Catechumen

Catechumen is a first-person shooter set in the year 171, during the time of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. The player assumes the role of a catechumen, a novice Christian undergoing training with a mentor for one year before being granted access to secret meetings. Before their training could be completed, their mentor and brethren were captured by the Romans, so the catechumen seeks to free them. The player traverses eighteen levels, facing possessed Roman soldiers and various demons as enemies.

As the game progresses, angels grant the catechumen eight Swords of the Spirit to use as weapons. Each sword has a different strength and effectiveness against certain enemies. They shoot energy beams that defeat demons and convert Roman soldiers to Christianity, who then kneel down and start to pray.

Catechumen was the debut game of N'Lightning Software Development, a studio focused on Christian video games and based in Medford, Oregon. The company's founder and chief executive officer, Ralph D. Bagley, was a licensed minister at the Church of God in Christ in Medford. Additionally, he was the publisher of The Christian Quarterly, a small newspaper in the Western United States.

Bagley had been a fan of video games since Pong and Pac-Man but had mixed feelings about coming home from church to play "nastier" games like Doom and Quake. Seeing the recently increased popularity of Christian music, he believed there was a potential market for Christian games "that match the excitement of secular games while promoting Christian values – without the violent or sexually explicit content".

Catechumen received mixed reviews; the review aggregator website GameRankings calculated a weighted average rating of 53% based on ten critic reviews. Michael Lafferty of GameZone called the storyline "refreshing" for drawing from existing legends instead of inventing something entirely new. Conversely, GameRevolution's Johnny Liu found the story to be "more boring than Sunday school". CNET Gamecenter's Colin Williamson lauded the game's pacing, saying it was "ridiculously fast, making even Doom seem lethargic in comparison".

S. Berman, in his review for USA Today, reported the game as a satisfying adrenaline rush, and he praised the environments as being "exquisitely rendered". Randy Sluganski of Just Adventure said the graphics were less advanced than peers like Quake and Unreal but praised the use of vibrant colors, dynamic lighting, and volumetric fog. Games Domain's Bruce Pulver criticized the visuals only for often being too dark, such that important elements were not visible.

As Catechumen featured no multiplayer, N'Lightning had begun developing a multiplayer game by August 2000. The company later created another single-player first-person shooter, Ominous Horizons: A Paladin's Calling. It was in development by March 2001 and released in September with CenturionSoft as the distributor. 6 million to produce, making it the most expensive Christian game.

By July 2005, it had sold 50,000 copies. Catechumen and Ominous Horizons were among the bestselling Christian games of all time, and N'Lightning's sales increased yearly. Despite this, the company remained an obscure name in the video game industry and did not break even. N'Lightning later sought to develop a console game, having licensed a game engine for $500,000.