When designing and developing a game, it\u2019s normal to have a target ESRB rating in mind.\u00a0 Depending on the game\u2019s target audience, you may want to make sure it doesn\u2019t get rated higher than E or T.\u00a0 While M games are certainly much more common, and popular, than they used to be, a M rating still limits your audience.\u00a0 There are plenty of people who won\u2019t buy a game (for themselves or others) if it has a M (or, in some cases, T) rating.\u00a0 On the other hand, it\u2019s pretty rare to find someone who won\u2019t buy a game because the rating is too low (E or T instead of M).\u00a0 And, honestly, anyone like that is an idiot.\u00a0 Everyone has different tastes, sure, but thinking that you can\u2019t enjoy a game because it doesn\u2019t have a M rating is utterly ridiculous.<\/p>\n
Even developers making M rated games need to be careful to avoid an A rating, since that carries a pretty serious stigma, at least here in the US, and ensures that the game can\u2019t be released on consoles or sold in any major retailer.\u00a0 Admittedly, it\u2019s really difficult (though not impossible) to get an A rating for anything other than graphic nudity and sex.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I\u2019ve mentioned before that I\u2019m aiming for a T rating with Aurora\u2019s Nightmare.\u00a0 Due to the subject matter and themes of the story, not to mention blood in some of the art, it would be impossible to get an E rating.\u00a0 On the other hand, M would limit the audience a bit more than I\u2019d like and I\u2019m pretty certain that nothing in Aurora\u2019s Nightmare would push it to that level anyway.\u00a0 I\u2019d actually have to add more graphic violence and and\/or some serious bad language for that to happen.\u00a0 And, as I also mentioned in the past, I don\u2019t plan on going the route a lot of Japanese visual novels do and adding some token sex scenes since, unlike in Japan, that would seriously hurt sales in the US.\u00a0 Plus, I don\u2019t have any interest in writing scenes like that and they wouldn\u2019t enhance the story in any way.<\/p>\n
All that said, there\u2019s a good chance that I won\u2019t be getting Aurora\u2019s Nightmare officially rated.\u00a0 Getting a game rated costs money and Aurora\u2019s Nightmare\u2019s budget is fairly limited.\u00a0 Steam doesn\u2019t require ESRB ratings for its games and neither does Google (if I do an Android version).\u00a0 Of course, if I want to release a console version, I would need to get a rating.\u00a0 And I think Aurora\u2019s Nightmare would make a good downloadable release on the 3DS and\/or Vita.\u00a0 Though releasing on either of those would significantly increase the development costs so, for now I don\u2019t have any plans to do so.\u00a0 Though I am keeping the possibility open for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When designing and developing a game, it\u2019s normal to have a target ESRB rating in mind.\u00a0 Depending on the game\u2019s target audience, you may want to make sure it doesn\u2019t get rated higher than E or T.\u00a0 While M games are certainly much more common, and popular, than they used to be, a M rating … Continue reading Ratings<\/span>