Into the metaverse: ICON Ministry to launch new game

In CS Lewis’ novel The Magician’s Nephew, we are introduced to the Wood Between the Worlds, a mysterious realm with numerous pools of water acting as portals to different worlds.

Something like this magical world will soon be appearing on the popular gaming platform Roblox as a result of a creative new initiative from ICON Ministry, founded and directed by Fr Rob Galea.

For the uninitiated, Roblox is one of the world’s largest gaming platforms. It’s the new generation of gaming, the ‘metaverse’, where games, in essence, communicate with each other.

About 73 million users access Roblox every day, often for eight hours or more, with its core demographic being kids 15 years and under.

It has been likened to the highly interactive gaming platform depicted in the sci-fi movie Ready Player One, filled with countless ‘experiences’ and interconnected worlds to explore. It is a highly ‘social’ platform (at least compared with traditional video-gaming), where users can create and play games of their own, ‘hang out’ together in virtual spaces and—thanks to portals that pop up out of nowhere (the platform’s version of advertising)—travel to an endless variety of virtual worlds.

At the time of writing, about 73 million users access Roblox every day, often for eight hours or more, with its core demographic being kids 15 years and under.

These children are part of ‘Generation Alpha’, an emerging generation born in or after 2010, who may live to see the next century.

It is these kids that ICON Ministry is trying to reach with a new game on Roblox called MetaSaint. MetaSaint seeks to help a new generation discover the Gospel—possibly for the first time.

ICON Ministry has enormous online reach, with almost four million people around the world connecting with their work. Although it began as FRG Ministry, with Fr Rob live-streaming homilies and the Mass, its growth in different areas meant that it became ‘something bigger than myself,’ Fr Rob explains, ‘even though it was under my name. It started to grow beyond me … I’m only a small part of this ministry.’

Alongside the touring, speaking, concerts and live-streams, ICON Ministry produces the popular Catholic Influencers podcast and a number of courses for educators as part of its efforts to ‘change the culture within schools’. Their goal is to help people discover Christ, the ‘icon’ of God (Colossians 1:15).

Among their many projects, however, Fr Rob noticed a gap. ‘One of the things that was missing was Alpha Generation. We hired a company to research where these young people are and how we can reach out to them,’ he explains. ‘What we found is that most of this generation are not on social media. They’re not on TikTok. They’re not on Snapchat. They’re not on BeReal—they’re not on any of these things. They’re in two places: one is YouTube, and two is Roblox.’

With upward of 200 million users every month, Fr Rob wondered whether anything existed on the platform to introduce this new generation to the Gospel.

‘There was nothing credible there that was bringing the faith,’ he says.

To change this, ICON Ministry partnered with one of the best game developers on Roblox. ‘[They] developed games like Fortnite, games for Nickelodeon, for Paramount; they’ve developed the Lego games … You name it. They’ve done everything in the metaverse that is worth anything.’

At first, Fr Rob was sceptical whether the company would take them on, but a little divine providence goes a long way. Although he left their first meeting feeling worried, a senior executive at the company overheard the meeting and their proposal—someone who just happened to be an elder in his Baptist church. A few hours later, they received a call saying the company would help them develop the game. The executive had a direct hand in this outcome, believing it was crucial for something like this to happen.

Easter is the time to talk to them about Jesus. We have the luxury of being in our churches and hearing about Jesus, but these kids will go through all of Easter not even knowing it is Easter

‘That was just God showing us that, hey, maybe his hand is on this,’ Fr Rob says. ‘We’ve been working for the last six months to develop the game, and Holy Thursday is when we’re launching it on Roblox.’

Why Holy Thursday? ‘Because these young people are on Roblox eight hours a day, and on Easter no one’s talking to them about Jesus. It’s as simple as that. The most significant Christian season and they’re not going to church.’

‘The post-pandemic kids are the most anti-social generation ever. They have the highest amount of introverts, the highest amount who are entitled and disengaged from their own families as well … Easter is the time to talk to them about Jesus. We have the luxury of being in our churches and hearing about Jesus, but these kids will go through all of Easter not even knowing it is Easter.’

Fr Rob and his team had clear ideas about how they wanted the game to work.

‘One of the first things we wanted to focus on was beauty. I think this is where God is first and foremost, in beauty,’ Fr Rob says.

The central location of the game is a cathedral, designed after two major cathedrals: the Duomo di Milano in Italy and St John’s in Malta.

Again, the way ‘advertising’ works in Roblox is that game creators pay for portals to open up in various places, inviting users into their worlds. What users on Roblox will see is a set of doors appear, and if they go through those doors, they will find themselves in the grounds of this cathedral.

The way the game will be structured, however, will hopefully lead kids out of the game and into real encounters, real connections ... This is ultimately what the game is about: connecting this new generation to Jesus and other followers of Jesus.

Inside the cathedral are seven beautiful stained-glass windows. Each of these windows is a portal to yet another world—this time worlds that help immerse users in the great stories of the Bible. The first window takes them to the beginning of creation; others take them to explore the call of Moses, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and even the modern world. Different saints guide them along the way: St Augustine, Mother Teresa and Blessed Carlo Acutis.

As they make their way through the game, users face various obstacles and challenges; most importantly, they must collect a certain number of stones. These stones will form the bridge necessary to cross the chasm of lava and reach the endpoint.

There, they will be asked if they want to become a saint.

If they do, they light a candle and are given a set of angel wings that they can carry with them wherever they go in the metaverse.

The launch on Holy Thursday is only the first phase. Their focus in the beginning is getting the game right and making it child safe. ‘Child safety has been our number-one priority all throughout.’

The way the game will be structured, however, will hopefully lead kids out of the game and into real encounters, real connections. If they want to unlock different spaces or challenges, they have to go to the MetaSaint website to get the codes, and that website can also link them to Alpha Youth programs. There are also hopes to get parishes involved so that, again, if they want particular codes, they may have to get them from their local parishes.

We don’t want to draw people into Roblox. That’s not what we’re about. We’re taking the Church to Roblox.

This is ultimately what the game is about: connecting this new generation to Jesus and other followers of Jesus.

‘We’re not telling people to come to virtual reality. But the problem is, people, whether we like it or not, are there. And what are we doing about it?’ Fr Rob asks. ‘I think that’s what our responsibility is, to tell the world about Jesus.’

‘Our concern really is to promote it in Roblox, not outside. We don’t want to draw people into Roblox. That’s not what we’re about. We’re taking the Church to Roblox.’