Now that our generation has grown to be the age our parents were when we first fired up a console or PC, many of us have children of our own and appreciate that perhaps exposing younger ones to that sort of thing isn't particularly ideal.
Indeed, with gaming becoming a decidedly more mainstream pastime, kids are getting into it at a much earlier age.
But when violent shooters and action games seem to garner so much attention from those too young to play them, it's more important than ever for there to be gaming options for kids and families that don't revolve around violence. Having become a parent recently myself, it's safe to say that the idea of one day introducing my son to video games has inspired as much trepidation as it has excitement.
British studio Outright Games was established with a family-orientated ethos. The developer and publisher is exclusively dedicated to making kid-friendly titles, in many cases partnering with well-known brands and licenses.
Crayola Scoot is their latest project, combining elements of Splatoon and the Tony Hawk games with a Jet Set Radio look. I chatted to Outright's Chair of the Board of Directors, Nick Button Brown, about the importance of their mission and the challenges therein.
Nick's two decades in the industry include stints at Crytek and EA, and as well as his current role at Outright he is also the Chair of the Games Committee at BAFTA.
What was the inspiration behind Crayola Scoot? How closely did you work with Crayola on it?
"Crayola have been very supportive. Fundamentally what we wanted to do when we got to this was couch co-op. You'll feel this as you start to try and play games with your own child. The idea of being able to sit together and play something together. You need to be able to help them, to have that shared experience.
"I used to play the early Lego games with my kids, and the point is that you can both do things together, and not only can you do things together, you can help the other person out,and it feels very co-operative and very supportive. That feeling of couch co-op is very much why we developed Scoot.
"We wanted four players on the same screen at the same time. We want you to be sitting alongside each other, and you can helpful and supportive or you can be rude to each other and bantering, but the point is that you're having that shared experience.
"It's gotta be that safe play. The reason you want that couch co-op is you want to know who you're playing with. But you also do want to talk around it. You don't necessarily want strangers who may come in and say things you don't want your kids to hear.
"That's why we focused on couch co-op, and I wish more games would do couch co-op. It works so well for a family. I'm sharing this from my experience, I've loved sitting down with both my kids, and playing a game with them. We're talking, we're having fun."
What were your favourite games growing up when you were your children's age, and would you let them play the same sorts of games growing up?
"I'm old enough so that it was a bit more deregulated back then, I grew up in the Spectrum and Atari days. There wasn't the variety of games back then.
"I wish everyone would understand about age ratings and take a little more responsibility. I am very careful about what my kids play!"
Are the current PEGI and ESRB video game rating systems doing enough?
"I think the ratings are good, you get a good amount of information. I do think it's up to the parents and the retailers. There are things that we as an industry can do. We don't market inappropriately aged games to the wrong age group. I think that's pretty important. I would love to find more things we can do to protect [children].
"I love some of the steps the platform holders take, the kid accounts that automatically limit the age of the content and then you have to unlock the console if you do want them to play [games for] an age group that is not appropriate for that age. So you have that freedom, but it is a conscious decision. That's really positive.
"Retailers do keep an eye on it. I'm sure there are occasions where the wrong ones are sold...I wish the parents would look more! The number of my friends that have come to me and asked me whether they should get this game for their kids and it's not the right age rating, and I'll then go in and explain that age rating system to them. But I can't talk to everyone in the country, much as I'd like to!"
Are the big publishers - EA, Ubisoft etc - seeing non-violence in video games as an avenue to pursue, or is it more independent game producers leading the charge?
"You see more independents doing things. They're looking to more interesting, individual things. The child market isn't as big as the all age groups market, so the big publishers are going to spend more time dealing with the all age market. But they do want to produce different types of games, a variety of gaming experiences.
"We're at such a creative stage of of the industry, where people are coming up with such wonderful things things. Minecraft was an indie. It's now big, but it's the most fantastic family and kids game."
Speaking of Minecraft, how difficult is it to create something that is non-violent and suitable for kids and families, but isn't a derivative of something like Minecraft or a mobile game?
"Making any game is difficult, but it's trying to get that balance between making it interesting enough and making it play right for the right level. You're making it for 5 - 11 year olds. It's a very different way in than if you're making it for 18 - 24 year olds.
"Even simple things like localisation and languages, you can't necessarily do written translations on-screen because you're assuming people in other countries can read English, so you have to do much more voice localisation."
So making it more visual, a more simplified control layout, that sort of thing?
"It's how you learn the game. You've got to take the time to be able to pick up the controls, and maybe take a little more time explaining what they're doing, maybe not assume so much in-built knowledge.
"In games we do have a tendency to assume that everybody has played a first person shooter, so that when you go into a first person shooter all you're really doing is explaining how it's different to the last one you played. When you're making kids games you can't make those assumptions."
How has the industry and gaming changed for you over the years? Is it taken more seriously as an artform?
"I've been involved with BAFTA for a few years now. I think games are a wonderful, creative art form and a wonderful way of telling individual stories. I've spent a long time in games and see the way this sort of storytelling and involvement has matured.
"We can tell deep stories, heartfelt tales of dealing with [things like] psychosis. At the same time we can make something like Scoot, where you're skating around and painting the parks and it lovely and colourful, and it's just trying to be fun.
"I think it's great that all those things can exist at the same time."
