Culture is the shared beliefs, stories, language, music, food, clothing and customs of a group of people. In animation and game design, culture shapes characters, settings and stories, and it decides what an audience finds funny, respectful, frightening or offensive. Four related ideas help designers use culture responsibly: folklore, game ratings (age-appropriate content), intellectual property and the monitoring agencies that set and enforce the rules.

We looked at folklore and heritage in Folklore, Culture and Heritage in Animation and Game Design and at copyright in Ethics, Copyright and Intellectual Property in Animation and Game Design. This post connects those ideas to publishing a game for real audiences.

Why culture matters

• Authenticity: stories rooted in real places and traditions feel fresh and believable.
• Representation: players like to see people, places and accents like their own on screen.
• Respect: careless use of sacred symbols or stereotypes can hurt communities and damage a game’s reputation.
• Market: culturally aware games travel better worldwide, and local stories can stand out in a crowded market.

Folklore: culturally and geographically appropriate characters

Folklore is the traditional stories, legends and characters passed down in a community. Mythological characters make memorable game heroes, guides and bosses, but they should be culturally and geographically appropriate: they should match the setting and be presented in a way the source community recognises.

The Caribbean offers rich examples. Anansi, the clever spider who outwits stronger animals, travelled from the Akan people of West Africa to Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and beyond; he suits a puzzle or trickster game. Trinidad and Tobago’s folklore includes Papa Bois, guardian of the forest and its animals, and Mama Dlo, protector of rivers – ideal characters for a game about protecting the environment. Placing these characters in a snowy European forest would feel wrong; placing them in a rainforest with local plants, music and dialect feels right.

Good practice: research with elders, historians and cultural groups; credit your sources; avoid mixing unrelated traditions just for effect; and ask community members to review your designs.

Game ratings: age-appropriate content

A game rating tells buyers the age group a game is suitable for and what content it contains. The CAPE glossary uses the categories of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), used in North America and followed by many Caribbean retailers:

Rating	Meaning
EC – Early Childhood	Suitable for ages 3 and up (this category was retired by the ESRB in 2018; such games are now rated E).
E – Everyone	Suitable for all ages; may contain minimal cartoon or mild violence.
E10+ – Everyone 10+	Suitable for ages 10 and up; more cartoon or mild violence, mild language.
T – Teen	Suitable for ages 13 and up; may contain violence, crude humour and some strong language.
M – Mature 17+	Suitable for ages 17 and up; intense violence and strong language.
AO – Adults Only 18+	Only for adults; rarely used and not sold by most major stores.

Games also carry content descriptors (for example “Mild Fantasy Violence”) and notes about interactive elements such as in-game purchases or users interacting online. Europe uses PEGI (ages 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18), and the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) gives ratings for many digital stores worldwide.

This short official video explains how the PEGI system labels games in Europe:

Intellectual property violations

Intellectual property (IP) is creative work protected by law: copyright (art, music, code, stories), trademarks (names and logos), patents (inventions) and trade secrets. Common IP violations in games and animation include:

• Piracy: copying or distributing games or films without paying or permission.
• Asset theft: using someone else’s art, music, fonts or models without a licence.
• Cloning and trade-dress copying: copying another game’s look, name and code so closely that players are misled.
• Trademark misuse: using famous characters or brand names in your game without permission.
• Cultural appropriation of protected works: using a specific traditional design or recording that belongs to a community or artist without permission.

Protect yourself by making original work, keeping your sketches and files as evidence, and using assets with clear licences such as Creative Commons (always follow the attribution terms – as we do at the end of every post on this site).

Roles and responsibilities of monitoring agencies

Agency type	Examples	Responsibilities
Rating boards	ESRB, PEGI, IARC, CERO (Japan)	Review game content, assign age ratings and descriptors, enforce advertising rules.
IP offices	WIPO (worldwide), national IP offices such as the Intellectual Property Office of Trinidad and Tobago	Register trademarks and patents, educate creators, support copyright law.
Collecting societies	Music rights organisations such as COTT (Trinidad and Tobago)	License music and collect royalties for creators.
Law enforcement and customs	Police, customs and border agencies	Seize pirated goods and prosecute large-scale infringement.
Platform holders	App stores and console makers	Require ratings, remove infringing or harmful games, protect children’s privacy.

Example

A team is making Guardians of the Forest, a game in which the player helps Papa Bois protect animals from illegal hunters. Culturally, they interview a local storyteller and a folk troupe, use a steelpan-inspired soundtrack they commission themselves, and set the game in a Northern Range-style rainforest. For the rating, they keep conflict non-violent (hunters are scared away with traps and animal calls) and aim for an E rating. For IP, they draw all characters themselves, use only CC0 sound effects and keep a licence list. They register the game’s name as a trademark before launch.

Exercise

1. Choose a folklore character from your own country or region. Describe a game role for it that is culturally and geographically appropriate, and one way it could be misused.
2. Look up the rating of three games you know. Record the rating, the content descriptors and whether you agree with the rating.
3. Explain the difference between copyright and trademark, giving one game-related example of each.
4. Name two monitoring agencies and describe the responsibilities of each in protecting players or creators.

Next: Game Design Terms, Careers and the Types of Design in Games (World, System, Content, Level, UI)

Syllabus link: This post is relevant to the CAPE® Animation and Game Design Syllabus, Unit 2: Interactive Design and Game Development, Module 1: Introduction to Interactive Design – Specific Objective 18 (“outline the importance of culture in animation and game design”).

Attributions to media used in this post:

Anansi-34.png – Pamela Colman Smith – Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)

ESRB 1998 Early Childhood (small).png – Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) – CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

© 2026 Vedesh Kungebeharry. All rights reserved.