A tale that might include history of either attempted suicide/self-harm, bullying, drug addiction (and later rehabilitation),
early pregnancy and motherhood or short jail time. Please note that that all of this happened before the game's current
story line. The game will be focusing on the recovery.
I'm horrible at rating fiction and I would absolutely appreciate your help.
MY PROJECTS
This isn't vengeance. It's justice. A life for a life Yes. This is justice. I raise the .45 to his face. And the rest will be vengeance.
serendipity: (n.) finding something beautiful
without looking for it
Since you didn't say what country you'd release, I suggest 'appropriate for ages 13 and up'.
Some of my visual novels are at http://www.the-new-lagoon.com. They are NSFW
Poorly done hand-drawn art is still poorly done art. Be a Poser (or better yet, use DAZ Studio 3D) - dare to be different.
If the 'questionable' elements are only mentioned, and not described in explicit detail, I would probably rate it 13+, with warnings of elements of the content that players might find triggering. If you plan on describing the violent events with any sort of detail (but not enough to make it strictly an 'Adults Only' game), I would rate it 16+.
In general you can sort of use your best judgement to estimate what rating certain stories would fall under, i.e. if you had a sibling/cousin/child/etc who was 10, would you let them play this game? 13? 17? It's difficult to know exactly what the rating would be until all the content is written out/assembled, but you can make your best guess in this way.
While I don't need to add to the rating question, I would like to add that the themes described have been front and center in YA fiction since at least the 1980s (use "Ctrl + F" and type your theme of choice if it's too long, although I recommend reading it in full.)
