First of all, we rounded off the year with the exciting news of Bible X/Gate Zero’s acquisition by video game publisher Templar Media.

Templar Media’s shared vision for the game secures the long-term future of Gate Zero and allows us to achieve our original goals at a higher standard and even greater impact, including our upcoming launches on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

With 25 years of industry experience, Templar Media provides the stability and resources needed to fulfill—and expand—our original vision, delivering the entertainment-first experience gamers worldwide have been asking for.

Gate Zero Acquired by Templar Media

For Gate Zero, this acquisition means stronger support across the board—higher production quality, expanded resources, and additional experienced talent joining the team to help us deliver the game we’ve always envisioned.

Importantly, the game’s creative vision remains unchanged. Creative control and the heart of the project stay with the same leadership and developers who have been shaping Gate Zero from the start, now supported by new team members with deep industry experience. We remain fully committed to historical accuracy and to staying faithful to the Bible as we continue developing the game.

Read the full press release here.

We are also actively hiring and growing our core team at Templar Media’s office in Alpharetta, GA. While several team members will continue working remotely, others are relocating, and new hires will be joining the team on-site as we build the next phase of Gate Zero together.

As for the big question: When is Gate Zero coming out? All we can say for now is what Templar Media CEO John Gibson said on this recent interview with Wccftech:

“We are over halfway through development; it is not coming out next week, but it will not take two years either.”

The acquisition and the growth of our team will give us the push needed to get Gate Zero to the finish line!

100k Wishlists on Steam!

In January 2026, we reached an exciting milestone—Gate Zero surpassed 100,000 wishlists on Steam! Our total social media follower count is now also close to 600,000. We are so grateful for the support and attention the game is receiving; it really motivates our team to keep going!

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Here’s a snapshot of some things we’ve been working on in the last quarter of 2025:

Art

Environment art is one of the aspects that is furthest along in development, so while the rest of the team focuses on completing the vertical slice, the art team has been refining existing locations—like Capernaum—and developing concepts for new areas. Set dressing is underway, individual assets are being created, textures enhanced, lighting fine-tuned, and optimization is an ongoing process to ensure a smooth performance.

New Locations

Before any visual development begins on a new location, we collaborate closely with our historian and archaeological consultant Chris McKinny to establish a shared understanding of the site—what’s historically known, what’s debated, and what’s open to interpretation.

Mission-specific needs like gameplay mechanics and narrative are part of that conversation early on, helping us identify where historical precision is essential and where there may be room for informed artistic interpretation. This early alignment ensures each location has both a strong historical foundation and a clear purpose within the game.

Our art director Bobby, who previously worked on several Assassin’s Creed projects, has this to say about the research process:

Expanding my own knowledge—and the knowledge of the entire team—is one of the biggest perks of working on Gate Zero. Every week, we’re learning something new about the time period, the cultural context, and the events surrounding the life of Jesus. That constant learning feeds directly into the creative process.

It’s deeply rewarding to know that the environments we’re building are informed by real history and real places. Understanding why a location existed, how it functioned, and what role it played in the broader historical narrative gives our work more meaning. It also creates a stronger sense of responsibility—we’re not just creating spaces for gameplay, we’re interpreting history for a modern audience.

That balance between learning, creativity, and collaboration is rare, and it’s what makes Gate Zero particularly special for me and the team.

New Location: Machaerus

This location stumped our community! We put out screenshots asking people to guess what we’re building. Well, we’ll leave you with the screenshots for now, and keep you guessing on what stories might be taking place there in the game…

New Location: Jordan River

This is a significant location where John the Baptist preached, and where Jesus was baptized:

 

New Location: John’s Camp

John the Baptist was said to be preaching in the wilderness of Judea, clothed in camel’s hair, eating locusts and wild honey. We had fun visualizing how his hut might look like! Here’s one of the concepts:

Capernaum Set Dressing

Set dressing in Capernaum continues as our artists work on bringing the town to life.

Vista Mountains

Adding vista mountains in the distance has really brought the surrounding landscape of Capernaum together.

 

Lighting

With set dressing well underway, it’s our technical artist’s turn to fine-tune the lighting in-engine—adding more light sources and bringing depth, mood, and clarity to the synagogue in Capernaum.

Characters

We are in the early stages of character design, doing research and exploration to customize our crowd characters. Here are some sample heads for the Jewish male characters customized in Metahuman:

One of the missions we’re working on involves a certain leper who has an amazing encounter. Here’s a concept of how he might look:

Animation

With the recent addition of a new Animation Director, our team is making great headway with improving many different aspects of animation, from the player character to guards to rigging and faces.

Here’s a sneak peek at a couple Roman guard animations:

Imagine that you’re hiding in the bushes and the guard sees you…

Level Design

One of the focuses this quarter has been on iterating on the design of the Altered Well mission, ensuring it remains readable, engaging and fun for the players. The team’s goal has been to create interesting traversal and exploration opportunities, while also incorporating more narrative sequences and memorable moments throughout the experience.

Since we don’t want to spoil the mission for you, we’ll share a snapshot of a group playtesting the level:

Narrative

High Level Mission Beat Board

The narrative team has been working on the Beat Boards for each mission, which serves as the master plan for the game, providing a clear, top-down view of the full experience. It maps out all the main missions and their core themes, clarifying each mission’s purpose, the player’s objectives, and the key narrative and biblical beats being explored.

This framework also tracks player character Max’s personal arc over time—from being stranded in the past and focused solely on getting home, to developing curiosity, forming relationships, and becoming more invested in the world and events around him.

Alongside the story, the beat board highlights when new gameplay mechanics are introduced and what levels are included, ensuring that narrative, systems, and pacing evolve together in a cohesive way.

Narrative Branching Dialogue Flow

This past quarter, the narrative team ran focused workshops to refine the main mission flow and branching dialogue systems.

Our goal is to reflect the player character Max’s growth through meaningful choices rooted in what players learn along the way. Rather than offering clear right-or-wrong answers, dialogue presents dilemmas tied to the social tensions of each town, encouraging reflection and consequence. These moments connect biblical themes with engaging storytelling while keeping the experience player-driven.

We want players to feel like they’re actively investigating and discovering the truth for themselves, with their decisions shaping how the story unfolds.

Americafest 2025

To close out the year, we attended Americafest 2025 in Phoenix, AZ with a dedicated Gate Zero booth. Our goal was to introduce Gate Zero to a large conservative audience of over 25,000 attendees, while also connecting with media and influencers who could help amplify the game’s reach.

The response exceeded expectations. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback and lots of excitement from a predominantly Gen Z and millennial crowd. The event also led to several media opportunities, the most notable of which is this interview with Templar Media CEO John Gibson and Wccftech.