I have ideas for a bunch of different games that I want to make, everything from cutesy fun that you can feel comfortable letting your 5 year old play, to games that might veer into “Grand Theft Auto: Flowlab” territory. Knowing that there are a lot of younger users on this website, before I actually start making some of the more extreme ones, I need to know what is and what isn’t acceptable to make and/or share here.
Going to brazenly tag @grazer here as the ultimate authority on this matter, with the authority to override all other votes.
Now on to the questionable subjects:
Can I create a game with extreme violence / gore / bloodshed?
Yes, but you can’t share it here
Yes, but you must include a warning before sharing it on the forum
No, those kinds of games aren’t allowed to be made in Flowlab
0voters
Can I create a game with references to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, etc.?
Yes, but you can’t share it here
Yes, but you must include a warning before sharing it on the forum
No, those kinds of games aren’t allowed to be made in Flowlab
0voters
Can I create a game with other “adult” language, discussions, and/or content?
Yes, but you can’t share it here
Yes, but you must include a warning before sharing it on the forum
No, those kinds of games aren’t allowed to be made in Flowlab
Asking “for a friend”. LOL. No, just kidding. Asking because some of my game ideas include some “adult” themes.
For example. I’m probably going to make a war type game as well as a role playing hack and slash type game. Wondering whether or not it would be appropriate for the kill shots to include graphic bloody animations or if I should just stick to “pew pew you’re dead” and enemy just disappears from the screen.
Another example. I also want to eventually make a gangster themed game where the main character may or may not engage in some illegal transactions with other characters that might occasionally use some “adult language” in their interactions. I don’t think I’d feel comfortable openly sharing those kinds of games here anyway, but I want to know if I’m even allowed to create them in Flowlab in the first place.
Honestly, when posting here, I even feel a little uncomfortable using words like “dang” and “hell”. I’m kind of afraid to make a game where an NPC is standing there drinking a beer or something, because I don’t want to send the wrong message.
Its actually really great that you’re doing this, but no you should be fine. As long as you put a warning or make it clear it is for 12+ you’re good. I literally did a game where your an assassin. It would probably be a nice change of pace for more games like this.
EDIT: And if you do end up doing this please do share with the forum, we’d love to hear more about work like this!
I want to create both “family friendly” games as well as some darker themed ones. I just want to make sure I’m not breaking any rules or offending anyone. I actually have many different potential projects in mind right now, haven’t decided which one to work on first. But several of them may include “adult” themes, including but not necessarily limited to: violence, blood splatter, foul language in dialogue interactions, possible references to drugs, alcohol, illegal activities, etc.
Not meant to condone any of these things at all, and I don’t want to expose anyone to content that they don’t want to / aren’t supposed to be exposed to… if I create a game with lots of questionable content, and I’m told not to share that kind of game here, I won’t. I’ll only share it with other consenting adults outside of this space.
If I’m told that Flowlab prohibits using their software to create such games in the first place, I’ll make sure to remove all the blood and bad language and other questionable references. My gangsters will just shoot each other with water guns and call each other dirty rats.
As @The_Kodex already stated, Flowlab provides you with the tools necessary to create a game. As long as the game content is not overly offensive or illegal, you are allowed to put whatever you want in it. So that means that you can include as much gore or swearing as you’d like, but of course add a warning to the game (and the post if possible) so that we will know what to expect.
I too plan on creating both “family-friendly” games and more mature games, as my upcoming project Dark Ninja deals with sensitive topics.
In my opinion, if your game contains anything that you wouldn’t want to show you own parents, then it should be censored or at least a warning. Like what Browngr did on HAKK3R 2.
Hey @TGW, thanks for asking. One thing to note is that “extreme” and “realistic” vs “cartoonish” can be pretty subjective
In any case, Flowlab doesn’t have any guidelines or restrictions on what you are allowed to create. I view that a little bit like selling paintbrushes and then telling folks what they are allowed to paint.
On the other hand the games are hosted on Flowlab’s servers, so anything illegal is obviously not allowed. Also, I try to keep the forums and site friendly for everyone of any age, so if you make anything that seems questionable, please don’t post it in the forum - you are free to embed it in external sites though.
I definitely would not share any games here that were really questionable…
Too many minors here, I wouldn’t feel comfortable at all openly sharing a game with a lot of F bombs and "x"ual references. But just to be clear… I am allowed to make those kinds of games using Flowlab, and share them externally, right? With warnings / ratings attached of course.
@ManiacPumpkin LOL I’m not worried about my parents, as we’re all adults and there’s nothing any of us haven’t already seen or heard before. But of course I would include a warning on any content that I think somebody else’s parent wouldn’t want them to see.
One final question though… exactly what would make a game “illegal”? Obviously copying other people’s copyrights and stuff, yes. Or using a game for malicious or threatening type purposes. But… okay, for example, I recently saw an ad for a mobile phone game that was kind of like Farmville, except that… they weren’t exactly growing corn, if you know what I mean… I was very surprised to see such an ad hosted by Google, for a game that seems to be promoting something that isn’t exactly entirely legal everywhere…
I would definitely avoid making anything way too questionable like that. Even other games that already exist, where your player character has to torture people for example… that’s really borderline stuff to me. I would not want to go that far.
There are a range of other games I want to make. My next project for example will either be a medieval fantasy styled role playing game, or the war game mentioned below. It probably won’t have any bad language in it, but it may have some violence and references to alcohol.
Other game I want to make is a war type game where you drive different vehicles and blow stuff up. I was thinking “oh how cool would it be if when you’re driving a tank, you could run over enemy soldiers and they would splatter with a bloody animation?” But then I thought, some people might be bothered by that.
So both of those would obviously have to be “parental guidance suggested.”
Then I also want to eventually make another game where you join a gang and do a lot of really bad stuff, like robbing banks, selling drugs, shooting cops, etc., and including some pretty explicit language in the dialogues. Grand Theft Auto-esque. That one would have to be rated mature, definitely.
Yeah - I mean literally avoid obviously illegal content like that. Anything that would put Flowlab itself at risk. Farmville but where you grow fancy green corn would not be illegal.
Yeah, everything you just described for what you would want to do seems perfect for a video game to me. Again, look into ESRB and move about from there - otherwise, it sounds good to me
The last thing I would want to do is put Flowlab or myself in any sort of real life legal jeopardy.
And the second last thing I want to do is to release a game here that has some “adult themes” in it, and some parent wanders in the room and sees their 9 year old playing it …
I am absolutely willing to comply with every rule, regulation, etc., slapping a million warning labels on something, not sharing it here if it’s inappropriate for the forum age group, etc. I just want to be 100% sure where the lines are… between like 0-10.
10 being “this game is safe and friendly and fluffy and can be shared with anyone”
5 being “this game is kind of rough, it needs a warning label for sure”
1 being “this game is… just wow, please don’t share it here. But you can upload it somewhere else if you want”
0 being “nope, nope, nope. Don’t ever use Flowlab to make anything like this, ever. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
I really don’t want to be in the business of trying to police what people make. Make whatever you like. If it has questionable content, just don’t post it to the forums, and if it’s wildly inappropriate also do me a favor and check the “don’t display in games list” box in your game settings so it doesn’t show in the website game list.
You can share it wherever else you want, export it as an app and sell it, embed it on external websites, etc. I’m not going to come after you about it - in fact I will probably never even know about it
Just FYI: I have (occasionally) had some real wtf content in games reported to me, and all I did in the past was change the “don’t display in games list” setting to true, and it’s problem solved.
