Let's Play Socrates Jones: The Bible and Euthyphro, Or, God is Holy, Holy is God

from Socrates Jones: Pro-Philosopher

A dilemma was postulated by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who asked Euthyphro:  "Is what is morally good (holy) commanded by a god because it is morally good (holy), or is it morally good because it is commanded by a god?"

This was brought to my attention by the above game, Socrates Jones. It features an Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney-style gameplay, but instead of a court case, you are literally debating the meaning of morality for your life... because apparently you died since you didn't buy deer repellant and now you have gone to philosopher "heaven" (or more accurately, "purgatory"). At any rate, it's not an afterlife you want to spend much more time in.

Euthyphro is the first philosopher you debate against. In the game, he argues that mankind is flawed, which is true. He then argues because the gods are better than humanity, they determine what is good. But his premise fails because of his belief in polytheism, for the gods contradict each other. His counterpoint to that is most gods (and religions) agree on what is good and what is bad. Which brings back the dilemma, do the gods agree because that thing is intrinsically good?

After a few pensive thoughts, my mind turned to Scripture, which, naturally, has the answer.

Isaiah 6
1In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 

2Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

3And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

The passage equates God as thrice Holy (reflecting His Triune nature). It doesn't say "God says what is holy" or "God knows what is holy", it says He is the very essence of holiness and moral good. It cannot be separated from Him. His very nature is holiness and moral good! No God, no holiness.

Euthryphro fails to acknowledge the thrice Holy God of the Bible. There are no other gods but Him. What he has is only a false dilemma once you know the actual state of things.


Isaiah 45
5 I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else.

Note that the passage capitalizes the "G" in God on verse 5. While there are many small "g" gods, there is only one capital "G" God. Because the idols are beneath Him, whether the god be called Baal or Zeus or Thor, since He is the the God, they don't even start to compare, making them ill fit to be standards of morality. (It's a favorite strategy by atheists to equate the Christian God to Zeus due to the fact they are both religious entities, but the similarities end there. The Christian God stands by Himself while Zeus and his pantheon merely resemble petty immortal humans with great powers, i.e. superheroes.)

Which brings us back to a slightly altered question:
"Is what is morally good (holy) commanded by God because it is morally good (holy), or is it morally good because it is commanded by God?"

Answer: "God is holy and morally good, holiness and good morality is the nature of God. God commands what His holy nature is to be, and what His holy nature determines what is commanded by Him".

Postmortem: Nativity

A celebration of the true meaning of Christmas.

Nativity: http://gamejolt.com/games/other/nativity/10880/

I was tired of all the games for Christmas that promoted the ultra-commercialistic Santa Claus Kringle. Where are the media that celebrated the true meaning of Christmas? (I realize the previous sentence may be oxymoronic in nature.) And so Nativity was born, no pun intended. It is actually a continuation and a finishing of the game I started last year or so.

Gameplay:
Not really much gameplay. It's supposed to tell a story on why it was necessary for Jesus to come to Earth, and thus the journey of Nativity is punctuated by flashbacks in the past and "flashforwards" in the future, making it a huge sequence. It's more of an interactive story, and so, only the characters may be controlled by the Arrow Keys or A and D to move the characters. It's probably the first game that I drew out the landscape for platforming instead of using blocks.

Graphics:
The graphics are a mix of colored and black and white silhouettes. I added in light effects for the angels and for the star of Bethlehem. Small objects are colored to distinguish them, as with the fruit and the gifts of the wise men.

Sound:
We Three Kings of Orient Are is the piece that plays once throughout the game. I aim to replace it, since it doesn't seem to fit in some instances. I was thinking of using a thunder effect for the flashback, but only the music is the only sound that plays in-game currently.

Merry Christmas!

InDev: Saphruby Mockup

I am in the process of making this for Experimental Gameplay: November and December TEMPERATURE. Not going to post much, but use your imagination. I hope I can use Stencyl or Construct for the final, if not, back to good ole' Game Maker.

The mechanic obviously has the player pressing the keyboard.

Happy Thanksgiving!

InDev: Grandfather Paradox Part #2

"The Grandfather holds the watch to his gaze. Soon..."

Another blog post in developing Paradox, Grandfather. It is a casual time travel RTS game, or it probably can be more accurately called an RTT (Real Time Tactics) game.

Previously, I introduced the basic gameplay and the two main warring factions. But there is a special "faction", so to speak (Actually, two, if you count the neutral civilians as a faction). The Grandfather "faction" is the source of the blessings, or woes, of time travel in this world. It is composed of the Grandfather unit and his various incarnations. In 192X, he is a young man, who invented the time travel machine and set into motion the events culminating into the war between the Imperiarchy and Republicorp. In 195X, he is an old man, armed with a steampunk army of sorts.

The Grandfather "faction" only let's you play with one unit directly, the Grandfather. You can even control him with the WASD keys and shoot with the mouse button. He can enter any time machine. You have to avoid the Imperiarchy and Republicorp from killing you, or stealing your plans, or otherwise messing with history.

You can upgrade the Grandfather unit. He can be armed with a Chronogun that erases units from existence. When he is still, he is cloaked and invisible. His speed can also be upgraded. But he is weak constitutionally, so take care when manuevering into areas of heavy fire.

The Imperiarchy and Republicorp factions are with through five equivalent units each through four attributes. They are all infantry units. I did not want to add in vehicles and things to the lineup, although in another future version of the game, I might. Possibly the post-experiment version.

Now, I will explain the time travel system, more. In Skirmish battles, after winning, it saves the game, and you can load it, and play against yourself, as if trying to alter history. Or you can play as yourself, and finish in a lower time limit. The Campaign will work the same way. It will be interesting, or at least I hope so.

I decided to cut off the Campaign until the post-experiment version, which I might sell. The version for EGP will include only the Skirmish mode.

InDev: Grandfather Paradox Part #1

"In 195X, two warring factions: the Imperiarchy and the Republicorp, are in a stalemate. Only one way to break this: time travel."

Paradox, Grandfather is a game I'm making for Experimental Gameplay: Time Manipulation for August and September. Details are subject to change. Note that the link provided for the download provides only a mockup prototype without gameplay, yet.

The game is set in an alternate past, where the Imperial States of Ohio (the Imperiarchy) and the United Sozist People's Republicorporation (the Republicorp) are embroiled in an apocalyptic Cold War in 195X. The weapon that caused this war is not the atom bomb, but the time machine.

The Imperiarchy decides to end the war by eliminating time travel in the past. The Republicorp travels back to prevent that alternation in history, then the Imperiarchy decides to stop the Republicorp from going... and so on.

The game is made to be a casual RTS, inspired by Relic of War and the Achron RTS. In the battlefield, the player is given two views. The first view shows 192X view of the battlefield. The second view is the present, or 195X, of the battlefield.

The factions must send units from 195X to 192X, but also can fight in 195X. Only in 192X can mission objectives be met. There is a Time Indicator in which the player can change so the player can send units any time in 192X. For example, if the Imperiarchy captures the "Grandfather"(revealed in a future InDev) in 192X, the Republicorp can rewind the Time Indicator and send troops to prevent his capture. Or the Republicorp can drag the time indicator and place troops in the future to stop the capture at the extraction point.

That is all for now! Gotta get back working. :)

Tower Defense Doesn't Make Sense

Tower defense. It just doesn't make sense to me. But then, nothing in video games do if you really looked hard enough. Especially if you're an indie.

Tower defense is a genre of video games that concerns putting towers to inhibit and delay advancing waves of enemies that usually travel along a path to a main base. Some innovators of the genre include multiple lanes of advancing waves, playing as the advancing army instead of the tower builder, flying enemies, random paths, random towers, and whatnot. It is almost a brother to real time strategy, howbeit without movable units.

However fun to play, though, it just doesn't make sense!

Why would an advancing army ignore the towers in the way? Why don't they just destroy them when they encounter it, like all good RTSes. Its like the creator is making fun of your intelligence of tactics and strategy. No one is dumb enough to do that!

But I guess that's what makes tower defense games a bit more popular than normal real-time strategy games. RTSes make you think about how to attack and defend from a smart AI. Thinking is hard work.

In contrast, tower defense has only one strategy for the enemy AI, advance blindly onto the battlefield to the main base, ignoring all defenses! If that was an RTS commander, he would get slaughtered quickly.

So in essence, tower defense games are replays of the same thing over and over again, a failed and foolhardy AI attack in an RTS.

5Buttons Experimental Gameplay: Neenjah Inna WearHauz

"A neenjah inna wearhauz, you've gotta bee kiddin'!"

This was a very interesting competition for game designers. I played around with a few ideas, finally settling to base my gameplay on a game called Lazarus, with a control twist. The competition only allowed for the number 1-5 buttons to simulate the control scheme of Unita Zero.

My entry is aptly named "Neenjah Inna WearHauz". You play a ninja trapped... in all places... a warehouse. For some reason, boxes are falling and you can only stop them by pressing the "STOP" buttons on either side of the screen. To do so, you need to climb your way on the boxes, but avoid being squished. The player starts on "3" and can jump to the right by pressing "4". He can then jump again by pressing "5". Likewise, he can jump back to the left by jumping on "4". And so on and so forth. If the player has reached either "1" or "5", he can press the button again to jump in the previous direction("1" makes the player jump left indefinitely, while "5" goes to the right indefinitely).

Overall, it was tough designing for a platform I have never seen or heard of before. I hope the players will like it!

5Buttons Competition: http://experimentalgameplay.com/blog/2011/12/5-buttons-competition-in-decemberjanuary/

My entry Neenjah Inna WearHauz: http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/other/neenjah-inna-wearhauz/7019/