A game can be fun and bloodless
I make browser games in my spare time, just for fun. Some of them involve fighting: a fortress strategy, arena matches, a night in a packed bar. In games like that it is easy to slip into the dark side: blood, screams, wounds. I choose a different road. I want an eight-year-old to be able to play my games without a parent sitting next to them with a finger on the "off" button.
Below I describe only what is really in the games and their code. I promise nothing more.
My Fortress: a white flag instead of death
My Fortress is a real-time strategy game, the kind where you build a settlement and command troops live. It has units, catapults and battles. But the rule I wrote down at the very start says: no blood and no death.
- A beaten unit vanishes in a puff of dust, waves a white flag and runs off the map. On the minimap it says "ran home". There are no bodies, wounds or cries of pain.
- Buildings do not burn in any gruesome way. They fall apart into planks and stones, and the villagers run out unharmed.
- The weapons are tongue in cheek: clubs wrapped in pillows, catapults firing cabbages, mage bubbles.
- The enemies are rascals, not monsters. Even the monster side is friendly and fairy-tale like, with no scary faces.
- Nations and symbols are made up, so nobody is offended.
There is one more thing I like: everyone has their own gestures. The knight salutes, and the Goblin King shakes his fist from the tower while his crown slides down over his nose. It is friendly humour, and nobody is laughed at.
My Arena: cardboard, pancakes and "poof!"
My Arena is quick team matches. The heroes throw things at each other, but what things? Cardboard boxes, pancakes, chalk, bubbles, balls, suction cups, cabbage and foam. The rules are:
- no blood, no firearms and no death;
- the bar shows energy, not "life";
- when energy drops to zero, the hero makes a cartoon "poof!", waves a white flag and, after a few seconds, returns to their team's start.
There are also things that are not about combat but protect players too. The game has no paid loot boxes or real-money draws. Fairground crates are earned only by playing, cannot be bought, and the odds are shown in the game. Heroes are bought with coins you earn in matches.
My Bar: a scuffle straight from a comic
My Bar is for older players, as I explain below, because it is a bar that serves alcohol. Sometimes a crowd looking for trouble walks in and you have to deal with it using security. How do I show it? A cloud of dust with little stars, like in an old comic. No blood, no weapons, no injuries.
What happens after such a scuffle? The consequences are damage to the venue, worse reviews and fines, not violence. There is even an achievement for a "week without fights", so the game rewards calm. It also teaches responsible serving: no alcohol for drunk or underage guests.
It is similar elsewhere. In My Garage a fender bender is just a dent in the bodywork, with no accidents and no violence.
Age ratings
Every game has a recommended age field in the portal configuration. The game card shows a badge, for example "7+". I set them like this:
- 6+: My School and My Stables. These two also have the kids mode switched on.
- 7+: My Garage, My Fortress and My Arena.
- 12+: My Warehouse, My Cemetery and My Hospital.
- 16+: My Bar.
This is my own judgement, not an official rating. Treat it as a hint. The last word belongs to a parent who knows their child.
Ads only when you choose
The games are free, so an ad may appear now and then. But I do it so the player is never taken by surprise.
- A rewarded ad is always optional. You can watch it to get a small bonus in the game, or skip it and keep playing. In My Arena you can double the coins from a match this way, at most 5 times a day. An ad never gives an advantage in a match.
- Full-screen ads are meant to be rare. There is a long break between them, and at the start of a game there are none for quite a while. In My Arena such an ad can only appear after a match, never during one.
- No internet, no ads. The game works normally.
- Kids mode. In My School and My Stables ads are not tailored to the player. The game tells the ad network that a child is playing.
No chat with strangers
The games have no free chat with strangers. Where you can play with others (My Fortress, My Arena), people talk only through ready-made phrases and emotes. You cannot type your own sentence, so nobody can write something unkind or fish for personal details. I wrote this directly into the plans of both games.
You also do not need to give an email or a password. Progress is saved in the browser, and the game creates an anonymous account so you can link a second device with a short code.
What next
These rules are not a one-time declaration. They are written in the notes for every game and I check them with each new version. If you see something you do not like in one of the games, let me know. I want parents to be able to trust me, and children to have a good time.