Brent Dusing, founder of Lightside Games, isn’t just trying to create the next cool thing on Facebook. Sure, his games are fun to play, but his passion is to introduce gamers around the globe to the person of Jesus Christ through social media online entertainment. And it’s working.
Ratings for “The Bible” TV series have somehow even surpassed the expectations for the 10-hour History Channel program.
More than 10 million people have tuned in each week, including 13.1 million for the premier on March 3. To put into context, that’s the highest ratings for any cable program in 2013 and it beat anything network stalwarts ABC or NBC televised all week.
But the popularity of “The Bible” hasn’t been confined to just the medium of television. Lightside Games has partnered with “The Bible” TV series to produce an interactive game on Facebook called “Light the Way: The Bible.”
Brent Dusing, founder and CEO of Lightside Games, connected with “The Bible” executive producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downing about producing a game to coincide with their TV series and the interest was mutual.
“I’m personally very passionate about high quality Christian entertainment,” said the Silicon Valley Christian entrepreneur. “So it’s great to be able to work with people who share that same passion.”
Similar to how “The Bible” is trying to infuse God’s Word into mainstream culture, Dusing sees social media gaming as a platform to spread the Gospel through Scripturally rooted games.
“What we’re really passionate about is reaching people around the world through God’s truth and love,” Dusing said. “We do this through video games. There’s half a billion people who play video games every week or two (through social and mobile media).”
SearchforJesus.net, the Internet Evangelism ministry of The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, is also partnering with Lightside Games. Users will have the opportunity during their play to click on PeacewithGod.net to see a clear presentation of the Gospel and make a decision to accept Christ.
“If people want to know more they can jump over to the PeacewithGod.net site,” Dusing said. “We’ve seen some great results already. We’ve had players tell us it’s changed their lives and they’ve made decisions for Christ.
“Our dream is to reach 100 million people around the world,” Dusing continued,”and we believe working with BGEA is part of the plan.”
Lightside’s first two games, Journey of Moses in August2011 and Journey of Jesus in2012, has been played by 4 million users, including more than 100,000 people in countries hostile to the Gospel.
“We surveyed a sample of them and 65 to 70 percent of them want to learn more about Jesus,” an encouraged Dusing said. “We’ve seen such a high level of interest and feel this is the direction God is leading us in.” Dusing loves the idea of being able to spread the Gospel in difficult areas.
“There’s a lot of countries where you can’t go in and speak,” he said, “you can’t ship a Bible to, or where you send a missionary at their own peril.
“Yet these (gamers) have their own phone. They have Internet and it’s not threatening.”Dusing calls online gaming “a new mission field,” that can touch people of all generations.
“Kids are playing it. Grandparents are connecting with it. People in their 30s and 40s are into it,” he said. “People are telling us they can’t put it down.”
And that’s exactly the goal of Lightside Games — to spread the Light in a relaxed environment.
“They’re made to be fun and engaging,” he said. “It’s not Robitussin. It’s chocolate cake with vitamins.”
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