When Isaac strolls into a den of spiders and half-skulled zombies, it’s not because the creators pre-ordained that it would happen that way. They only make the rules of their universe the game’s program and the player do the rest. If game creators are like little gods, then McMillen and Isaac programmer Florian Himsl are from the deist school.

For instance, they might program a rule stating that each room should be connected to other rooms, so that it’s possible to get from the beginning to the end… In the sterile jargon of game design, this is called “procedural generation.” What this means is that instead of, say, hand-crafting a level, the designer will instead build some basic rules that a level should follow. Isaac, the video game, is built by a creator who doesn’t futz… Rather than sticking to a handcrafted template that plays the same every time, in Isaac, each dungeon is built on the fly, and at random. Game designers will probably grasp Teti’s analogy immediately: systems-driven games are watches, and designers absent watchmakers. It offers the metaphor of god as absent craftsman: the Universe is a well-made watch, but it’s up to mankind to keep our own affairs in order. Deism is an enlightenment-era theological philosophy which seeks to harmonize faith with reason. John Teti began the conversation by arguing that Isaac‘s design is consistent with deism. A “Holy Room” in the game’s expansion pack.

Binding of isaac holy light