Christopher Laurence Examines Catholic Creator Spotlight- Game Developer Andrzej Gieralt

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Christopher Laurence Examines Catholic Creator Spotlight- Game Developer Andrzej Gieralt 

If you’ve read some of my articles here at the Crusade, or heard me on-air, or listened to any of my podcasts, you are largely aware of the things I keep beating the drum about. Those aspects of popular culture that I find troubling, and, more problematic, the Catholic response, or lack thereof, to these problems. So, it is particularly refreshing to find someone who is not only endeavoring creatively in popular media, but who I believe really gets it in terms of what we should be striving for, the values we should be putting forth, and the methods to convey these to people within the framework of entertainment. I am very happy to present the first of what I’m sure will be many discussions with game designer Andrzej Gieralt, with a particular focus on his currently in-development video game, Heir Obscure.

Christopher Laurence: What is your background with gaming? Have you been playing games much of your life?

Andrzej Gieralt: I’ve been playing games most of my life. As a kid I’d play PS2 or Xbox at friends’ houses – I didn’t have a console at home, so I resorted to playing flash games and free MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games). I grew up being really bad at RuneScape (MMO RPG, 2001), then eventually I found Morrowind (First-person, Fantasy RPG, part of the “Elder Scrolls” series, 2002) through Skyrim (Later installment in same series, 2011), but I also loved the Halo series (First-person, sci-fi shooter series. First installment, 2001). I was never any good at anything but I did love games, and was always fascinated with what actually went on behind the scenes – how was it that just by pressing keys on a keyboard, the computer had the character react? I remember watching the developer diaries for Halo Reach (2010), and I got inspired to find out how these games were actually made, and, well, the rest is history. In terms of my favorite games most recently, I really enjoy Enderal, which is a total conversion mod for Skyrim, creating a new world and story using the game’s systems; I love Morrowind, Fallout: New Vegas (First-person, post-apocalyptic, action-RPG, 2010), most of the Halo games, The Witcher 2 (Third-person fantasy action-RPG, 2011) & 3 (2015), and in addition, although I haven’t played much of them, I’m fascinated by old school immersive sims like Thief (Stealth simulation game, 1998), Deus Ex (First-person, dystopian-cyberpunk, action RPG, 2000), and System Shock (First-person, cyberpunk action/adventure game with RPG elements, 1994).

Christopher Laurence: What are some of your all-time favorite games to play, and what are some that stand out to you purely for their design?

Andrzej Gieralt: This past year has made me really come to understand the intricacies of mechanical game design, which is an incredibly complicated and fascinating topic. I’ve had an interest in RPG design since shortly after I started playing Skyrim and realized how older games presented a much more deep character creation system, so I’m usually very critical of those kinds of games. But as I alluded to earlier, I think the most fascinating kinds of games, in terms of their design, are old-school immersive sims. I really only played Thief (and that was very recently), but going back to games like that really shows the quality of the thought process those developers had for the quality of the core gameplay loop as opposed to surface-level hooks or tricks. At the same time, however, I do have an appreciation for what some might call surface-level elements, like graphics and “game feel,” and I think games that create a cohesive picture using all those elements are the best and rarest kinds of games.

Christopher Laurence: What are the games you are playing currently?

Andrzej Gieralt: Lately I’ve honestly spent way more time making games than playing them. I dabbled in Hollow Knight (Excellent 2d, action/adventure, exploration title, 2017) a little, I dabbled in Dishonored (First-person, action-stealth tite, 2012) a little, and a bit of Halo here and there, and a mod for Minecraft (You know what Minecraft is. Your grandmother probably knows what Minecraft is) called Terrafirmacraft+ which changes nearly every facet of the original game to the point of being able to confidently call it a separate game entirely. I don’t much enjoy the base game.

Christopher Laurence: Tell us about the game you are designing; What is the story? How will the gameplay work? What have been influences on your design?

Andrzej Gieralt: My game is called Heir Obscure. It began its life hoping to become a parkour game, then an action immersive sim like Dishonored, but finally I decided to turn it into a stealth game, and that’s been the best decision I could’ve made for the game. The idea is that I want the game to remind people of the old Thief games, so you can remain unseen in shadowy areas, walk on carpets to be quieter, and have enemies react differently to different kinds of sounds in the world.

In terms of the story, you play as Theo Crevus, the son of a royal guard who was killed during a bloody revolution when Theo was a boy. Theo is forced to grow up on his own under a tyrannical regime that overthrew the kingdom his family served. During the events of the game, Theo, now an experienced thief who feels a strong nostalgia for the old kingdom and the old faith that was destroyed, gets caught up in a conflict between the now seemingly much-less-extreme Empire and a new group of radical revolutionaries, as well as the nation of Fire Elves who have since been invited to the Empire. Theo must uncover a mystery surrounding technology that the Empire has been working on with the help of the Fire Elves, and secure the fate of the Empire, and find an opportunity to finally bring justice along the way. It’s a tale of mystery and dark forces at work behind the scenes, of duplicity and investigation, of intrigue and of faith, and I believe it’s a story worth telling during these days in particular.

Christopher Laurence: Will there be any Catholic elements or themes in your game?

Andrzej Gieralt: There will most certainly be very overt Catholic themes in the game. The faith of the old Kingdom has clear allusions to Catholicism, and there will be an important priest character in the game. An important question I would like to pose to the player is “What is the right relationship between Church and State, and what happens when that relationship becomes distorted?” I of course want players to draw their own conclusions, but at the same time, Theo’s allegiances are clear.

Christopher Laurence: Do you think video games are a medium which can be used effectively to evangelize Why or why not?

Andrzej Gieralt: I believe video games, and movies, can both be used effectively to evangelize, but have very, very seldom come close to being effective enough to make a sufficient impact (but I think games haven’t tried hard enough to really make such a judgment).

For any work of fiction to be an effective form of evangelization, I believe it must bypass apologetics. It must be confident enough in its message so as to create a believable world with believable character motivations so that players/audience members can get invested in them without feeling like they’re being spoon fed a message, or encountering remarkably unrealistic characters. I believe this ties into the differing perspectives of Tolkien and Lewis, in that Tolkien famously rejected overt allegory. At the same time, allegory so subtle that the Catholic themes could easily be mistaken for humanism or Buddhism or whatever else really misses the point. At this point one might say “Ah, so there needs to be a balance!” – I would say, not exactly. I believe what needs to be done for effective evangelization in any work of fiction is that the characters and world need to be believable, the story (and in this case, also the gameplay) need to be of very high quality, and the truth of Catholicism needs to be presented confidently, as a clear built-in part of the world, a truth of the fabric of the fictional world, however that may be.

In the case of my game, that truth has been suppressed, but if I manage to implement it I am looking forward to having paraphrased quotes from Saints show up in the game as pieces of history. Some characters may be going on a journey of repentance (which must be done as a strong believable character arc), while others will be going on an equally believable journey of retaining that truth. Perhaps I need to think this through a little more, but hopefully this is sufficient for now. I will say that I think this is an incredibly important topic and that Christian media is largely lacking in quality and therefore is not taken seriously by anyone other than Evangelicals or uncritical Christians who are just as much in a consumerist mentality as non-Christians who are fed mindless Hollywood content.

Christopher Laurence: Do you believe it is still possible to be a devout Catholic and be successful in the video game industry?

Andrzej Gieralt:Maybe. I have never worked for a company as a game developer, but I think it would be incredibly questionable to work for any company that has the intention to push Anti-Christic perspectives, such as the normalization of sodomistic relationships or containing pornographic content. And then there are all the games who present Catholicism or religious institutions in general as a bad thing, think of Assassin’s Creed (Long-running series of stealth/action games, with a twisted historical narrative. First installment, 2007. They are garbage.) as the most obvious example, although, this could definitely be nuanced, like a game could present the consequences of a religious institution caving to its human flaws or the consequences of heretical groups existing and things along that nature.

A Catholic wanting to specifically work for a game studio would have to approach the matter with prudence, do their research, determine the necessity vs. their ability to make changes vs. examining all possible options vs. their level of culpability in anything the studio presents that is evil. I would caution any Catholic to present themselves as a “champion of diversity” as though diversity is somehow intrinsically virtuous as such a vague term.

That being said, I believe it’s completely easy for a Catholic to enter the industry as an independent, and make the game that they want to make. However, in this case, they have to make games of high quality. There’s an incredible amount of research that goes into something like this, and someone wanting to go into it knowing nothing will find a steep learning curve, because you have to understand marketing, certain legal elements, and managing teams or being able to commission people, etc. The only Christian game developer I am aware of is one named Thomas Brush, the creator of Neversong (Indie adventure game, 2020) and Pinstripe (Puzzle adventure game, 2017), so I’d encourage faithful Catholics to consider checking out his content. If any Catholic reader out there is interested in making games, then I’d encourage them to contact me, because Catholic game developers are few and far between and I would like to personally extend my support/offer any advice I can if they are starting out, and perhaps learn from them if they are experienced.

— Andrzej Gieralt is a traditionally-minded Catholic of Polish heritage living in Canada. He works as a software developer but his passion is story telling, be it through writing or making games. He published a novella called The Dragon Slayers in 2018 and has released five small free games. He hopes to one day be a full time independent game developer and incorporate elements of Catholic truth into his games’ stories. Grab the demo for his upcoming game HERE, and wishlist it on Steam, HERE.

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