SuperCandid Games: Heavenly Harmony Gold totally PWNS Guitar Praise: Solid Rock

Remember Guitar Praise: Solid Rock ?  Well, fugedabout!

In the battle for Christian computer games inspired by hit video games like Rock Band & Guitar Hero , Heavenly Harmony Gold by Cloud9 Games is clearly ahead in terms of features!

Feature 1:
6 players simultaneously!  Not even Rock Band manages this!  4 singers at one time!  That''s 'Bear is driving car' crazy!

Feature 2:
Full compatibility with xbox 360 and Playstation 3 USB-based Guitar Hero and Rock Band controllers! No need to have any extra fake guitars hanging around your house!

Feature 3:
Actual graphics of singers and a performance venue!  Click here for video!

Feature 4:
Only $49.95!  & That includes a USB microphone!  Plus free upgrades for owners of the original Heavenly Harmony!

The only real advantages that Guitar Praise: Solid Rock brings are a bigger song list(but see below), and an OS X version of the game.  The Guitar Praise: Solid Rock bundled controller is wireless, but Heavenly Harmony Gold can use the wireless Guitar Hero controllers from the xbox, since they use a usb dongle to get their wireless functions.

You can check out a partial songlist for Heavenly Harmony Gold here , and they promise that in addition to adding full instrument compatibility for tracks from previous releases(backwards compatibility!), they have an all new game coming out in 2009!  This is an exciting year for Christian video games!

(The Christian Post)
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Relevant Interview with Ted Dekker & Ralph Winter

Relevant Magazine has an interview with House producer Ralph Winter and co-author Ted Dekker. The interview spends a good bit of time talking about how House is the "Christian R-rated horror film," certainly a unique distinction. However, Winter & Dekker bring up two interesting points. First, Winter talks about how they "backed into the marketing campaign a little late," specifically in regards to the R-rating. This seems like an odd thing to claim, considering that the film was delayed by over a year. I would think that in a 13-month period they could come up with some kind of marketing plan. The other bit that I found laughable was Dekker's assertion, prodded on by the interviewer, the he could see no reason besides a bias against faith that the MPAA would give the movie an R-rating. Seriously Ted? You're going to say that the MPAA gave a horror movie an R-rating because they hate Christians? The same MPAA that people such as Kevin Smith has to fight from giving a movie NC-17s for foul language? The same MPAA that has an entire movie about it that presents it as an overly moral set of conservative out-of-touch-with-the-youth busy-bodies? Relevant Magazine Interview found through Brent Alexander Subscribe to the SuperCandid Podcast, the number 1 podcast for Christian movies Subscribe to the SuperCandid Blog Save This Page

House has inauspicious opening weekend

House, the Christian horror film that has been quite literally a long time in coming to theaters, debuted at number 24 in the national box office this weekend, bringing in $329,836.

Granted, it was only playing at 374 theaters around the country, so what does that really say?

Well, the per theater average was $909, pretty awful.  To give you a comparison, one other movie earned $909 per theater over the weekend:  Appaloosa, the Ed Harrirs/Viggo Mortensen Western flop, which, to be fair, is in its 7th week in release.

Fireproof, the juggernaut of Christian films, earned over $1800 per theatre in its 7th week.  Even Religulous, the Bill Maher anit-religion comedy/documentary, earned over $1500 per theatre in this, its 6th week.  Even Save Me, playing in a grand total of 3 theaters in the entire country, earned $1300 per theatre.

I hope House is a good film, but I think that it is safe to say that the marketing for this movie was and is a total failure.


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The Love Dare selling big

The Love Dare , a real-life version of the once-fictional book that is at the heart of Fireproof , is selling like hotcakes.  The Love Dare has already sold over 300,000 copies, and is entering its 3rd printing.  

Funnily enough, this book wasn't even meant to be.  The Kendrick brothers didn't sit down and write it after they started screening the movie.  They did so in response to the high demand from people who attended early test screenings.  

I'm glad the book is doing well, as is the movie, but there is a nagging voice in my head that says that this is just another example of people turning to a book to help their lives or marriage instead of actually doing real counseling or discussion.  If this helps people, that is great.  But I think that people rely upon such books all too much for easy solutions to difficult problems.  "Just follow these 40 steps and everything will be ok."

Not true.

(The Love Dare Book)
(Christian Post Story)

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Guitar Praise: Solid Rock

Today we have a story so big, even Penny Arcade weighed in on it. There is a Christian Guitar Hero, Guitar Praise: Solid Rock. Like I said the other day, I don't really think that calling something "The Christian ...." is very accurate or intelligent, but here there really isn't any other way to say it. This is a long time coming. Christian video games have a checkered past, but they have regained a modicum of respect recently. Now they are finally jumping on what is arguably the biggest franchise in current video games. Don & I were talking just recently that Guitar Hero or Rock Band need to release Chrisitan music add-ons, the way that they have done with Aerosmith. My guess is that the reason they haven't is that the Christian record labels and bands don't want people to be able to play songs like Chris Tomlin's "Made to Worship" while playing as some of the characters in Guitar Hero. Personally, I'd love to see Youtube videos of these worship songs being performed by Slash, "Grim Ripper," and The Devil. The track list for Guitar Praise: Solid Rock includes "Jesus Freak" by dc Talk, and a bunch of other songs that will be familiar to youth groups across the country. I recognize a lot of the songs from my own youth group days, so that probably indicates that the music is a bit dated. It includes a USB-corded guitar, but I imagine that it will work with the wireless guitars that are available for PC. Which is the worst thing about this. PC & Mac only. No Xbox. No PS3. No Wii. Not even PS2. Come on Digital Praise! Put this out for $20 on the PS2, make it compatible with the millions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band guitar controllers that people already own, and let the money just flow in! If this was on the consoles then every youth group in the world would own a copy on day 1! The system requirements are pretty light, so I guess they could run it off a cheap laptop, but this game is made for consoles! Also, like so many Christian products, Guitar Praise: Solid Rock is ridiculously over-priced. $100 for the game + guitar. Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock with guitar is selling for PCs for only $60. Is this really a better value? Or are they just playing to the fact that they have a corner on this segment of the market? (Original Story on Kotaku) (Guitar Praise official site) (Penny Arcade Commentary) EDIT Stop the presses! So... You know that CAG podcast we're always talking about, CheapyD and Wombat and all that? Well, its a podcast about cheap gaming, and wouldn't you know, someone found a cheap deal on this game! $20 off and free shipping... The thread language is a little rough and largely anti-Christian, so beware...! Subscribe to the SuperCandid Podcast, the number 1 podcast for Christian movies Subscribe to the SuperCandid Blog Save This Page

Marketing to Faith-Based Audiences

The Hollywood Reporter has an article about marketing to "faith-based" audiences, specifically in regards to major Hollywood films like the just released Prince Caspian.  

It has numerous interesting and troubling points, such as someone from Gener8xion Entertainment saying that relationships with senior pastors are his "secret sauce" in the recipe of faith based marketing.  He mentions that the most effective tactic is having a pastor play a trailer and then endorse a film.  For me, I find that concept disturbing.  I was troubled by the single, small poster for Expelled that was on the bulletin board at my church.  I think that if my pastor had devoted service time to a trailer and then endorsed the film himself, that would be the day I leave the church.  

The article does bring up the concept, as expressed by Bill Ewing in our interview way back about a year ago, that The Passion was a anamoly.  They also mention how huge "faith-based" marketing campaigns failed to turn Evan Almighty or The Nativity Story into hits.   However, marketing people interviewed keep saying that they can have success getting Christian rear-ends into seats, despite scant evidence.  It seems that, for marketers eyes, all Christians are part of a monolithic viewing block that simply follows wherever someone mentions Jesus in a film.  Or even worse, when they don't mention Jesus at all and expect Christians to come anyway because of some tenuous association.  

Rather insulting to Christians, if you ask me, and I'm proud to see that such slimy campaigns as Evan Almighty failed to bring in the gullible audiences they were apparently looking for.  

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