It is one of the most unusual projects currently in the gaming industry: a third-person adventure game that lets you experience the story of the Gospels on a quality level never been done before. ONE of 500 is a game with an engaging storyline that takes players on a challenging moral and spiritual journey – all with realistic visuals and sophisticated scriptural, historical, and cultural accuracy.
To achieve this, Germany based studio Lightword Productions has teamed up with experts like God of War senior game designer Mark Webster, who has worked at the game concept, former Disney writer Bob Garner, archeologist Dieter Vieweger, and Pirates of the Caribbean soloist Pedro Eustache.
INTERNATIONAL CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN
Now, the creators of ONE of 500 are launching a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, to make the game a reality. The goal is to have the first episode ready within a year after the start of production. Fitting to the game's context, the campaign starts now during Christmas time and runs from December 8th to January 20th.
“ONE of 500 aims at raising existential questions in the form of basic conflicts in human lives in a biblical context, while engaging players in an exciting story. This is something I think has been missing in the gaming world and I am excited this highly committed team is about to change that now”, says Hendrik Lesser, Founder & CEO of Remote Control Productions.
THE ONE OF 500 STORY
The idea for ONE of 500 originally arose from a dissertation, in which theologian Amin Josua, later founder of Lightword Productions, asked young people about the context of the appropriation of religious content, media and their personal life questions. What he found was that young people were eager to engage with biblical content – but only in a video game they said, and there was no compelling version of that available.
“In contrast to what many people expect when they hear of a religious game, we have a very different approach”, says founder Amin Josua. “ONE of 500 is a game in which players experience the biblical messages in their cultural context, that enables them to understand these texts adequately. But they do not need to ‘act biblically’, they have the freedom to choose their position. There are realistic consequences, no black and white. Together with a visual quality level never seen before in a religious game and great gameplay, this is exactly what we know many gamers are looking for.”
In the game, one slips into the role of a young fisher boy in the year 28 A.D., who experiences a classical coming-of-age story with its challenges in an ancient world, while the conflicts offer a high parallelism to today's time.
“For me, ONE of 500 is a successful example of how values, a medium and young entrepreneurship can be combined to a meaningful product that also promises economic success.” says Dr. Rudolf Bulander, supporter of the project and former CEO of BOSCH.
To make the game a reality and show its potential in the market, the basic goal for the Kickstarter campaign is to raise €180.000 as a first step for the first of five chapters in Episode One. The overall estimated budget for the first of six episodes is about 4 million Euros. But with the new German federal games state grant, Lightword would only have to provide about half. The Kickstarter campaign can be found on www.kickstarter.com/projects/oneof500/oneof500
QUOTES
"Back in the days I was passionately devouring Bible comics in the library. This was part of my entry into the subject of faith and values – through a medium that suited me. ONE of 500 transfers the same message in a contemporary way." Hendrik Lesser, Founder & CEO of Remote Control Productions
"ONE of 500 translates the bible in a completely new way, into the language of gamers and the young generation. Their world may be ‘terra incognita’ for many, but it must not remain ‘terra incognita’. With ONE of 500, the Bible can be experienced in a fascinating way." Oberkirchenrat Dr. Norbert Lurz, Evang. Landeskirche in Württemberg, Dezernent für Kirche und Bildung
"ONE of 500 combines scientific thoroughness with the legitimate curious question of ‘what it was like back then’. I wholeheartedly support the project, because it is a wonderful opportunity to finally translate the Bible into the virtual world." Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. h. c. Dieter Vieweger, Director, Biblical Archeological Institutes Jerusalem/Wuppertal
"I think this is a fantastic endeavor and they need your support. I support it fully and cannot wait to show you the music we would compose for this project." Snow Owl, composer, voted #1 Bass Player in the World 2019
CONTACT
For interview requests or any other matters, you can contact us at info@jaleopr.com.
ABOUT LIGHTWORD PRODUCTIONS GMBH
Lightword Productions is an interdisciplinary studio of developers and humanities scholars creating the story-driven adventure "ONE of 500", in which players explore the biblical story of Jesus interactively, while being on their own challenging journey. The studio was founded in September, 2018 by Amin Josua and it is based in Stuttgart, Germany.
The history of the main character is permeated by basic anthropological questions of life. It overlaps with biblical events (without influencing them), which offer contextually relevant perspectives for the interpretation of the respective conflicts.
The vision for this game has attracted various experienced game developers from Triple A titles that are now part of the core team, including Creative Director Johannes Pfeifer (Tropico 6, Might & Magic: Heroes VII by Ubisoft) and Head of UI/UX Design Simon Seitz (Total War Series, World of Tanks). The project also benefits from a network of experts at universities in Heidelberg, Tübingen and Jerusalem.