When does a theme become unsuitable for kids?

Cannibalism and carrion eating in animals are common themes in National Geographic TV shows, so I don't think they're necessarily banned as a game element. It's all up to how you handle them. Carrion might be disgusting but not objectionable by definition, as it is pretty common among many different animals.

I can't assure you a 10 year old girl would love to "be" a carrion eater animal, but a boy that age most likely will. It can even be part of the game interest: girls might decide to eat grass and flowers, while boys rather be hunters or carrion eaters. As long as both options give similar chances of winning the game, I think it just adds interest to the game: you can choose the tactic you like most.

Canibalism is a bit more delicate, IMHO, but just a couple weeks ago I saw a show in NG about canibal creatures (scorpions, even a shark who kills its siblings inside theyr mothers whomb), so I think it's not a total no-no either.

Human sacrifice might be a seed for trouble marketing the game for children, but I think it might work without trouble for an older audience.

Just my 2 cents.

I think sacrificing tokens for money in a game would be ok for any reasonable person, even if your game theme calls it human sacrifice.

I'm not so sure; I think of myself as being a fairly reasonable person, and yet the idea of a game that involves sacrifice of any kind, human or otherwise, is unattractive to me. I've never really sought to play Amun-Re for this very reason, and as it happens, I'm not alone in feeling this way. (Here's a discussion of a similar topic a while back).

The salient points are that different people will be uncomfortable with certain mechanics for different reasons. Sometimes, it's just packaging: could you call your mechanic something other than "human sacrifice", for example?

As a designer, you are obligated to respect the differences of opinion between yourself and your audience. That some people will not like a "human sacrifice" mechanic is a given. But it would be a grave mistake to get annoyed by that, or to in any way denigrate people who feel that way (to imply that they are "unreasonable", as seo does, is skating very close to the line). This won't win any converts to your game, but will almost certainly alienate those folks from future projects.

Best of luck,

Jeff

I think this all depends. if your game is trying to draw a clear distinction between humans and other animals, then you should stress that fact. If not, your presentation of carrion eating and cannibalism as just options animals take (even humans) depending on circumstances and preference.

Yep, humans eat all sorts of things, including each other. Including this option in a game might allow you to highlight some of the downsides to cannibalism among any species, namely that of disease vectors. For example, if an animal A eats another animal, it's also ingesting all of the micro-organisms in it. If it eats animal B, those organisms might not be able to react to the system of animal A, and will be destroyed. but if animal A eats another animal A, the micro-organisms are far more likely to be something that can exploit animal A. This is why cannibalism among any animal species if relatively rare: it weakens the population that takes it too far. This is a valid point to make in an educational game.

As for carrion, the effort involved in hunting and killing should reflect the benefits of fresh food. Carrion presents lower-grade nutrition at a huge discount: little danger or effort involved. another good point to make.

Human sacrifice is a hostorical fact, and kids are not unfamiliar with this. Even a "conservative" Jewish or Christian upbringing will have confronted kids with the concept. Abraham and his son, anyone?

Don't let squaemishness rule your design. If your goal is to teach, find a way to do it. The truth isn't always pretty.

I didn't mean to offend anyone. I'm affraid my choice of words wasn't the right one. Sorry. :-(

It's the price of not being a native english speaker, I guess.

Again, sorry if I sounded harsh. I should have said "most people" or something of the sort, instead of "any reasonable person".

I think Hedge-o-Matic already expressed my feelings well enough.

Seo

As a designer, you're not obligated to consider the differences of opinion between yourself and your audience at all. You are obligated only to create whatever you're driven to create.

We're talking about two different things. I didn't say that you had to take the viewpoints of others into account when designing a game. What I was talking about was more after the game is done, and you've put in a "controversial" mechanic, and some people are offended by it or object to it in some way. I am saying that it would be imprudent and unfair to blame the audience for objecting to the controversial aspects. Just as you're not obligated to change your game to suit others, others aren't obligated to approve of the artistic statement you've made, and they aren't "bad" for failing to do so.

Hope that clears it up.

-Jeff

Materu,

One thing I want to add about your canibalism and sacrificial mechanics is that perhaps all you need to do is not describe them thematically in such great detail. A lot of games do this and we don't blink twice. I.E. You can sacrifice X of soldiers at any time to gain Y # of money. In this example you're not really saying what happened to the soldiers for you to get the money. If you worded it like this: "At any time you can sell out 5 of your soldiers to the enemy for $10,000" then that might be more controversial and harder to swallow. If you're less descriptive about your canibalism and sacrificing mechanics; i.e. just describe the if/then aspect of the rule, then you will be less likely to raise any eyebrows. I think this will be especially true for a biologically theme game such as the one you are working on. Players can make the thematic conclusion for themselves, and in that aspect it will be less offensive as well.

Good luck with your game! Your graphics look great. Have you checked into similar games like Evo, Urland, Trias or Primordial Soup?

-Darke