Museum
Origin: Cradle of Grace⌗
Before Saints of Virtue, Shine Studios worked on a concept for a very different kind of game. We found a reference to it in the old Luminous Studios website, and after some searching we were finally able to recover a video of this project from an old compilation disk called “Ultimate Bible Games Vol. IV” put out by Sovereign Software (now Logos).
We were able to contact Mr. Ulrich and get his memories and comments on the project:
Origin: Cradle of Grace was a game design that was pitched in the early 90’s. It pre-dates SOV by quite a bit and was before I met and partnered with David Slayback. The game almost happened. I had a couple of interested partners back then. Logos Bible Software and Intuit. It was pretty exciting but the project never got off the ground. Boiler plate contracts were in process but never signed. […] I created [the video linked below] for some presentations at a Christian Booksellers Conference in Atlanta. It’s hard to believe but at that time it was pretty cutting edge and turned a few heads. Looking at it now it’s bit embarrassing. :-)
And as for the video itself:
I vaguely remember that Dave did some work to get something on that Bible Games bundler and I think I did promo for the Origin content. Those were interesting times. The Origin game design was pretty kewl. I used to listen to a guy name Chuck Missler who talked a lot about the tech that might have existed pre-flood along with speculation of the fallen ones and alien abductions. The design explored some of the craziness that might have been rampaging in the antediluvian world. Truth could be stranger than fiction. The stuff still fascinates me. I do a podcast with my son and we flirt around with some of the similar ideas. If you get bored, www.astrangething.com.
You can watch the video here.
Design Docs & Concept Art⌗
YouTuber Tin Sensei was able to source a PDF contain design docs and concept art for Saints of Virtue! We’d known about the existence of this document for some time, and now we finally have it!
Check it out here.
Mike Ulrich Interview⌗
YouTuber Tin Sensei sat down with Mike Ulrich for a two-hour interview about the making of Saints of Virtue. You can pay a small fee for access to his Patreon and watch the interview.
Trailer / Pitch Video⌗
Some years ago we learned that “Sovereign Software” (a company which later became Logos) put out four compilation discs in the early 2000s called “Ultimate Bible Games”.
We recovered the trailer for the unreleased “Origin: Cradle of Grace” from one of these disks.
But through the Internet Archive we were able to see that “Ultimate Bible Games Vol. IV” contained an entry (video? demo? We weren’t sure…) for Saints of Virtue itself!
After several years of searching, Tim Emmerich of the Christian Game Developers Conference supplied us with a copy of the disk, and we were able to recover an early trailer for Saints of Virtue.
You can watch it here.
Print Ads⌗
Right now I only have one print ad that mentions Saints of Virtue. I remember seeing a full-page ad just for Saints of Virtue in a Christian magazine, but I no longer have it and I don’t really remember what the publication was. (I think either Homeschooling Today or Christianity Today.)
If you can find any other Saints of Virtue promotional material, get in touch!
Hint Guides⌗
Shine Studios put out several hint guides for the game after release. They’ve been backed up through the Internet Archive, and you can read them below:
Back in the day, Slayback and Ulrich would respond to emails asking for additional secret locations. I’ve unfortunately lost my conversations with them. If you have any old emails to share, get in touch!
Luminous Studios⌗
Years ago I stumbled across the website for Shine Studios before it had published Saints of Virtue. They had just changed their name from Luminous Studios to Shine Studios, and had published the trailer for the unreleased Origin: Cradle of Grace project. I made a backup of the site, which you can download here.
You’ll find beta screenshots, early descriptions of the game, and some quaint animated GIFs. The highlights:
- The Masks were originally called “Bigheads”
- Saints of Virtue’s elevator pitch: “Pilgrim’s Progress meets the Terminator”
- Resumes for Slayback and Ulrich
- An FTP log from 2003!
There are also two images from the site’s files that can’t be found anywhere else.
Redemption Cards⌗
Saints of Virtue was published by Cactus Game Design, which also publishes Redemption, a Christian-themed TGC. As you may expect, Cactus did some cross-promotion for Saints of Virtue in Redemption.
The “Ark of the Covenant” card isn’t strictly Saints-related, but it uses the same art style and possibly the same 3D modeling tools. Additionally, the art for the “Saint of Virtue” card is different from the retail box art and is the same as the concept render.
Usenet⌗
David Slayback recruited beta testers on Usenet in early 1999, you can read it here. He did not get very polite responses.
We are looking for beta testers for an upcoming Christian-oriented computer game called Saints of Virtue. The game is a 3-D action shooter similar to Doom or Quake in play but without the blood and gore. We need a limited number of beta testers to help test the game over the next few weeks. The game runs on an IBM PC compatible. We want to know how well the game runs and get feedback on the gameplay. If you would be interested in beta testing, please send the following information in an e-mail to ShineS...@yahoo.com and we will get back to you shortly.
Additionally, Rob Anderson of Cactus Games brought Saints of Virtue to Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH and GenCon in Milwaukee, WI:
For those of you who will be attending Origins in Columbus, OH next month or GenCon in Milwaukee, WI in August, all of our games will be available at the booth of Mayfair Games, Inc. These include the new Saints of Virtue CDROM game, The Game of Pilgrim’s Progress board game, the new Warriors expansion set for Redemption, and The Game of Scattergories: Bible Edition and Catholic Edition.
Newsletters⌗
Here are the original “Saints Scoop” newsletters from August 1999 to September 2000. An interesting glimpse into cut content, plans for a sequel, and the ideas behind the game.
We want to thank all of you who have told your friends about our game – the response has been overwhelming!!
Some of the early names we had included: “Holy Warrior”, “Realm of the Heart”, “Bible Hero”, “Bible Crusader”, and “Heavenly Realms”. We used Holy Warrior for a while, but it never stayed because it sounded too “combat”-oriented and possibly too “violent”
We actually had several extra levels and regions planned out that we hoped to add, but the game became big enough with its four current.
This was going to be an area where enemies who are in pain and agony were crying out. You would just have to escape before too long or be consumed by the pain. It was a little too negative and depressing of an area, and we had a hard time figuring out how to show – God, the great Comforter – could ease suffering.
Having finished Saints of Virtue, we are starting work on a new game. We cannot give you a lot of details yet, but we are in what is called the “design phase”. This is where we discuss and figure out the design of the game. This includes asking the questions like: “What is the game going to be about?”, “What kind of game is it?”, and “How will it be fun?”. When you think about it, those are big questions that cannot be answered easily. We have been going through a lot of ideas, but we want one that is unique and special and communicates a positive message.
However, the more we design and plan, the more excited we are about the possibilities of our next game. It’s a different type of game than Saints of Virtue, but would be very fun and challenging. We do hope to share with you more details about the game as well as design sketches in a few months time.
What we can now share is that we are working on several game design concepts. One is based on Saints of Virtue; not quite a sequel but something like that. We will definitely keep you up to date.
David Slayback Interviews⌗
Christiangaming.com did a brief interview with Slayback, which you can read here.
…they saw the Christian game market as “dead”. We tried very hard to convince them that a product such as ours would help revive it. Most of the big publishers turned us down.
One of the more interesting pieces of press on the game, revealing sales figures and development background. Read it here.
Statistics in the nascent Christian computer game industry are hard to come by. Slayback said he’s sold 15,000 copies of “Saints” at about $25 each through stores, the Internet and direct mail since it became available in July 1999.