Confessions of a Quirky Christian Artist

On April first we launched a project I came up with at work. I lead a small team to make a nostalgia-based game within a game based on the games I grew up with like Mario and Zelda. It has been very well-received, and I'm very happy to say that our team will be getting back together soon to add to it with more levels in the coming year.  On one hand I don't feel like we deserve all the praise I've pasted below, because I think nostalgia is the very easiest way to entertain people.  On the other hand, I am proud of the work we did to make sure that the core of the game really is a solid, well-designed and executed work.  But that part is very often overshadowed by the happy chemicals that the brain releases when people of my demographic see references to Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Sonic, Castlevania, etc. But for posterity, here are some select quotes from reviewers and fans: PRESS: “I will be running Super Adventure Box as many times as I possibly can in ...

Since I'm sounding off on the hot topics of the day I figured I'd lay out my opinion on this issue as well. I don't think abortion is a Christian issue as it's been presented by both sides in the American debate. It's a philosophical one. It involves determining when a human life counts as a human life and deserves the rights afforded to every human. If you think an embryo qualifies as a human life, that is not necessarily based  on religion, though your religion may teach that. It's a judgement call. If you think a fetus is not human enough to have rights one second before it's out of the birth canal, but then becomes human one second later, that's not religious. It's a judgement call. The reason I'm 'pro-life' has nothing to do with religion. It's because I don't think we have a right to arbitrarily decide what a human life is.  I think it's clear that what we VALUE in human life slowly builds as an embryo develops, and i...

Part 1: Home I haven’t had this amount of stress since my divorce.  It’s pretty intense.  But the difference is I have a woman of godly character and grace and strength standing with me through it, and as a result it’s nowhere near as bad as the child custody trials I had to keep my kids safe.  So over the past couple years my oldest son has been getting more and more outrageous in his disrespect and disobedience.  It’s really funny when you talk to him and get the impression that we are tyrannical control freaks.  But we are so easy going, and all we ask of him is to be kind.  Seriously.  That’s it.  But because we follow through with restrictions for disrespect, he has lost every privilege he has ever had.  Though he could get them all back in a matter of months if he would just… be nice.  Complicating the issue are some scary psychological phenomena he has experienced.  He says he hears voices telling him negative thi...

When I was 14 I was sent to a special evangelical camp that was run by Focus on the Family.  It's purpose was to ensure that once the next generation of Christians entered college, they would have the intellectual and spiritual tools to maintain their faith in a hostile, anti-Christian environment.  They were there to shape our world-views and teach us Christian apologetics.  Besides a healthy dose of anti-Communist lectures, (I was there just as the USSR was starting to crumble.) we were taught about how terrible homosexuality was.  I'm sure at some point they told to hate the sin, not the sinner.  But all I remember was the vivid pictures one speaker was painting for us.  I don't remember where he got his information, but what he said surely impacted my perception powerfully.  He talked about gay bath houses, where people would roll around in each others feces.  And while I don't doubt such places exist, I'm very confident t...

Guild Wars 2 Award Wins ActionTrip Editors’ Pick: Guild Wars 2 Review http://www.actiontrip.com/reviews/guild-wars-2.phtml Amazon Top 20 Video Games of 2012 http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=pe_188170_27434060_pe_button/?node=6118251011 Ars Technica Ars Technica’s 2012 Games of the Year http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/12/ars-technicas-2012-games-of-the-year/ AtomicGamer AtomicGamer’s Games Of The Year, 2012 http://www.atomicgamer.com/articles/1466/atomicgamers-games-of-the-year-2012# DESTRUCTOID The winner of Destructoid’s best RPG of 2012 http://www.destructoid.com/the-winner-of-destructoid-s-best-rpg-of-2012-240608.phtml Forbes The Most Addictive Video And PC Games Of 2012 (So Far) http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/10/12/the-most-addicting-video-and-pc-games-of-2012-so-far/ Game Chronicles Editors’ Choice Award: Guild Wars 2 http://www.gamechronicles.com/reviews/pc/guildwars2/guildwars2.htm GameInformer...

Imagine a world where women had certain ingrained expectations about their romantic interests.  What do they expect in this world?  Stunts.  They GO WILD for a man who can fall down stairs, jump from moving vehicles, and light themselves on fire.  Of course most men are uncomfortable with this, but they feel that in order to keep their woman happy they have to perform.  They are competing with professional stunt men who make it look easy.  Their wives and girlfriends subscribe to StuntBoy Magazine and watch videos of stunt performances online.  And while these women understand that the men doing these things are professionals, and that they really shouldn't expect *their* man to be able to light themselves on fire and jump from a flying helicopter onto a moving train, they still *wish* that they could perform like that.  And the more the women watch these videos the less satisfied they become with their man who is only able to do lame ...

I’m working on a mini-series dissertation about story in videogames, a several hour long sculpting tutorial, a novel, and at work I just got started heading up a small team making a very interesting piece of content for Guild Wars 2 that I proposed.  So I've had a lot of late nights while my brain is storming when I want to be sleeping, but overall I’m really happy and excited for my future.