LOLNINJA'S PROFILE

Check the Misaos history. That should give you a rough impression of the english rm scene. This, because the winner usually managed to amass a good deal of people to vote for his/her game, thus probably having the attention of a good deal of people. Though I've seen german rm sites with rm projects that made me think they are in a league of their own. Like, lots of unknown yet very impressive-looking games.

In either case, I've been told that rm95 had its popular phase. Scope wise, I'd start the timeline there. I can only remember A Blurred Line being hyped (see misaos) and The Way and a story of NigSek being the hype before ABL, and a time where I was a young boy and got excited over these misao awards all the forum seniors were talking about... but all those stories are from old, subjective memories.

I wonder what your criteria are of defining an 'era'. A certain threshold of people aware of a rm game / rm event? I suppose you'd want to list some big rm community sites. Heck, I'd already be interested in just seeing the rm communities come and go (along with active member count on the timeline). I bet you can find lots.

@Trujin: That looks like a ridiculously expansive menu system for an rm2k3 game. Impressive. The subtle use of black/white/blue gives a calm look. With that, any use of color or subtle moving elements could be used to divert the user's attention to whatever matters (i.e. selected item). I think using descriptive icons instead of the rectangle placeholders would make a big difference in the presentation.

Is this for a particular game, or do you intend to create a menu system that can be reused for many games?

I kind of wonder to what extent a 10 year old child should be encouraged to search spiritual enrichment. At that age I was just listening to bible stories with great interest, but probably because I liked to be read stories, not for spiritual enrichment. Spiritual enrichment happened only recently, when I was like 23 - and it's not particularly Christianity. On hindsight it was useful to know the stories because it is culturally 'normal' to at least know a bit of it.

I think that games are good to make abstract teachings very concrete in a simulated situation. I assume that Christianity ultimately propagates living in peace with your environment and with yourself, and the ten commandments being a simple list of living in peace with your environment. In real life, when I get in a conflict situation or find money on the street, I'd probably choose to break those commandments. So what a game could offer me is a simulation of what would ultimately happen if I would remain friendly and honest - or not.

Well maybe this is too farfetched or very complex to realize but this is how I'd say a game could actually be useful in getting children to think about the contents of spiritual teachings. You may possibly apply it to bible stories so they also get the cultural background.