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Rob took some time out from
his busy schedule to answer a few questions for us at
ChristianGaming. In this interview you'll get some insight
into the game, the company and what they are hoping to accomplish in
the near future. Sometime later in the spring we hope to be
able to do a pre-release review of their upcoming CDROM game,
Redemption: Victory at Hebron.
CG: What is your title and what
do you do?
Formally, I am the President
and Cofounder of the Company. Prior to 1995 we licensed
games to other publishers. These included: Scattergories to Milton
Bradley, The Beast
Wars Mutant Card Game to Parker Brothers and others which
are listed at www.cactusmarketing.com.
In 1995 we formed Cactus Game
Design, Inc. to be a publishing house to bring Redemption
to market. My
functions include: designing the games, art director, sales, even
driving the
forklift in the warehouse.
CG: When did you first think of
designing a collectible card game and how did that
vision become Redemption?
I became aware of collectible
trading card games in the summer of 1993 when Wizards
of the Coast launched Magic: the Gathering. The features of building
your own decks from a
vast library of cards appealed to me. The subject matter
in Magic: the Gathering did not appeal to me. I began proposing
CCG's on
other topics to Mattel, Parker Brothers and Marvel Comics. However,
these projects
never came to the contract stage.
After taking my
family on vacation in July of 1994, we were driving home and I
got the idea (inspired by the Lord in my opinion) to create a CCG
based on the
Bible. It took me about six month to get the design where I wanted
it and
then we started to commission artwork and pre-sell it to
distributors and retailers.
CG: When was Redemption first
published?
July of 1995.
CG: What was your greatest
challenge in creating Redemption?
Persuading the Christian
bookstores to put it on the shelves. They were skeptical
about games in general and my game in particular. It was not until
we were able to
gain recommendations on the game from opinion leaders in that
market such as The
700 Club, Baptist Sunday School Board, Focus on the Family,
Campus Crusade for Christ and The Salvation Army that the stores
started to carry
the game. In fact, for the first year we sold more games in
the hobby game
market than we did in the Christian market.
CG: How has Redemption changed
over the years it's been in print?
The initial release of the
game and continuing with the starter decks remains rather
simple and straight forward. This was by design. We feared we would
overwhelm the
average Christian young person with a game that was too
complex. Many
Christians don't even know how to shuffle a deck of cards.
With each expansion set the
game grows in strategy and complexity. Unfortunately,
the gamers in the secular market weren't willing to wait for
the game to grow
up so they moved on to other games. Now we are beginning to
see renewed
interest in the game in the secular market.
CG: Considering the relatively
short lifespan of most collectible card games, what
has been the greatest challenge in keeping Redemption in print over
the last
few years?
The key for us was to remain
focused on our core market which is the Christian
market. The trap for us would have been trying to continue
fighting for
market share in the hobby game market which had over 60
different CCG in
print by 1997. Conversely, Redemption remains the only CCG
in the Christian
market and most secular games have no chance there due to
their subject
matter.
CG: What are your plans for
Redemption in the coming months/years?
We are currently developing a
CDROM [game] based partially on the Redemption CCG and also
based on the board game, Redemption: City of Bondage. We hope to get
this out in early
fall.
We are also working on the
Second Edition Rule Book for the Redemption CCG. This
will answer common questions [raised] since the Women and Warriors expansion
sets came
out. The rulebook will be printed with new starter decks later this
year. In the mean
time look for an advance play testing copy of the new rulebook
at the following web sites: Redemption
and Three Lions Inn.
CG: There has been a small
resurgence in Christian computer games this last
year after
several years that seemed empty of any new game titles. While the
newest titles don't
reflect the state of the art compared to the latest secular
games, they are a giant leap forward from their predecessors. What
do you see as the future
of Christian computer games, particularly the possibilities
of massively multiplayer online games?
The obstacle is development
funding. Saints of Virtue is by far the top selling
computer game in the Christian market. Even so the sales would not
cover a $500 K
project. So, we and other publishers must try to close the
gap between
secular games and Christian games with having the money to do it.
It's a tough nut
to crack.
CG: You are also the
distributor for the Christian action adventure game,
"Saints of
Virtue." Do you have plans to distribute other software game
titles besides the
Redemption CD ROM game? If so, can you give us a hint as to
what we can expect to see?
We are trying to get the
rights to use some of the stronger secular engines and
build Christian content around these. We also invite programmers to
send us
their demos and ideas. However, beyond say a $10K advance against
royalties we can't
give developers much money until we start selling the games
and then in the form of a royalty. Since secular firms can advance
$500 to $1 million
plus for a project, it makes it hard for us to compete
financially for
the top programmers. However, a few are willing to keep
their days jobs
and work on our projects nights and weekends for the ministry
benefits that
their game could provide without having the money.
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