I need your opinion about violence

I'm building a platform game where the main player will face many challenges to reach the end.

There is one thing that I'm debating with myself, how can I replace the violence in the game with something friendlier.

In the game there will be enemies and the player will kill them and vice versa. I want to create something that everyone can enjoy it, I don't want o limit my game to mature adults.

Super Mario games are pretty good at that because they never face any restrictions.

Please share your opinion!

That would depend on how the player attacks, you can leave the enemy dizzy (with the stars spinning and so) or similar.. but I think the most important is to avoid explicit blood and gore.

It helps to make the enemies distinctively evil or non-human, like evil minions, monsters, robots, etc. That way the violence feels a little more..justified?

Or you can make combat more comical - have enemies fly off the screen instead of exploding or disappearing, use stars or something instead of blood, etc. (In Metroid: Fusion, very few enemies actually die - instead they turn into X parasites and possess other enemies or just fly away)

One other trick that helps with this is enemy re-spawning like in Megaman X or something - nothing actually DIES, just returns to its original position with full health and such. This prevents the level from becoming desolate after killing everything, which could inadvertently make your game seem much darker.

My main concern are the children. I want to make a interactive game with no violence. Since it's my first real game, I want to have something that everyone can enjoy it.

Perhaps you can create a game where children can create or build things, rather than destroy them.

— Val I want to do that in the future.

Right now I really want to create a platform game with enemies but I want to minimize the violence.

Could always just...not have the player kill the enemies. Make them more like obstacles; dangerous things to avoid.

Just scare them away perhaps.

that's a good idea!

I can imagine their eyes opening wide with fright, while trembling in fear, and with sweat pouring off their brow before they get away.

Tokinsom already pretty much said it all in my opinion.

The fact to not have a physical action on enemies that result in their disappearance pretty much nullifies violence.

It doesn't matter if the enemy disappears in a comical way, the sole fact that it disappears means death.

jogosgratispro you were talking about super mario earlier, it is violent. The player has to "kill" enemies.

Violence is not only graphical with blood and limbs.

Tokinsom's idea of making the enemies obstacles that the player has to avoid makes it such that the game is more based on movement/pattern recognition/anticipation. On paper it doesn't sound like a violent game.

blood and gore are "aesthetics" for violence

In the game there will be enemies and the player will kill them and vice versa. I want to create something that everyone can enjoy it, I don't want o limit my game to mature adults.

I can safely say that as long as your game doesn't involve excessive amounts of blood and gore, you're not.

What I mean by that is that, in my opinion, people don't give kids enough credit. Children are much more resilient than people think.

Super Mario games are pretty good at that because they never face any restrictions.ever say never. Some designs for Marios water gun in Sunshine was scrapped because it was too controversial for the US. But still, yeah, that's just one of many.

However, depending on your definition of violence, there's a fair amount of violence in games about/including Mario.

(New) Super Mario Bros - Jump on (and crush) enemies.

Mario 64 - Punching and Kicking

Smash Bros - More Punching and Kicking, this time it's the entire point of the game.

Super Mario RPG/Paper Mario Series - All of the above and more.

But the common thread is, it's all cartoony violence. There's no blood, no gore, but it's still violence. And they're all considered fine games for children to enjoy.

Depending a bit on the age group you could have more or less violence in your game. Consider this; the Smash Bros series has had the followiung PEGI ratings: 7+, 3+ and 12+. Not only does it vary wildly between the different versions, but it varies just as much between regions. In Japan Brawl had a CERO A rating (All Ages) while in the US it had an ESRB T rating (Teen).

In short, if your violence is cartoony and/or slapsticky, I'd say you're fine.

If you really don't want any violence in your game, but still want conflict, then another method of conflict resolution is likely what you want.

Look at sonic:

The enemies are small enemies imprisoned in robots. When you kill the enemies, you instead "free" the small animal (most often a bird), which jumps/walks/flies away, while the robotic husk fades in a puff of smoke.

You can avoid hitting the enemies all over, instead how about a sick people/animals and u must cure them with vitamin c/ lemon or something good so they just be happy when you cure them instead you kill them, so everyone happy in the end and also this might tech children how good fruits or vitamin c to them, but if you crush them the player will get sick and lose.

this just an idea i know look messy, but hope i give u an idea for the design.