Goal of Bringing Christian Game Design to the World

[JABHA_Creativity]

Hello, I am Jay Harrison, founder of JABHA Creativity. Here is the why, behind our organization and mission. I can educate others through games. Not only traditional subjects can be taught, but also character building traits. I am one of those back-in-the-day RPG players (Over 30 years). I have a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, minoring in English. I love to sell and market. I LOVE to teach: seven years teaching, five years tutoring college, MBA, and Law School students, prior youth pastor, etc. Let's merge this all together. You get a gamer that can educate and motivate.

It is not only my goal to design Christian themed games, but also create a Game Design School. There are a group of Philippine youth and young adults there want to learn game design. The only option they have in their community colleges is web design. There youth pastors and pastors in Liberia and Nigeria that yearn to reach the youth of these challenging areas with games; the youth have faith too much revolutionary strife. I actively Skype and message these daily. It is my goal to provide scholarship for those that want to learn game design, and also bring laptops and games to churches to have an additional ministry to outreach with.

We are a ministry family. JABHA is the first initial of the first name of each of us in birth order. J=Jay, A=Angie, B=Brittany, H=Haley, A=Aaron. Each of us has a different role in the organization. I am dean and game developer. Angie is the community outreach director. Brittany is the media director, and just began game design, Haley is a marketing associate, and Aaron is a tester. Yes, I am also an ordained minister. That's what happens when you play Dungeons & Dragons over thirty years ago as a neutral good cleric.

There is much more than educational games, Christian themed games, traditional RPGs, etc. available for us game designers and gamers. The Lord can given us a taste of creativity. We can also design games to compliment magazines (We are partnered with Mission Health Magazine). We can create games to help tourism. Businesses can use games to train their workers.

We are getting ready for a massive spearhead movement. A couple days before we have a fundraising project fro the school.

We appreciate any prayers and suggestions that you may offer.

Be blessed to be a blessing, in Jesus' Holy Name.

Brother Jay

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

Your first game appears to have been made in RPG Maker. Just a heads up but currently humble bundle has a sale on that here https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly . If you should desire to acquire more copies for your group it will never be cheaper unless they give it away free.

Also this contest http://contest.rpgmakerweb.com/ started two days ago. It's a good chance to hone your skills along with a sleight chance of winning a prize.

It's a noble goal starting a school but the frank truth is, in my opinion, you better improve your own skills more before thinking of doing so.

Hope it works out for you .

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

Hope that didn't come out cruel, sorry if it did XD. All you have to do is assess your product along side comparable ones and ask "do I want to play mine over theirs?" or "would others want to play it over what is out there?". Many Christian game makers seem to be sincere in their desire to make a game that glorifies God but I wonder if they ask that question.

EDIT: If you can't say you do just practice until you get better! You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!

 

[JABHA_Creativity]

Amen. Soak me with scripture, I receive it. I do not take your words as harsh. I have added instructors who are much better than my current skill level, in specific areas. With a big vision, surround yourself with those who have better skills than yourself, in very specific areas. The courses that I will work with are Creative Writing, the History of RPG, Business Math, and Marketing, which I already taught in the classroom before (except RPG History). I have others to deal with Ruby, RGSS3, Graphic Design, Mapping, etc. Can you tell that the "I Want to Game Design" was not done by me? it was does by one of our potential students.

What did you think about Solum Inquisition? The website was just put up yesterday. If I need to change the scene choices, it is best to know now. The fundraiser will focus on the airship game. It has some awesome music, by a Nordic composer, especially in the battle mode. I had some people watch the title screen for over a minute just for the music. Could you listen to the music here, at the beginning and at about the 1:00 mark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI3kQzOCbY4 . This is an old clip, before a lot of changes, but the music is still the same.

People of the Bible: Genesis is not aimed at the secular market, and is for a specific young age Bible School market. It too can be modified.

Thanks for the critiquing. I have time to do the changes, for the website and fundraising marketing. The eyes closest to you, within a team, sometimes do not see the little obvious things for being blinded by excitement. I believe in putting L.I.F.E. into my projects L ove I nfluence F aith and E xcellence. You helped a bunch with that E tonight.

I also appreciate the links. I will reread them again soon.

Thanks The Mighty Gerbil.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

The music in the video is decent enough but it's like the audio was not recorded directly off of the game. Like a video where the audio is recorded off of a television using a camcorder. It distorts at points as such. Probably sounds fine in game.

Ok if you want suggestions brace yourself XD...

On your web page:
1. Make it so you can click on the thumbnail screenshots of your games and go to higher resolution images. This is a standard practice. The ones on there are too small and low res to see much.

2. The web page in total seems low res and not made to scale to higher resolutions. Possibly made on a smaller older CRT monitor which is fine but it still could be made to scale.

3. I know you are in the Philippines but for a commercial product you may want to get someone with a better understanding of English to read through it. Like you pointed out "I want to game design". That needs to be "I want to design games". That is not the only type of this error present though and it makes a product appear, to native English speakers at least, as less than professional. Frankly it makes the whole thing look like a scam e-mail. The impression is only furthered by the young age of your website, Facebook and Youtube pages (The video was published 12 days ago, it's really not old at all).

4. It lacks a cohesive design.

On the game:
1. Title screen text is plain. This is the first thing people see when playing your game so you want it to not only be clear to read but POP too!

2. I could be wrong but it looks like it uses stock RPG maker assets alone. Battle system looks typical as well. Honestly it looks like an RPG maker game. Nothing horrible but nothing that stands out particularly either.

3. Writing in the game seems similar to the web page. The video looked like it started a new game but one is just thrown into the game with no context or introduction.

I can't really critic further as the video is short.

If it was a student showcase or a freelancer making a game it'd be fine but for a school asking for backing it looks like a scam. I'm sorry, I'm not saying that is what it is but that's how it looks. I think this is why game studios hold off showing products in extremely early development.

Many RPG maker games are free to download. Find a few popular ones and look at them then back at your game to see what you can improve .

 

[JABHA_Creativity]

Thanks so much for this input. A bunch of the potential students are from the Philippines, and I am from Louisiana, USA. You may laugh at what I about to reveal. I taught, in the United States, for over seven years. I even have six hours towards a Master's of Art in Teaching. Making that many grammatical and spelling errors is unacceptable, and I appreciate you for being honest enough to tell me.

The youtube video was made with a program that records the audio from external speakers and is poor in quality. Thanks for mentioning that. This is the only site that it has been linked to. As you can tell, the initial title screen was what came with the original RTP in RPG Maker VX Ace. The new title screen, which is seen on the website, has the airship rocking up and down, with the clouds moving in the background.

Need to acquire a better screenshot, too.

I praise God for what you posted. Deadlines can be pushed back. Something inside of me, had been holding off launching the global fundraiser. A ministry that appears to be a scam, is not what I want. There is a lot of work to be done. You do not know how much I appreciate what you have posted. You are blessed to be a blessing.