CCGR: Tell us about yourselves and the company. When did you start the company and why?

TGS: God gave me the idea of designing Christian games at around 1994/1995 when the Christian gaming industry was incredibly small (and you thought it was small now). I started designing some game concepts and the such but I got discouraged and tossed the idea. In the summer of 1999 God once again laid heavy on my heart to create Christian games. In early 2000 we went on the web and after a lot of work, stress, tears, slow downs and more learning than any course could ever teach you we're now here.

CCGR: Tell us about Eternal War: Shadows of Light. How long have you been working on it? When is the release date? What is the story?

TGS: After a brutal confrontation with a publisher we were talking to about with helping us with our previous project, Revelation, we were left with a choice to either close down TGS or try and create another game. My Fiance worked with me on some ideas about angels fighting demons, I pieced some more ideas in for the story based off of my own personal background and Eternal War was born. That concept came to us around June, Eternal War was officially announced in October on the TGS site and we started actually ?working? on it in February of this year. Originally Eternal War had a story created by our assistant script and design writer Josh, but we had to cut the story due to lack of funds, time and staff. We?re hoping on still using the story for future versions of Eternal War.

CCGR: Were there any stumbling blocks or set backs during the development of Eternal War: Shadows of Light?

TGS: You better believe it. TGS (Two Guys Software) is a company run with pure dedication and spare time. We have no money at all, so that was a major stumbling block. We had other set backs like employees disappearing on us, broken promises, etc. The only real reason we?re here now is Gods endless blessings and the pure hard work of employees.

CCGR: From the screen shots, this looks to be a FPS. Is it? Can it be compared to another game? What is unique about Eternal War: Shadows of Light?

TGS: Eternal War is a FPS genre game, we wanted to give players a fun, challenging, action packed experience, so we went with FPS. I could call Eternal War the Quake of Christian games, but with a deeper story, no gore and very very few demonic symbols. :-) The uniqueness of Eternal War comes from it?s story, the monster abilities, the fact that Mike (main character) talks during the game and one of the multi player modes we're working on.

CCGR: So what will I be fighting? Better yet, what kind of weapons will I get to use?

TGS: You?ll be mostly fighting different forms and classes of demons. We have 17 different types of baddies in Eternal War, most which have their own personal abilities like throw explosive flasks, use alternative attacks with their default weapons, search you down if you run away, call for backup, summon, cloak, teleport and more. Also there is 4 different difficulties to choose from, where enemies can act totally different than other difficulties. We have 8 weapons for players to use in Eternal War. Things like Lighting, the ability to fire concentrated blasts of Holy matter, Ice shards, Spinning Discs, etc. are all fun and effective to use. :-)

CCGR: Will there be multi player? If so, will there be any on-line play?

TGS: We have multi player with 2 playing modes. Players can either team up and play through levels (co-op mode) or try and stop massive floods of demons coming through mental openings by praying around the openings (utterly destroying and closing them). Both which can be frantic and fun play.

CCGR: Will there be any female heroines? If so they get full body armour right?

TGS: Originally we were going to have players have the ability to choose between a female and a male characters. However we found that we ran into some development snags and we have to put her on the back burner. We?re interested in creating a sequel to Eternal War and have the main character be a female. The female character will also be fully dressed, better protection! :-)

CCGR: The screen shots look great! What graphical engine are you using?

TGS: We'll be holding that information until a later date.

CCGR: Will there be a demo available? If so, when?

TGS: A demo will be available close to when the full version is ready. We don't want to disappoint gamers by not reaching any dates, however the reason for this interview is because our development cycle is soon coming to a close for Eternal War.

CCGR: Will it be available in stores? If so which ones? Will you have a publisher? If so, who?

TGS: We'll be approaching a publisher very soon about Eternal War, we would like to sell Eternal War in as many stores as we can and we will also be selling it online.

CCGR: Will Eternal War: Shadows of Light support fan created Modules or will you release an editor for it?

TGS: We are still discussing this aspect. This is a touchy subject when it comes to Christian games, for example: what happens if a user abuses the game by adding disagreeable content (like swearing and nudity). If we do decide to allow players to work with Eternal War, they'll be able to create maps, multi player modes, new weapons, monsters, modify the engine, you name it.

CCGR: Will the players be able to alter the gore level?

TGS: Gore isn?t a factor in Eternal War, you can?t rip demons up into red meaty pieces. When you strike demons with your holy weapons, darkness will emit from them and they?ll groan, that?s about the extent of it.

CCGR: What will the system requirements be?

TGS: Unknown at the current time, we are aiming for a low end system (300/333mhz, 64 megs of ram, 3d card) so we can reach more players. We\'ll probably be running extensive tests before the release.

CCGR: Who is the target audience/gamer?

TGS: Teen and adults, they'll relate to the story a lot better than younger gamers.

CCGR: Have you implemented everything you wanted in Eternal War: Shadows of Light? Is it everything you hoped it would be or better?

TGS: We haven't been able to put all the ideas into Eternal War that I would like. For example, We (Josh our assistant design on Eternal War and myself) designed the ability for players to pick between a male and a female character, that didn't pan out just right. Josh's story also didn't pan out right because we didn't have the required resources, which was really disappointing. The monsters and weapons turned out great, so did the levels and textures, the multi player code was a bit disappointing for me, but it still works good, especially good over a home or office network, so that's nice. :-)

CCGR: What is the future for Eternal War, and for Two Guys Software? Will there be sequels? More games in the same genre or a different genre?

TGS: This question gets into the fiancees aspect of the company so I?ll try to water the message down a bit. Personally I?m not worried about the aspect of Eternal War selling as many copies as we need. I trust God will help us out with that and continue to help us out. We do have a set goal of how many copies we need to sell in order to continue the companies operation, but I don?t feel like we should publically announce it, we probably will when we surpass it. We are considering a sequel for Eternal War with a lead female angel, and we also have other plans as well. TGS isn?t restricted by genres or settings, we?re interested a lot in different genre games.

CCGR: Do you have any questions for us or comments for our readers?

TGS: Praise God we?ve gotten this far, somebody said creating games was hard, they must have never tried making a Christian game. I know that sounds proud and I don?t mean it in that way, it?s the aspect Christian game developers have to walk a fine line trying to bring gamers what you crave. However God is with us all the way, that?s the comforting thought, we would have been screwed without Him.

The Christian game industry is still very small and very very fragile. I believe strongly that it?s one of the next generations of Christian evangelistic and entertainment outreaches to people and has a lot of freedom to grow. Please, please, please support companies who are striving hard trying to bring you fun games to play. Pray for us, the spiritual battles behind any ministry is harsh and this is no exception. You can also purchase the games, play them to death, write us emails about what you loved and hated, etc.. I don?t mean this for just TGS, but any Christian gaming company, we are working hard towards the same goal and we need all the support and feedback we can get. Also, thanks for reading this interview, it means a lot to me and the rest of the Rebels. My e-mail is free to anyone who has questions, comments or feedback, I?m deeply interested in what gamers have to say.

It's also a lot of fun making non-Bible thumping Christian games, rock on! :-D

CCGR: Why is your company called Two Guys Software when you have more than two guys in your team? :)

TGS: The most popular question around! :-) When we founded the company, it started out with just two guys sitting around tossing around ideas for the longest time. I think Pat came up with the idea Two Guys Software because of that and later on I added the ?Rebels with a Cause? slogan to add more bite to the company name. Besides, TGS is a cool nick for it. :-)