Guidance:

Lost out on adventure & mystery in real life? Look into a gaming approach to studying about God's kingdom.


Presents:



The computer based games offered here are programmed as Java applets for machine independence, ease of distribution via the internet, and to assure casual users of operational security. It's presumed that users will have at least a Java enabled browser, if not Sun's Java environment download with appletviewer.exe capability (Applet Launcher for Apple users). The applet format used is adapted to be compatible across a wide range of systems (and sometimes even out- of- date Java versions).

In format, a game's playing field & components are coded to be resizeable within a frame that may be proportionately enlarged or reduced and positioned on the user monitor's virtual workspace as convenient. Play is designed to take place between a single player (at base) versus a computer- controlled opponent. Game inputs are generally pauses for key entry: no pointer device manipulation is required. These conditions are hoped to encourage the kind of intermittent usage noted below.


Intents:

Adventure games. Even with their concepts boiled down to an essential simplicity, they retain a powerful potential for attraction of interest. The goal is to implement games that don't lose that fundamental attractiveness, and then try to bend the interest into useful channels. For this bending, as with games themselves, the term "diversion" is often used, and the implication is that the simulation should provide stimulation of the imagination.

The method proposed is the same as that of setting out a chess problem at some place in one's study room, where its superficial eye- catching order and casual analysis can invite or provoke a flagging mind. So, with these games for example, one who needs to write a thank you letter to grandma might start a text editor application, and set up a game with which he is familiar off to one side. Ideally, when a halt is reached in composition, the game could be resorted to briefly with the intention of interrupting it and returning to thought transference when inspiration develops.

Making the games themselves user friendly in design, and so conducive to user interaction and replay, requires avoiding the incorporation of secret criteria and preconceived strategies, while still emphasizing the intrigue and problem solving that elevates them above the ordinary casual game to adventure status. "We don't need no stinking hint books", but at the same time, the pertinent gaming concepts which are intentionally built into a particular game can be elaborated in accompanying material. With some games, once you've learned the game the fun's done. With these games, once you've learned the game the fun's just begun.