“I need to be clear on this point: Are you telling me that Satan is literally working to confound your plans to release this game? You’re saying that the actual Devil is scheming against you?”

I’m sitting in a nondescript office in an unremarkable neighborhood in Bakersfield, CA, interviewing three men about their plans for a Biblical game based on the life of Abraham.

“I believe that, 100 percent,” replies Richard Gaeta, a co-founder of Phoenix Interactive. He argues that since the launch of the Kickstarter for Bible Chronicles: The Call of Abraham, trouble has come into all their lives.

“It’s very tangible,” adds his business partner Martin Bertram. “From projects falling through and people that were lined up to help us make this a success falling through. Lots of factors raining down on us like fire and brimstone.”

Nobody is winking or joking or pulling my leg. There is no irony here. They are absolutely serious.

In the end, the game’s Kickstarter raised only $19,000 of its $100,000 target. The game, which follows the life of Abraham, a central figure in Judaism, Islam and Christianity, is now seeking alternative fund-raising efforts.

Someone may want to explain to these nice, satan fearing programmers, that the problem is not beelzebub, so much, but - no one wants to invest money for an ancient worn out mythology when everyone else is out there imagining new ones.

“LOTS OF FACTORS RAINING DOWN ON US LIKE FIRE AND BRIMSTONE.”

THERE IS TALK, DURING OUR INTERVIEW, OF THE EVILS OF WELFARE, POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT AND PROMISCUITY.

They dislike the violence in the game and its sexual promiscuity. I point out that their game, Call of Abraham, features the supernatural razing of an entire city, a hero who cheats on his wife, attempted infanticide, rape and incest.

“It’s not only the content of the game, but the context in which it’s presented and what’s promoted, what is glorified,” argues Bertram. “In a game like Grand Theft Auto 5, it’s about just having as much fun as you can at the expense of the people whose property you’re destroying and the girls that you’re trying to pick up and use for a night. It’s really glorifying those things. Whereas the violence, the things that happened, particularly with Sodom and the judgment, those are tragedies. The reasons behind them make more sense. There is a moral argument for it. It’s about that, the context.”

Or….more likely it is because you are holier than thou loons with no sense of irony. I would not invest in that either.