Abstract: Video games represent an innovative medium for entertainment and artistic expression with potential for fostering deeper engagement with religious texts such as the Book of Mormon. Over the past three decades, developers have produced dozens of video games based on the Book of Mormon. This paper provides a comprehensive history of these video games. We examine how these games use different genres, styles, and levels of scriptural fidelity to creative immersive and interactive experiences based on ancient stories and teachings. We also discuss the challenges and opportunities for developing and distributing Book-of-Mormon–themed video games in a competitive and changing market and discuss the future potential of religious-themed video games in fostering unique spiritual experiences.

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For centuries, the scriptures have inspired artists and authors. Sacred texts provide the basis for countless paintings, sculptures, novels, songs, and films. Unsurprisingly, since the advent of computer games in the late twentieth century, the scriptures have also inspired many video game developers.

The first video games based on Christian scriptures trace their origin to the books Bible Basic1 and Computer Bible Games2 published in the early 1980s. These books contained several Bible-themed “type-in programs” that could run on popular home computers of the day, such [Page 304]as the TRS-80 or Commodore 64. Since then, developers worldwide have created an extensive collection of scripturally themed video games. The most common text is the Old Testament. But there are also games based on the New Testament and the Book of Mormon.

However, the development of Christian-themed video games frequently faces a lack of funding, partly because of a history of mediocre games and the relatively small size of the core gamer audience for such games.3 Despite the small size of this niche in the gaming industry, a historical examination of these efforts can help to shed light on the ways that video game development serves to provide marketable products as well as to act as an expression of the faith of game developers.

This paper focuses on video games based on the Book of Mormon. Indeed, some Latter-day Saint game developers may feel a special call to create and distribute games inspired by the Book of Mormon. In an October 1988 General Conference address, Ezra Taft Benson declared, “I have a vision of artists putting into film, drama, literature, music, and paintings great themes and great characters from the Book of Mormon.”4 It is not unreasonable to imagine game developers being among the “artists” referred to by President Benson. In a review of literature related to the Book of Mormon, Paul Gutjahr hints at the existence of Book-of-Mormon–themed video games, but he does not cite any specific examples.5 Our paper is the first effort to collect, analyze, and categorize every commercial video game ever made about the Book of Mormon.

Video Game Genres

Although the term video game correctly refers to a variet...