Super Mario Bros, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Street Fighter, Tekken 8 and many first-person shooters.
Winnipeg Catholic Bisong Taiwo was plugged into the popular video game scene during his adolescence and young adulthood. When he was a preteen, the Nigerian Canadian began to dream of designing a game of his own.
Now, at the age of 35, and after four years of creative development, Taiwo’s aspiration has finally been realized.
Fittingly, on All Saint’s Day, Nov. 1, the multimedia content creator unveiled the Catholic strategy game Sainthood for the Xbox 360 and the Steam online platform.
“In my vast experience of playing lots of games since I was a kid there haven't been that many that feature my faith in a non-controversial way,” said Taiwo, the game’s designer, writer and programmer. “I thought ‘okay that (will) be the first unique aspect of the game.’ The other thing was if I was going to make a family-friendly game then maybe I should embody the spirit and the tenets of my faith, which is serving your community, serving others, loving your neighbour and loving God.”
A rather novel twist of Sainthood is having a nun serve as the protagonist. This religious sister who is stranded on a mysterious, secret-containing island only has 33 days to grow in faith and nurture the local community. He chose a nun in part because his mother’s sisters belong to the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus.
This nun undertakes a quest to uncover sacred artifacts while completing service missions such as delivering care packages to people in need and volunteering in the local hospital and orphanage. Time management is a key pillar of the strategy to accrue the most building upgrades and other assets.
While navigating this grid-like game, players are asked to locate and liberate the Angel Spirits known as “Ehi” whilst avoiding the evil spirits called the “Shetani.”
Discerning players steeped in Catholic tradition will likely know automatically that Taiwo chose a 33-day game timeline to honour the number of years Jesus Christ walked the Earth fully human. He originally had a different biblically-significant number in mind.
“I thought 40 because it was the number of days that Jesus spent in the desert and the years of wandering for the Israelites,” said Taiwo. “Then when I was demoing the game at a Catholic expo here in Winnipeg, one of the attendees asked, ‘hey, why not 33?’
Taiwo got on board with the proposal presented to him during the spring exhibition, which preceded a LiveLoud worship concert, as he felt his narrative did require some tightening.
His final product is a marriage between Christian teachings and African cultural history. Dialoguing with the custodian of each building – notably the Prioress of the convent – affords the player an opportunity to hear stories about the saints who left indelible imprints on the populous continent.
Specifically, the game sheds light on the efforts of Portuguese Catholics to introduce their doctrine into the Kingdom of Kongo (1390-1914), which was located in present-day Angola.
“There was a lot of religious syncretism at the time as the Portuguese Catholics were trying to introduce the Catholic faith to the Africans,” said Taiwo. “Some of the concepts about God, the angels and the saints, there was an emerging and a mixing of the local African religious doctrine and the Catholic faith.”
Honouring his heritage was a key goal for Taiwo in designing Sainthood, but his prime objective was to showcase Catholicism and Christianity at its best, which is quite an exotic concept in the current marketplace.
“Most video games that deal directly with the Christian faith typically fall into the realm of parodies, making them controversial, or use the faith as part of a larger strategy to dominate and subjugate, as is the case with 4X Strategy games,” said Taiwo. “I thought it would be a great idea to build a non-violent strategy game where the focus is on helping and serving others rather than conquering and controlling them.”
Taiwo developed his labour of love in the company of his family and friends. Folashade Arie Adeshida served as the main artist; his younger brother Eltee Taiwo encoded the game for Xbox; and Dexter Artates composed a 19-minute score featuring Gregorian chants and traditional Catholic music.
To learn more visit https://www.sainthoodgame.com/