The Germans and Aussies are tough
Picking up on what Malouff suggested, I thought it would be fun to tell you a bit about our experiences with the age rating bodies. Apparently the Germans and Australians are a lot tougher than us “normal” Europeans. At least that’s what PEGI must think.
Similar copies of the game were submitted to the Australian, German, and PEGI age rating. But while the Germans rated it 0 (suitable for everyone), and the Australians gave us a G (3+), PEGI rated it 12+! We were very surprised, but luckily they were very nice and helped us find a solution that we were all happy about.
It turned out that what they found too violent was a number of spinning chainsaws, which Max must use/avoid in order to move on, and a number of pounding pistons with spikes on.
Finding an alternative proved to be quite difficlut. We had to come up with something that would look dangerous enough to communicate to the player: “you better not touch this”, while at the same time not being so dangerous that only teenagers could handle the sight of it 
And then a quick update
Yesterday we had the pleasure of showing a “final” version of Max & the Magic Marker off at an event at the Danish Film Institute – A scary but nice experience.
People liked it – at least that’s what they said.
6 comments
January 5th, 2010Morgan Evans
I guess PEGI rarely looks at the sort of cartoons kids draw. I know for a fact, When I was a kid and writing my own games 20 years ago, most of my level designs involved spikes, fire pits, crushing columns and other vile traps.
Still, like Malouff mentioned – they do look more colourful now.
December 1st, 2009Ben Johnson
I’ve found that the PEGI ratings have become a lot harsher than they used to be. They used to be pretty leniant with stuff like Smash Bros Melee being a 3+ and Sims 2 being a 7+. But more recently they have started being pretty harsh. Upping Zelda: Ocarina of Time to a 7+ and then a 12+ for the Virtual Console release on the Wii. Scribblenauts is a 12+ and so are games based off of cartoons which garner a U or PG BBFC rating. Final Fantasy XII and FF7: Crisis Core being rated a 16+ is very shocking, considering I think it is 7+ territory to be honest as theres nothing that wouldn’t be seen in a PG film (such as Advent Children). Jungle Beat for Wii has a 7+ rating where the original was a 3+, and theres no justification in version differences…. odd. Oh well, congrats for bumping it down a notch.
November 29th, 2009Hoe Max and the Magic Marker langs de Europese leeftijdskeuring wordt geloodst | Games
[...] moeten zijn. De makers van de toekomstige WiiWare-platformgame Max and the Magic Marker vertellen openhartig over hun ervaringen met PEGI, de Europese [...]
November 28th, 2009MK2k
So… please ship the chainsaw version to Germany and Australia then
November 20th, 2009Mushir
That’s a shame that you guys had to remove the chainsaws. But the new ones don’t look bad either. I’ve been so hyped for this game for so long. Hoping it comes out soon!
November 20th, 2009Malouff
NO, not the pounding pistons & spinning chainsaws!!!
I loved the spinning chainsaw in the IGN video. It doesn’t look as threatening now
Both do however look more colorful now.
The best news was the word FINAL in the quick update.
CONGRAGULATIONS PressPlay
Did you submit it to Nintendo in Europe yet then?
Here’s hopping this baby also gets submitted for a ESRB rating and to Nintendo of America soon.
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