The Church in the Darkness

The Church in the Darkness is an upcoming action-adventure video game designed by Richard Rouse III and developed under the name Paranoid Productions. The game is expected to be launched in 2018 for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Gameplay
The Church in the Darkness is an "action-infiltration" game set inside a religious cult in the 1970s. The game revolves about an ex-law enforcement officer named Vic who attempts to get inside an isolated religious colony called "Freedom Town" to check in on his sister's son, Alex. The leaders, Isaac and Rebecca Walker of the "Collective Justice Mission", preach socialism and sustainable agricultural living in a Christian society. They are voiced by the couple, John Patrick Lowrie and Ellen McLain. The story unfolds through Isaac and Rebecca's regular updates on the camp's public announcement system.

The game is also procedurally generated, with each start changing people's allegiances, beliefs and camp layout.

Development
The game's premise arises from Rouse's lifelong fascination with cults. He was already aware that big companies would shy away from a controversial cult-based game. So, he formed his own indie video game company, Paranoid Productions to make his dream project. Rouse has been a fan of "open-narrative" games since the mid-'80s and he was "stunned" to see the many popular games of 2016 with fixed narratives. The game has been said to have "very obvious echoes of Jonestown". Rouse was particularly intrigued by the Source family, a spiritual commune in the late 1960s which was situated in the Hollywood Hills.