We have successfully entered the year of 2025, looking back on a year filled with prototyping, iterations, and discovering new answers! A huge thank you to everyone who likes, shares, donates, and patiently waits for our Bible video game. 
We know a lot of you have followed along with us for a long time, and we acknowledge the fact that updates have been scarce, the reason being that we’ve focused on maintaining momentum behind the scenes!
Concept art for the time traveling realm.
As we mentioned in our previously, we are currently developing a vertical slice of Gate Zero; that is, a selected portion of the game, representing the final look and feel. So, to let you all know what’s really going on behind the scenes, we’ve huddled together with the team leads to gain insight into what’s been done, what’s happening, and what’s coming up.
Enjoy our Q&A!
Arve Solli 
Studio Head
Q: As we begin 2025, GZ has already been up and running for five years. So, where are we in the overall process?
A: So far, we’ve done a lot of exploration and development based on input from our community. Now, we’re starting a phase in which everything will come together as we work towards the first release of the game. Our focus has been on creating a game that is not only historically and biblically accurate, but also fun to play and of high quality. This is crucial for us, and we have a solid team of industry veterans with experience from major titles like Assassin’s Creed, GTA, PUBG, Apex Legends, Red Dead Redemption, Diablo, and more. This amazing team is now bringing all the pieces together!
Some of our awesome team members!
Q: In the previous blog post, we mentioned ramping up for the vertical slice. Which portion of the game does the vertical slice include, and why why was this part chosen?
A: For the vertical slice, we are creating a section that takes place in the middle of the game. This mission highlights Jesus’ ability to heal—not just physically, but also spiritually. Players will get to explore Capernaum, the town where Jesus lived during the last three years of His life, and experience what it was like to be there.
In addition, it will include some super exciting features that we haven’t shared yet, but will be announced soon!
Screen captured scenery of the docks in Capernaum.
Q: A couple of weeks ago, you traveled to the US to meet a handful of the Gate Zero leads. What was the main goal of the meetup?
The main goal of the meetup was to plan and structure the upcoming months of production and ensure that we are set up for success. Our aim is to create the first ever high-quality Bible video game, and this meeting was essential for planning the production phase, diving into the details of design questions and making sure everything is moving forward efficiently.
John, Race, and Liam are analyzing the next steps of our current game build.
Liam Hislop
Senior Producer
Q: You’ve been on the team as our Senior Producer for a few months now – what has it been like?
A: It’s been a lot of fun and hard work. Getting a handle on the game, while dealing with people remotely is a challenge, but having a great team makes it easier. I think having a design summit, helped us get a really strong, unified vision for the team going forward. (More about the design summit below.)
Arve and Liam during the US meetup.
Q: What’s your plan to ensure that things will get done and the next milestones are reached?
A: Prioritization and accountability. Getting our tasks visible and prioritized with people in different time zones is always the way to overcome the challenges. Also focusing on the core of the game; understanding what makes it really fun and engaging, and making sure those features are solid before we spend time in other areas.
A map showing where everyone on our team is working from across the world.
Kim-David Østgård
Game Design & UI
Q: As Liam mentioned, the GDs worked together on an online design summit. What was the goal of the summit, and did you achieve that goal?
A: That’s right! Being remote and spread across different time zones can be challenging. We recognized the need to bring the design team together to align on the various prototyped elements and make key decisions about the game’s overall direction. The summit was a great success! We made significant progress in aligning our goals, took important design decisions, and updated our Game Design Document to support development in the weeks and months ahead.
Game map over Capernaum, with key locations for the Vertical Slice, creating a rich game world.
Q: People might have seen prototype pictures of colorful glitches and crystal formations. What are they, and how do they relate to the story of Jesus?
A: As many may know, Max travels back in time, and on that note, we’ve been experimenting with different realms of time that players can encounter throughout the game. While this aspect is still a work in progress, we already have some exciting ideas and strong design foundations that help us craft engaging gameplay for different player types! We’re very much looking forward to revealing more as development progresses!
Level concept of the time travel realm.
Steve Chadwick
Game Writer & Actor
Q: One of the big milestones has been writing and recording motion capture for some of the most important cut scenes for the vertical slice. What are your key takeaways from this process?
- We will only succeed in touching people’s hearts with our game if, in addition to detailed research, exciting scripts, and immersive gameplay, we capture the drama and emotional impact of these monumental events.
- Challenges can always be overcome when team members are passionate about the project.
- If you begin with a film script, halve its length. Then halve it again. Finally, refine it so you use about ten percent of what remains, and you might be in the right ballpark for a computer game.
Steve prepping the actors for their cut scene.
Motion Capture studio in Moss, Norway.
Markus Paasila Fjeld
Lead Animator
Q: You’re currently working on implementing the motion capture data for the iconic story of the paralytic man lowered through the roof. Have there been any challenges so far?
A: There are plenty of technical challenges when using mocap for games. One of those is that the actor for the paralytic man was recorded lying on the ground, but I have to make it appear as if he is being carried by four people. For that, I have to create a rig in 3D that can balance on the shoulders of four characters, attach the paralytic man to it, and give the impression of a heavy weight being carried.
Combining several takes of motion capture in Unreal Engine.
Bobby Bogdanov
Art Director
Q: What recent achievement are you most proud of in the art team?
A: 2024 was a dynamic year, not only because of content we created, but because we assembled an awesome team of experienced professionals ready to handle any future challenges. We established the technical art pipeline that will enable us to bring the vision for the game to a wide variety of platforms. Last but not least, we advanced significantly with visual development of Capernaum and it’s residents – meeting historical accuracy while ensuring the attractiveness and variety that the present day player expects to see in a high profile game.
Capernaum modules from a year ago (January 2024)
Most recent modules, creating the Capernaum marketplace. (January 2025)
Q: How is it working on an title like Gate Zero, in comparison to games from AAA studios?
A: I personally always wanted to apply the knowledge and skills of creating rich, engaging open worlds outside the context of big studios and AAA productions. For everyone on the team it is both nostalgic and exciting to work on such a project.
Daniel Nielsen
Sound Design
Q: What’s the vision or goal for the audio side of things for Gate Zero this year
A: My personal ambitions are to make the sounds of ancient Israel as realistic as possible so it feels like you really are there. Unfortunately, no one on the team has access to a time machine and can walk around in Capernaum 2,000 years ago. So, we try to craft the soundscape with as much care and detail as possible. With help of our archaeological team, we can pinpoint which birds and wildlife sounds to include in the nature ambience. By collaborating closely with the writers team, we can bring the marketplace at the synagogue to life with custom-written background chatter.
When we started using the software Wwise for Gate Zero this month, everything immediately seemed much easier. The music systems that we previously spent weeks developing in Unreal Engine, were suddenly done in half a day in Wwise. I’m particularly excited since Wwise is the leading industry standard for providing audio solutions of the highest quality. We can now design better audio than ever before.
Preview of sound effects to be imported through Wwise.
Chrys Piva
Lead Programmer
Q: With a background working for studios like Rockstar, Ubisoft and WB Games, what has it been like getting into the systems and code of Gate Zero?
A: The project needed to move from a prototyping mentality and development style over to a more structured production-ready approach for the various game features that have been experimented with.
Over the past months we spent a lot of time creating systems that are scalable and flexible to produce an ambitious open world game like Gate Zero. Doing so with a very small team has been a major challenge.
We also have to keep performance and ease of debugging in mind. Over the past four months we essentially took the learnings from the prototype project and started building the systems from the ground up to ensure we are hitting all the necessary goals to deliver the game the team has envisioned and that the players deserve.
This system automatically decides where the Roman guards should position themselves around Max, our main character.
Dynamic crowd systems allow us to create lively environments without working on each NPC character manually.
Early version of a compass system, guiding the player where to go next.
Robert Pledger
Major Gift Officer
Q: How is the fundraising going for the first release of Gate Zero, and what steps are being taken to reach full funding?
So, we will continue working hard on securing enough funds. We have some exciting events and campaigns planned for 2025, and we’ll be taking a more hands-on approach in finding new leads and potential donors. We have also worked on some new marketing material to showcase just how great Gate Zero is.
Through God’s blessing, faithful service, and due diligence, we continue to be lead to high capacity donors who have a heart for increasing Bible literacy and spreading the gospel worldwide.
“Pray like it all depends on God. Work like it all depends on you.”
– St. Augustine
In 2024, Gate Zero was featured at Mehr in Germany and for the first time at GDC in San Francisco!
Do you want to join us in making an impact in the lives of millions of youth worldwide with the gospel in the gaming space?
Other News
Playthrough by YouTuber FGTeeV Duddy!
FGTeeV’s content is gaming centered and family friendly, has been active for over a decade and is currently entertaining 24 million subscribers. Full video below:
We reached out to say thanks, and this was his reply:
“I should be thanking you because this game is so amazing. To be able to mix modern day with a gateway to ancient Biblical times is perfect. Learning history on one of the most important books ever while having fun is a win-win. There are so many normal regular games out there and I’m tired of that genre, I want to play games that will actually make a difference in someone’s life! Your game is an amazing tool for that! I can’t wait to play more!”
That wraps up this dev blog post!
We are determined to continue our work in bringing the message of the Bible to life, and making it accessible to children and youth worldwide through one of the world’s first high-quality Bible video games!
Again – a big thank you for your continual support and patience.
Thank you for the informative and content-rich blog post. Regarding donations, I have one more request for Mr. Robert Pledger: the donation page “https://nextgenbiblemedia.org/donate/?” is probably only valid for America – donations that I make on this page are not recognized as donations in Germany and are therefore not taken into account in the income tax calculation. I suspect that Germany is not the only country with national donation reimbursement laws, but please consider whether it would be possible to establish a donation page in Germany as well – I believe that there are many happy donors here who would like to support the game financially…