed manner with redeemed characters. The fantasy worlds were just to dark. Six months after getting saved I met my wife-to-be and joined the Air Force where the Lord put me at Tinker Air Force Base. In that time I met many Christians who had the same issue with D&D and even video games in general.
When I went TDY to Alaska for a month and a half, my wife went home to Greenville, SC to show the family our new baby. When I got back, I was informed that she was sick and couldnt take the flight. I got permission from my commander to take the van and pick her up. Before I took the 18 hour journey, I prayed and promised that I would stop at a hotel the moment I started to get tired.
An hour into the trip a story started to unfold in my mind. A story of a King who sends adventurers on a journey to retrieve a sword that has been stolen from a great red dragon. As the hours went by the story started to snowball and get larger and larger. I finished the 18 hour trip without getting tired. I was so excited that I told my dad who lived in Greenville. He told me I needed to make it into a video game.
When we got back home, I contacted my Pastor (Ken Merrihew of Calvary Chapel Oklahoma City). We sat down and discussed the idea and he thought it would be a great idea for me to run the game as a dice based game for a youth group lock-in.
So at the lock-in, I ran a 6-8 hour game. Afterward all the teens and youth leaders approached me very seriously and said that I needed to make it into a video game and that there were no Christian Video Games out there that had that kind of story so rich with symbolism.
The rest of this story is quite amazing and its on our website. The short of it is that I spent two years working on a fantasy world full to the brim with symbolism. Then, when I got out of the Air Force, I sought investment. I was challenged to try to do it without investment. Since that day. I have had over 53 artists, programmers, writers, etc touch this project because they saw the massive potential it had.
I have been working with interns across America, advisors in the industry, and friends who have the experience and know-how. But without funding its been a long hard road. Its taken over a year to develop a demo that should have taken no more than six months. But one can only get so far with volunteers and interns. Still, as I stand back and look at what the Lord has done I am amazed. We have developed over 100 assets for a demo in a video game engine and animated 4-5 of them. We are still working on it and will continue to with or without funding. There is so much more that I could tell you about how the Lord got us to where we are, but I want to tell you some about the game (which is a passion for me).
Soterion is a Christian Fantasy world with a rich two thousand year history spread across seven kindoms reaching 13+ races (some new and some re-invented). There is a Christ figure in the world of Soterion, rich symbolism, and parabolic teaching. We also found a way to put an interactive Bible in a video game with a fantasy setting that isnt silly and actually fits perfectly. We made a Christian Roleplaying Game Book for Soterion that is a dice/pen/paper based game where the narrator sets the tone and mood of the game while spinning the story. Each player creates their own character with a background or the narrator assigns characters. You, as the player, act out your character and where there are any form of confrontations you roll dice, using the stats on your character sheet to resolve them.
This works really well for parable like adventures and there is alot of spiritual symbolism and secrets of Soterion.
We are also in the making of a video game. It will be a stand alone Roleplaying Game with capability to play multi-player but not online (we plan to do an MMO but that will require major success on our first game). In the video game you go around performing quests and defeating enemies in order to earn experience points that you use to level your character as you go. Every time you level you can get different abilities.
We have also written a novel based in Soterion. This helps give a view of the fantasy world and what it is like.
An example of some of the hidden theological meaning and symbolism in the game is the race called the Showrad. Showr is the Hebrew word for bull and Adam is the Hebrew word for man. Showradam is the ancient tongue for that race in Soterion, it has since been shortened to Showrad. In the Bible the sacrificial bull was to be a symbol of Christ's sacrifice for us long before His coming. In Soterion the Showrad have an ability to make their final stand for all the members of their party. If the party is losing a battle and it looks like everyone will die, the Showrad character may declair his final stand. The party will be allowed to escape the battle while the Showrad sacrifices his life for the lives of his party. All of the races of Soterion have different aspects and gifts that represent God's nature.
I hope all of this gives you a good idea of the background and potential for a game like this. if you want to find out more about us its at soterion dot com. Thanks!
My name is Randy Blackwell. I am the CEO of Lamplight Media, and this is a bit of a long story. But I promise to post links with pretty pictures in them in hopes of keeping your attention. I grew up on comic books so I know pics help. ***oops, tried to post links but had to remove them to make the posts... sorry
Before I was a Christian I ran Dungeons and Dragons games for a good six years. When I got saved, I found these games too dark for me to play even in a redeemed manner with redeemed characters. The fantasy worlds were just to dark. Six months after getting saved I met my wife-to-be and joined the Air Force where the Lord put me at Tinker Air Force Base. In that time I met many Christians who had the same issue with D&D and even video games in general.
When I went TDY to Alaska for a month and a half, my wife went home to Greenville, SC to show the family our new baby. When I got back, I was informed that she was sick and couldnt take the flight. I got permission from my commander to take the van and pick her up. Before I took the 18 hour journey, I prayed and promised that I would stop at a hotel the moment I started to get tired.
An hour into the trip a story started to unfold in my mind. A story of a King who sends adventurers on a journey to retrieve a sword that has been stolen from a great red dragon. As the hours went by the story started to snowball and get larger and larger. I finished the 18 hour trip without getting tired. I was so excited that I told my dad who lived in Greenville. He told me I needed to make it into a video game.
When we got back home, I contacted my Pastor (Ken Merrihew of Calvary Chapel Oklahoma City). We sat down and discussed the idea and he thought it would be a great idea for me to run the game as a dice based game for a youth group lock-in.
So at the lock-in, I ran a 6-8 hour game. Afterward all the teens and youth leaders approached me very seriously and said that I needed to make it into a video game and that there were no Christian Video Games out there that had that kind of story so rich with symbolism.
The rest of this story is quite amazing and its on our website. The short of it is that I spent two years working on a fantasy world full to the brim with symbolism. Then, when I got out of the Air Force, I sought investment. I was challenged to try to do it without investment. Since that day. I have had over 53 artists, programmers, writers, etc touch this project because they saw the massive potential it had.
I have been working with interns across America, advisors in the industry, and friends who have the experience and know-how. But without funding its been a long hard road. Its taken over a year to develop a demo that should have taken no more than six months. But one can only get so far with volunteers and interns. Still, as I stand back and look at what the Lord has done I am amazed. We have developed over 100 assets for a demo in a video game engine and animated 4-5 of them. We are still working on it and will continue to with or without funding. There is so much more that I could tell you about how the Lord got us to where we are, but I want to tell you some about the game (which is a passion for me).
Soterion is a Christian Fantasy world with a rich two thousand year history spread across seven kindoms reaching 13+ races (some new and some re-invented). There is a Christ figure in the world of Soterion, rich symbolism, and parabolic teaching. We also found a way to put an interactive Bible in a video game with a fantasy setting that isnt silly and actually fits perfectly. We made a Christian Roleplaying Game Book for Soterion that is a dice/pen/paper based game where the narrator sets the tone and mood of the game while spinning the story. Each player creates their own character with a background or the narrator assigns characters. You, as the player, act out your character and where there are any form of confrontations you roll dice, using the stats on your character sheet to resolve them.
This works really well for parable like adventures and there is alot of spiritual symbolism and secrets of Soterion.
We are also in the making of a video game. It will be a stand alone Roleplaying Game with capability to play multi-player but not online (we plan to do an MMO but that will require major success on our first game). In the video game you go around performing quests and defeating enemies in order to earn experience points that you use to level your character as you go. Every time you level you can get different abilities.
We have also written a novel based in Soterion. This helps give a view of the fantasy world and what it is like.
An example of some of the hidden theological meaning and symbolism in the game is the race called the Showrad. Showr is the Hebrew word for bull and Adam is the Hebrew word for man. Showradam is the ancient tongue for that race in Soterion, it has since been shortened to Showrad. In the Bible the sacrificial bull was to be a symbol of Christ's sacrifice for us long before His coming. In Soterion the Showrad have an ability to make their final stand for all the members of their party. If the party is losing a battle and it looks like everyone will die, the Showrad character may declair his final stand. The party will be allowed to escape the battle while the Showrad sacrifices his life for the lives of his party. All of the races of Soterion have different aspects and gifts that represent God's nature.
I hope all of this gives you a good idea of the background and potential for a game like this. if you want to find out more about us its at soterion dot com. Thanks!
