The Falling Age
For the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad

Are you prepared for a challenge?
The Falling Age is a simple game to learn. You can move left, you can move right, and you can start over. But oh, how difficult the levels get.

The object is simply to fall to the bottom of the screen.

Your score:
D: If you got stuck in the grass levels, then you probably either quit the game because the challenge did not come to you quick enough.
C: If you got stuck on level 11, that is average. Yes, you can beat the level, just keep trying!
C+ If you got to level 20 and quit there, hey, that is above average!
B If you got stuck in the wook levels, you did good.
B+_ If you got stuck in the crystal levels, you did better than good.
A If you got stuck in the lava levels, you did excellent.
A+ If you got stuck in the iron levels, A+ to you dude. But if you made it to the iron levels, you probably wouldn't stop there...
100% If you beat the game.

Notes and hints:

If you make it to the level with the blue button block, tap the block with your finger as your ball is on top of it.
If you select "New Game" and suddenly you lost your place on like level 40, don't worry, you can continue at your furthest point by dragging your finger from the center of the falling star on the opening screen over to the continue button
Don't give up - yes all the levels can be beat.

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The Falling Age was our first game. I got the idea from taking a scantron test. I imagined all the filled in bubbles to be blocks, and wondered if I could fall to the bottom, and thus the game was born....

Catholic Maze
A puzzle game of swinging doors

Catholic Music by Michael James Mette
www.michaeljamesmette.com

Objective - to collect the treasure balls. But don't get stuck! Don't let the door swing in a way that blocks you; don't let the arrow send you down a path you cannot return from; don't let the game defeat you!

Gameplay:
Touch the top of the screen to move up, the bottom to move down, the left to move left, and the right to move right.
Triple tap the center of the screen to start over.

Hours of fun!

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Catholic Maze was our 8th game

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I created this game while on jury duty waiting outside the doors to be let in to the courtroom day after day.

Only seven buttons, and one reset
Only seven levels, and one practice
Only seems so easy, but one try proves wrong

The game is simple. Each button does something different. The object is to get them all to light up. But can you do it??

Simple game. Loads of puzzle fun. Harder than it looks.

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The idea for this game came from Catholic Theologian Scott Haan's idea of seven being a number which represents a covenant, and a covenant initiating a family.

Welcome to Marrakech, Sacramento, CA's best Moroccan Restaurant. With sumptuous cuisine, great decor, and professional bellydancers, Marrakech offers a memorable dining experience.

Today, two couples will have their first date enjoying this fine dining.

You will be playing the part of Jessica. Throughout the movie, you will get choices which will ultimately determine wether Matt will go on a second date with you. Your objective? To get him to say yes!

The first of a four part series, this Adventure Movie, or Advoovie, will dazzle your senses!

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Seeing the consequences of your actions can be a very real way to learn the do's and don't of life without ever having to really experience them.

The Best Fortune Teller


I am best fortune teller out there.

Ask me your question. I will give you your answer.

I expect the person typing the answer to be you. If you hand it to your friend, I will not know it. If you must ask a question on behalf of your friend, use your friend's name in the question.

I believe you will be very surprised at the quality of your answers.

I take no resposibility for your actions. I may advise, you decide wether to take it.

Try me. I dare you.

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I like to consider this app as a booth offering maps to Heaven at the entrance to Hell. Or perhaps lambs in wolves clothing. The target audience for those apps are non-Catholics - or perhaps even anti-Catholics. These are people who are actually seeking advice but would never dare enter a Catholic church to receive it. Because the question can be typed in, I can interrogate the question and offer what my program thinks would be the best Catholic answer.

For example, many people purchase fortune tellers and ask about money. The fortune teller gives the biblical perspective on the love of money being evil, the proper use of money as building up the Kingdom of God, and the priority of seeking what is holy over seeking riches. Others often ask about love. Again the fortune teller gives the biblical perspective, quoting all of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 at different times as well as other Catholic teachings.

If someone is looking for advice, even from a fortune teller, why not give them Catholic advice?

Ask the stars, they will tell you. Don't take my word for it, try it yourself.

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I like to consider this app as a booth offering maps to Heaven at the entrance to Hell. Or perhaps lambs in wolves clothing. The target audience for those apps are non-Catholics - or perhaps even anti-Catholics. These are people who are actually seeking advice but would never dare enter a Catholic church to receive it. Because the question can be typed in, I can interrogate the question and offer what my program thinks would be the best Catholic answer.

For example, many people purchase fortune tellers and ask about money. The fortune teller gives the biblical perspective on the love of money being evil, the proper use of money as building up the Kingdom of God, and the priority of seeking what is holy over seeking riches. Others often ask about love. Again the fortune teller gives the biblical perspective, quoting all of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 at different times as well as other Catholic teachings.

If someone is looking for advice, even from a fortune teller, why not give them Catholic advice?

This game is a Journey with our Blessed Mother to Jesus

Imprematur by the Bishop Garcia on the Pro-Life Rosary audio track

This game helps teach the Catholic Faith while playing a game moving your pieces around the rosary. Have fun while learning important articles of faith!

To play, select 1,2,3, or 4 players. Then each player selects either Joyful, Sorrowful, Luminous, or Glorious mysteries as their color. On the first person's turn, they select which piece they want to move. The piece will enlarge showing that it is selected. When a piece is selected, the instructions in the middle of the screen will say "Draw a card". At this point, you can either decide to select a different piece to move first, or click on the picture of the Blessed Mother (the card pile) in the center of the screen and it will draw a card for you. If you answer incorrectly, it will highlight for you what is the correct answer and move to the next person's turn. If you answer correctly, you will draw a card which tells you how many spaces you move. The card types are as follows:
Hail Mary: Move one space
Glory Be: Move three spaces
Our Father: Move five spaces
Apostles Creed: Move off start
Hail Holy Queen: Move off start and Move to finish
Each player continues taking turns until one player gets all his pieces around the board and to finish. That player wins.

The LeGomage Game:
Le Gomage is a video game that targets a secular audience and brings them a very Christian message. Many more details about the game can be found at www.catholicvideogames.com/legomage

Another tool we just built is the CharacterBuilder.jar. It will help us create all the characters needed and their stats in a database like format. Feel free to download and enjoy.

One of our coming games will aptly be called “Genesis 1-22.” It focuses on the first sixteen chapters of Genesis. The target age group is Jr. High to Highschool students. The theology in the game is deep enough to need that kind of brainpower to comprehend. The gameplay will mimic an array of the most successful video games out there, but with its own unique flavor, so as to not lose the interest of the player. It combines recreation with education in the faith.
Cain and Abel, Genesis Chapter 4 - one playable level. Played against the computer or in a networked environment, Cain's job is to catch Abel and Abel's job is to escape. Though the game is not even in beta yet, if you are a programmer and want to test the jar file, it is Strateegery.jar. The runnable class name for the server is strateegery,StratNetServer and the client is net.NetClient. In order to run the client program, you will need to link some additional jars and dynamic link libraries:
gluegen-rt.jar
CodeGenerator.jar
MapMaker.jar
jogl.jar

Target dates 2009:
Jan 1st: AMuG melody generator complete
Sept 1st: Battle system complete


Video Game Awareness Workshops:
Part of the video game ministry is to let Christians know the dangers that video games present to help parents make healthy choices with regards to video games. Here is the text of the workshop that I give.

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Hi, my name is Matthew Whittle. Welcome to the Video Game Awareness Workshop.

We should start with a prayer. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus, send us your Spirit, renew the face of the Earth. Lord, you taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit. In that Spirit, give us right judgment and the joy of his comfort and guidance. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Alright. Let's get started. Things to do to protect your children from harmful video games. The very first step to take in protecting your kids from dangerous video games is to know which video games your children are playing. If you do not know which video games your children own, you will be powerless to do anything. If you haven't yet done so, go home, make a list of all the video games that are in the house. Now, also, it's a common thing for kids to say to their friends, "Hey, I've finished this game. Can I trade with you this one for that?" So it's a good thing to check every once and awhile to monitor which games are coming in and going out of the house.

Also, try to find out what video games your kids are playing at their friends' houses. This technique only works a couple of times, "So, do you like Mortal Combat 3?" If they respond "Yes" chances are they've played it.

Okay, once you've found out what video games your kids are playing, find out what they are rated. Now, the video game rating system is different from the movie rating system. They have E for "Everyone", which splits into three, EC, E and E10. EC is for like Early Childhood. E is for like Everyone, and E10 is Everyone 10 and up. These are like your G and PG movies. Games rated T are for Teen, which is basically PG13. Games rated M are for Mature. Parents, this is an R rated game. If your kids are playing M rated games, now is the proper time to talk to them about Christian faith and morals. If your kids are under thirteen they should know they'd be taken away. If your kids are already teens and showing a little independence, it is almost better to get them to throw their own video game away. Because if you do it for them, they are going to play it at their friend's house.

Okay, once you've checked out the secular video game rating system, it is also a good idea to get a Christian perspective. The best website out there that I've found is http://www.almenconi.com/. They rate the video games on an A to F scale. Most M rated video games they don't even bother rating because they all get F's, but they will rate the M video games which are popular so that parents know which names should be causing red flags. They also tell you all sorts of good information about why they rate the video game the way they rate it, such as for violence, pornography, language, and demons.

The MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do, to protect your kids from harmful video games, and if you don't leave this workshop with anything else, please leave with this... The most important thing you can do to protect your child from harmful video games is to PLAY VIDEO GAMES WITH THEM. You don't have to pick up a controller and play, because I know a lot of you aren't any good at all, but at least spend time with them watching. It's a common thing for a bunch of kids to get together and one is playing and the others are just watching and they're all having a fun time! Anyhow, please spend time with them while they play video games. Then you will see first hand what they are absorbing, and you will be in a far better position to know what it is they need to hear.

Speaking about what they need to hear. Now, this is what NOT to do. My mom came in, I was playing Final Fantasy Three, and she watches me for a minute, and then she blurts out, exasperated, "That demon is possessing the picture!!!" And I was like, "Well, duh! I'm fighting the demon so it gets out of the picture!" And she screamed, "But that demon is possessing the PICTURE!!!" And so I quickly fought the demon off and went to some other part of the game which she wouldn't have a problem with. And then she left.

And this happened to my brother. He was playing Armored Core Two, blasting all sorts of things away, and Papa walks in. After watching for a minute, he asks, "Can't you play a game where you aren't killing things?" And Jesse's like, "I'm not killing him, I'm just... decreasing his armor..." And papa's all, "Can't you play a game where you aren't KILLING THINGS!!!???" And Jesse turns the game off. And papa walks out. And ... the game goes back on!

It's natural the first time you see what your kids are playing to want to scream. Don't do it. A far better and far more effective way to get what you want to tell your kids into their heads, is to ask them questions. Questions like, "What do you think about this part of the video game?" Or "Do you think this is something you'd want your little brother or sister to see?" Kids know. They know what they are and aren't supposed to be watching.

Sooner or later, they will say, "I know, but it's just a video game! I know the difference between this and real life! It won't affect me!" The worst thing to do in this situation is to say, "Yes it will affect you! And you will grow up to be a murderer!" The proper response to the argument "It won't affect me" is "What would Jesus do?" What would Jesus do. Get your kids to say it with their own mouths. Jesus would not be playing this part of this video game. If they think that Jesus indeed would be playing, that is the right time to stop asking questions and start telling them why you feel Jesus would not be playing that video game. Bring out the bible, talk about what you think and why you think it.... it's a far easier thing to explain why Jesus wouldn't play this video game than it is to explain why YOU don't want them to play it. You don't have to draw the connections for them. You don't have to say, Jesus wouldn't play it, so why are you? It takes time to break a bad habit. I'm a former theology student, and it took me three months from the time I realized I shouldn't be playing certain games to the point where I actually stopped playing them. They will on their own accord eventually realize they shouldn't play vice filled video games. All you have to do is get it to bug their conscience.

That is the goal. Instill in them good values so that they will avoid harmful video games even when you are not around. Parents, you are the principle and first educators of your children. If you don't do it, there is no guarantee it will get done. If your kids are playing video games which you think they shouldn't play, it should be a signal that perhaps you should spend more time teaching your kids how to love the right road and the beauty of hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

And that's another good question to ask, "What virtues and what vices does this part of the video game endorse?"

Okay, other ways you can help. I can't tell you how much it surprises me when I'm talking with a kid, and I ask him about what video games he likes, and he mentions certain ones, and I say, "Oh, well don't they cuss in that one?" And the kid is like, "Well, only a little..." And I ask, "Where'd you get it?" And the kid says, "My parents bought it for me for my birthday." And the parents are right there, and I think to myself, "Didn't you check to see if it was an M rated video game before you bought it?" You wouldn't buy your kids a movie without first making sure that the content was acceptable! Please, don't support the evil empire! Don't buy your kids video games they shouldn't be playing!

Also, limit video game playing time. There is no reason your kids should be playing video games for five hours a day. Video games do not make very good babysitters. You can encourage some other type of activity.

Lastly, do support Christian Video Game companies. Our kids need some kind of alternative to the choices that are out there. Wouldn't it be great if they actually LEARNED good morals from video games! Video games is a powerful medium and it can be used for the good if there is enough interest in the Christian community to support them.

Thank you very much all of you for coming. God Bless, I will be available afterwards to answer any questions.

Copyright 2007 Matthew Whittle