Musing on the difficulty of being an outsider in an industry that's indifferent, if not actively hostile, to the very values you hold dear, I contacted Digital Praise and arranged an interview with one of the founders. Call it the aftereffects of an angst-filled adolescence, but I always like talking to the outsider.
Peter Fokos is one of the founders of Digital Praise, and serves as their CTO/Creative Director. He has an insider's pedigree, with stints at Activision, Disney Interactive and even The Learning Company. When The Learning Company shut down their Fremont office, he was left looking for work. Around the same time, he tells me, "I had read a Wall Street Journal article about Christian games. [Being] a Christian in the game industry had been a challenge, as the games had become progressively [more] violent and obscene, so the idea of working on Christian games was very appealing."
He looked to an existing Christian game company first, but they lacked the resources to offer him a position. His wife suggested starting his own business and, he admits, "I was rather skeptical at first, but God kept opening doors for me [that] I didn't think would open. I also asked two friends I knew from my church to join me: Tom Bean, our CEO, and Bill Bean, our VP of Sales and Marketing. After much discussion and prayer, we formed Digital Praise." What they saw was "a glaring hole in the game market. While Christians have been expressing their faith through other media, such as books, radio, television, music and movies, other than Bible software, there was very little quality Christian software. With my background in the game industry, I knew it could be done, just no one had done it yet."
Entering into the Christian software market wasn't easy, he says, adding, "There are a number of challenges. First is that most people have never heard of Christian games, and if they have, they do not have a high opinion of the games they have seen. The second challenge is getting our products into stores. Christian bookstores have only sold Bible software. They were not aware of Christian games." By contrast, "Mass market retailers understand games, but they look at revenue per foot of shelf space. Christian games do not get special treatment in these stores. We need to sell through just like the rest of the games. Thankfully, we have overcome these challenges."
After their games won some awards, it got a lot easier, and Digital Praise's games had another advantage that soon got them shelf space. "Christian bookstores that have put our games on the shelves have found that they bring in customers that may not have been visiting their stores before. And mass market retailers have found that our games can hold their own alongside the traditional games on the shelves." When I asked if they'd run into any resistance - as I anticipated their audience was the same people frequently quoted decrying videogames to the press - he said that they had not. "Christians read books, watch movies, listen to music and play videogames. The difference is, they are more selective of what they choose to read, watch, listen to and play."
The inspiration for the dancing game I played, Dance Praise, was simple, he says, "My daughter, Samantha, is home-schooled. We wanted to find a way for her to get some exercise on rainy days," but they wanted something that would be fun. "We looked at some of the dance games on the market, but didn't like the way they portrayed women or the music they used. Samantha suggested that we create our own dance game using the music our entire family enjoyed: Christian music."
They explored the idea, looking at "a couple of the other dance games on the market, but [we] decided we wanted to do something more than just dancing to a beat. Dance Praise displays all the lyrics of each song. The difference between Christian music and secular music are the lyrics, of course, so we felt that they had to be in the game." In seeking to turn the game into a group-friendly activity, they "added some unique features like Shadow Dance, where one player creates the dance steps and the second player has to match their steps. We also added an Arcade mode, so you had to think about which steps you should hit and which to skip, [as] some steps had negative consequences for you or your opponent. We also added a duet mode where you dance along with another player and work together to get the highest score."
