Review: Bongo Loves the Bible

Bongo Loves the Bible CD is a "Bible Knowledge" 3D adventure game from Sunday Software. We made it to fill a HUGE hole in the Christian software offerings: a game "about" the Bible that wasn't just a pile of Bible trivia. read more about it at (www.sundaysoftware.com/bongo)

Question: How many priest did Saul kill at Nob?

Answer: Who cares. Knowing this isn't going to make you a better Christian!

Rather than trivia, we created 80 questions "about the Bible" that we thought every older elementary students and young teen SHOULD know the answer to. Bongo's four level Bible game has questions like: "What does the word 'Gospel' mean?" and "What were the names of Abraham's two sons?" and "Which book of the Bible is a collection of poems and lyrics?" We researched our 80 questions using a number of "about the Bible" curriculums and books published by a number of denominations. The 80 questions are split into four levels. Bongo runs through the

But Bongo Loves the Bible CD doesn't stop there. Also included is a game about the Books of the Bible.. where Bongo must jump on them in the correct order to cross a canyon and win the treasure chest.

Bongo Loves the Bible CD also has a game about "How the Bible Came to Be" (great for Confirmation classes), and yet another game about "How does the Bible describe itself?" ...light, lamp, treasure, etc.

All these games take place in a 3d environment. Students navigate Bongo through jungles and caves and canyons using their keyboard. Bongo is occasionally chased by Surf Mummies and Bongo-eating plants, which he can repel by slingshotting bananas at them!

Some older gamers will think the game is too easy, and it probably is. We made it for play in a church environment where, on average, students only have 40 minutes of class time to use the computer. We also made it to run on older Windows 98/Me/XP computers... which is the typical kind you'll find in a church or kid's home computer in their bedroom.

For more info go to www.sundaysoftware.com/bongo

<>< Neil

Where O Where is the Christian Game Software?

The 1990's were the heyday of Christian software development. But other than our 15 or so new titles since 2002, and a couple of other nice titles from other developers, the Christian software market has failed to grow. In fact, most of the developers from the late 90's and early 2000's have moved on.

Why?
Economics ...Some producers tried to develop Christian titles like they developed secular titles ...with big budgets and teams of developers. However, the sales of their product never allowed them to keep such a business model going.

Bad decisions ...at one point we kept count of all the Noah software that had come out. We were up to 16! (Thankfully, most are gone and forgotten). Some poor apples spoiled the barrel too. Worse, some of the big $$ projects aimed at teen boys and young adult males --trying to compete against $50 million dollar Halo and Gears of War titles. Whereas, most ignored the preschool and early reader market.

Poor distribution channels. ...Bookstores don't want software that's two years old. And they don't know how to sell software from a shelf. ONline stores often only tell you a little bit about the software.

"Failure to Embrace" ...the Church talks about negatives in the culture, such as violent games, but does little to support the non-violent Christian game industry.

What's needed?
We need the denominations and their publishing arms to embrace this medium. They have a built in need to educate their young people, a sales and marketing apparatus, and the "imprimatur" of their name behind the product (i.e. if it comes from the Methodist Publishing House, 14 million Methodists will trust it). EXAMPLE: Every denomination has a need to teach Church history to young people, especially with those annual Confirmation programs. Why is there no interactive Church history program or online interactive presentation?

Every denomination sells Bible books to children. Why then aren't they ALSO backing an interactive Bible for children?

Part of the answer or 'reason' to all this is the Church is historically behind the times and underfunded for new initiatives. And as the rate of change speeds up in society, this makes the Church seem increasingly irrelevant and out of step with the needs of its members. Yet small developers ARE creating such resources and the internet is helping them distribute on their own (http://www.sundaysoftware.com/ is one such example!). The denom's should be partnering in this.

<>< Neil