Peter Churness of Rebel Planet Creations

Rebel Planet Creations

Company Info

Website: TheRebelPlanet.com

Blog: TheRebelPlanet.com/blog/

Rebel Planet Creations, LLC (RPC) was formed in early 2005 for the purpose of producing fantasy novels and role-playing computer games that are highly creative, original and fun, but that also communicate the central spiritual themes of the Christian faith.

Why the name "Rebel Planet"?A central theme of our company, and indeed of our first games and novels, concerns the biblical premise that the world in which we live is not as it should be. Created completely good, something has gone terribly wrong. Evil and sin and pain exist and this is not part of God's original design. Rather, the brokenness of our universe is the product of an ongoing spiritual conflict that began long ago. There is a war going on. But it is not a war against equal sides. Rather, it is far more like a rebellion than a war between two countries. C.S. Lewis said it best when he wrote:

Enemy occupied territory - that's what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.

Founders

• Peter Churness - CEO
• David Lancaster - Executive Producer

Team

• Kendall Stump - Art Director
• Gil Ruiz - Environmental Artist / Lead Animator
• Tom Hilpert - Creative Director / Novels

Contributors

• Qareeb Al-haqq - Modeler
• Samuel Anjam - Music Composition
• Johannes Bausch - Graphic Designer
• Brandon Lewis - Level Design
• Bruno Camousseight
• Montolivo - Character Animation
• Bernd Schaumburg - Levels, Models and Animation
• David Stevenson - Sound Engineer
• Zenith - Models and Animation

Interview with Peter Churness of Rebel Planet Creations

When did you start playing games?

While still in the womb. Video games a little later...

What was the first game that drew you in to games?

I remember playing the old Adventure game on the Atari 2600 when I was a kid (yes, I'm that old). I think that started off my love affair with the adventuring/exploring pseudo-RPGish genre of game.

What makes a good game?

Well, there're some obvious standard answers. It has to be fun to play and have good replay value. But let me take that word ‘good' in a different sense than maybe is intended in the question. What makes a game "good" from a Christian perspective? Some games are highly addictive and entertaining, but leave you feeling spent and drained – takes away life rather than giving it. Such games may be successful and "good" from a business standpoint, but not necessarily from a Kingdom perspective. David Lancaster the lead designer and programmer of our first game Axys Adventures was very intentional in his aim to give the game a light-hearted feel – to give life rather than take it away. That's not to say that games shouldn't have intense moments or show the epic good vs. evil struggle. I'm all for intense games and ones that truly draw you in. But games shouldn't leave you feeling dark inside or drained from overly-addictive gameplay. They should give life rather than take it away.

What games have inspired you?

Morrowind and Oblivion are both inspirations for me. I love a game that lets you go anywhere and do anything but that also has a storyline to drive it. The Gothic series too have some things about it I really admire. Gothic II in particular I thought did an admirable job of making the game world come to life.

When did you know that you wanted to work in video games?

Probably when I got my first Commodore 64 (yes, I'm that old). I remember making my first game in Basic on the C64 back in Jr. high. Through the years I jumped into different programming languages and platforms but always as a hobbyist (which arguably I still am). But I recall two times before starting Rebel Planet Creations that I started working on a couple games and each time came to a place where I believe the Lord was telling me to give it up and let it go. Once was when I was a youth director and the other time was when I was helping to plant a church. Game development in those times was becoming a serious distraction from the ministries I was called to. Each time I let it go I believed I was letting it go for good – putting it on the altar so to speak and not looking back. But a third time came when I began to get the vision for Rebel Planet and in the course of prayer and outside counsel I sensed God say this time "Okay, its time. Now you can go for it."

What games are you currently playing?

Assassins Creed and Europa Universalis III. And…I'm ashamed to say…I'm FINALLY playing Half-life 2 for the first time.

Do you think there is a market for faith-based video games?

Absolutely. Once we succeed in truly wedding faith-based themes with AAA graphics, gameplay and production values, we're going to see the same level of success as other quality faith-based productions like Passion of the Christ and the Narnia movies.

What do you think is the current state of "Christian Video Games" and where do you see it heading?

In many ways the state of the Christian video game industry is similar to the state of the Christian music industry in the 1970's. Budgets are small and graphics quality is generally lower than industry standards. However, just as a great song could still be written and recorded, though with lower production quality, by Christian artists in the 1970's, the same is true today for games. Until we see some Christian game companies acquire AAA budgets, we'll continue to see indie level games in the Christian market with a lower production value. However, that doesn't mean that we won't see truly great Christian games developed – just as there were some great Christian songs that came out of the 70's. And actually, we're getting closer all the time to being able to produce Christian games that can really hold their own in the general gaming marketplace. Particularly with the influx of some great middleware products, a global marketplace of artists available for high quality contract work and some new cutting edge indie priced game engines now available, we're going to see an explosion of quality games emerge.

What does it mean to be a christian gamer/company?

Some of that depends on what your personal calling is. For some Christian companies, the aim may be to make good clean games from a Christian perspective that kids can play and that parents don't have to worry about. That's a needed and worthy mission. However, it's not my personal mission with Rebel Planet. I started Rebel Planet not to make safe games but to make dangerous ones. My long-term goal is to make games that truly challenge how people think about reality. That's why I'm drawn to the fantasy RPG genre. Some have criticized the fantasy genre for being a genre in which kids (and adults) tend to escape the real world and lose touch with reality. I look at it from a different perspective. I tend to see much of what we call the real world as ultimately being the true fantasy. The whole notion that we're to live our lives, go to college, get a good job, make a lot of money, buy nice things that we don't really need, save up for retirement and then live our final years in ease is the real fantasy world. Jesus came to break us free from that illusion. He came to set a mother against daughter and father against son. He came to sound a call to arms and to raise up an army of revolutionaries who would shake the foundations of society and storm the gates of hell. He spoke of a real world in the spiritual. He taught of heaven and he warned of hell. He healed and He drove out demons and preached the coming of a Kingdom. My heart is to make games that draw gamers out of this present so-called reality, and put them in contact with the true reality by means of the fantasy genre – in much the same way as C.S. Lewis did intentionally and Tolkien did unintentionally. So, that's not a general answer for what does it mean to be a Christian game company. But it's an answer for what it means for Rebel Planet specifically.

What does a christian in the game industry have to consider/think about?

Whatever we do, whether we're playing a game or making one, we have to bring Jesus with us. That doesn't mean that every game we make has to have the Four Spiritual Laws in it. There's nothing wrong with Christians just making a fun game without any spiritual element to it. After all, there's nothing wrong with a Christian carpenter making a solid bench that doesn't break when you sit on it. But games do have a unique power and we have to be mindful of that and responsible stewards of it. It's a powerful story-telling tool and we have a story to tell. There are also many moral questions to consider as in how much violence to have in a game and is it too addictive? I'll not give any specific answers to these questions but again just to say that its extremely helpful when considering them that we be brutally honest in bringing Jesus with us. If we see Jesus sitting there right with us all the time at the computer as we're making our games, as we say "no" to compartmentalizing Jesus into certain parts of our lives and activities and out of others, then we'll ultimately make the right choices.

What games are you currently working on?

We're currently working on an action RPG set in the pre-flood world entitled Rebel Planet Orion. The game had been tabled for a couple years, but now it's back in development and set for a 2010 release. Screenshots from Orion

What is your company's process for developing games?

We have a team lead, typically who also is lead programmer, who oversees and spearheads the entire development process for a game. Teams are small, typically one to four people, but then other support people and contract help is brought in as needed. Depending on the scope of the project, we try to have a detailed design doc, a list of needed art assets and a development schedule.

What tools do you use?

I do my programming in the Visual Studio 2005 environment and some 2D graphics editing in Photoshop. Some of the artists we've had have used 3D Studio Max, others use Maya, some Blender. There's also a lot of great indie tools we use. I already mentioned Blender. I like to use Goldwave for audio editing. Milkshape is still a great little inexpensive app for models. I've used Terragen for some terrains. For game engines we've used the A6 engine and some of the various Torque engines.

How do you market your games?

We've done some internet radio promotion and advertising in the CBA catalogs, but honestly have not done much. We did get some help a while back from the Grand Theft Auto controversy which resulted in some news agencies doing some stories on positive games. That resulted in Rebel Planet getting some plugs on CNN American Morning and on ABC World News Tonight.

What has been the most successful way to market your games?

Honestly, we're still looking for the best way to do it. We've got some great developers but marketing is not our strength. There's a great community of Christian game enthusiasts out there and they have done a lot of word of mouth promotion. We've had booths most years at the Christian Game Developers Conference and we were grateful when our Axys Adventures: Truth Seeker won the 2007 Game of theYear award at that conference. And Gamespot.com has our games on their site which has helped our google page ranking and boosted us up in the SERPs. But we're still trying to figure out the best way to get the word out.

How many copies have you sold?

We've sold about 5000 units of our first game Axys Adventures so far. Screenshots from Axys Adventures

What advice do you have for developers or someone looking to get into the industry?

Learn to be flexible and persistent. You likely have a dream position in mind or that great title you've always wanted to make. Don't let go of that dream or that overarching goal. However, know that it may be a long road getting to that goal and there may be many unexpected twists and turns on the way. Be diligent to develop your skill set in those one or two areas of development that are your greatest joy and skill. Be the best at it that you can be. But also be willing to learn the other disciplines. If you want to go the indie route you'll especially need to be diverse in your skill set and in the tools you use. On the other hand, if your dream is a career in one of the bigger game dev companies you may be better off focusing on just one discipline, landing an entry level job in that discipline and working your way up. In either case, flexibility and persistence will carry you a long way.

What do you look for in employees?

Obviously we look for creative folks who are highly competent in their field. But attitude and the ability to communicate well are also extremely important factors.

What books have made a big impact on your life/career?

Rather than list a couple of books I'll tell you what authors have had the most impact on my life and career. Two at the top of the list for me are C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer. For back to back generations these two men creatively and in an "out of the box" kind of way took the central core message of Christianity and presented it in new and fresh language and through various forms of creative media in keeping with their time. More importantly perhaps, they knew that they had to get people to ask the right questions before they could be given the right answers to those questions.

What do you want to change about the industry?

Actually, what I want to see changed…is changing. I thought we had a very small window to make a game that could make it in the industry because graphics in games just gets better and better and I thought would soon be completely out of reach for a small company like ours. But it's actually gotten easier for a small team to make a great game with good graphics than it was several years ago. It's still not easy and takes a ton of work. But with the way the marketplace has opened up with new distribution channels like Xbox Live and seeing how a small team on a small budget can make a great game like Braid and receive such high acclaim and recognition (deservedly so), is a real encouragement to those of us aiming to do likewise.

Anything you want to plug?

Yes, a couple things. One is that David Lancaster, our lead developer for our Axys game is heading up a team making some really fun and well crafted casual games. God has amazingly gifted David to make games that are really fun to play. Their first game, Space the Retribution, can be played online at http://www.wooglie.com/playgame.php?gameID=51. I encourage your readers to check it out. The second thing is that after having tabled our Rebel Planet Orion game for a couple years, its back in development. Rebel Planet Orion is a fantasy-themed action RPG set in the pre-flood world and centering around the biblical figure of Enoch (whom we're calling Orion). We're looking at a 2010 release date with further games set in the same pre-flood fantasy universe to follow. You can get more info at http://www.therebelplanet.com/christian-video-games/rebel-planet-orion.html.