so the question is like what is the normal allowed age for a child to get eaten in a CoG or HG is there some kind of limit for the child age?
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I’d imagine it to be atleast 18
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I don’t think they have specific rules about child-eating.
I imagine context would be a crucial factor in what they were willing to publish. Who or what is eating the child? Is this a scene of mass carnage that just happens to include a child, or is the child specifically targeted? How graphic is the scene?
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Lol, real SoH vibe for sure
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all I can really say for now that a child can get eaten by an animal (it’s avoidable) and the scene itself is not really graphic - you just know it happens.
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It would entirely depend on the context, level of gore detail, and so on. When a game is submitted to Hosted Games it is reviewed and if there was an issue, it would be raised then.
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In Samurai of Hyuga main character did eat children, although it wasn’t revealed until Book 4. I recommend checking Samurai of Hyuga as an example - if it was in SoH, it probably can be published.
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I’m sorry, I just want to say that when I first read the question it kind of seemed like you were asking about the minimum age such that it’s normal for a child to get eaten in a CoG, like as if once a character is past that age, CoG readers just straight up don’t bat an eye whenever a character gets eaten haha 
But to actually answer, I think that if it gets reasonably gore-y you probably just need to put some sort of warning or set a reasonable maturity rating.
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Well, at least to MY mind, being eaten by an animal as a child, is preferable to being kidnapped and murdered by a sex predator (which is what can happen in Alter Ego), so as far as I’m concerned it should be fine: If CoG tolerates the kidnap-murder of a kid by a sex predator, I see no particular reason why they should balk at a kid being munched by an animal.
One thing that MIGHT make a difference is the age of the kid. “Child” is a very generic word; it encompases both sexes, and all ages from birth through age 18 (twenty-one in some places) inclusive. Are we talking about infants or teenagers here? If it’s a teenager, I’m pretty sure you’re fine.
As others have pointed out, all CoG titles are vetted before their release, so my best advice would be to have alternative text or scenes ready, in case your original scenario is rejected.
Goid luck!
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I would hesitate to use Alter Ego as a standard to judge what CoG/HG is willing to publish, since it wasn’t actually published by CoG, and they had nothing to do with the content. (In fact, Alter Ego definitely wouldn’t meet CoG’s publication standards, for a number of reasons. I don’t know if it would be considered acceptable as-is for HG publication.)
However, based on what I’ve seen of what they’ve actually published, I don’t think an avoidable, non-graphic child death at the jaws of an animal would likely be a problem - although as has been said before, it would entirely depend upon the specific presentation and context.
That said, it’s never a bad idea to remain open to the possibility that they’ll request some changes.
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Personally, I feel that the age of the (potential) child victim doesn’t really matter. If you want to be safe, maybe avoid being specific about how the child is being eaten. I remember that in “Choice of the Dragon”, the dragon MC can eat the prince or princess (of unspecified age) they kidnap. It simply went like this: Crunch, munch. Delicious.
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A game was rejected recently for references to children being murdered off screen so it will be up to COG’s team as to if what you are doing is deemed acceptable. If it’s not essential to the plot Id leave it out or have a back up plan
(BTW this is an oddly specific question. Just what sort of game are you writing??)
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“I don’t think they have specific rules about child-eating” is at the top of my list of Sentences I Can’t Believe I Had to Say.
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As others said, until it is submitted and reviewed, it will be a guess as to if something will be published or not.
With that said, there was a recent game by @Felicity_Banks that was taken out of Hosted Games publication due to cannibalism. Perhaps you can compare what that has in it to what you want to do…
Perhaps Felicity can weigh in and explain both the process and what suggestions, if any, were given to make it acceptable to Hosted Games.
My sense is that the more graphical the scene gets, the more that it needs to show more than just “shock-value” to be approved.
One last thing … SoH is not a good base to follow any more for what will be approved because over time the criteria being used has evolved and what would have been approved in the past may not be approved now.
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For my story, the key reason “Flight” wasn’t allowed as a Hosted Game was that the players didn’t get any kind of choice about whether the player character killed people or not, as it happened before the story began. So, since readers of IF live in the head of the main character (including choosing gender and name, which are often the same as their own real-world identity) I was effectively asking players to step into the mind of a murderer… without letting them choose to make those murderous choices or not (they happened before the story began, AND the player character insisted they were no big deal).
You can take a look at it here.
Felicity
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I find that… alarming to hear 
Was your murder scenes particularly gruesome, more than other games have been before? I’m just, so confused, because there have been games with such topics before, I believe?
Is a dark canon backstory not allowed?
Does bad things have to be a choice??
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One of the characters of my WIP has a dark canon backstory. The twin of the PC is actually the magnum opus of Dr Wily, the guy who caused the conflict in the first place, if we go back to the classic era. But this game cannot be actually hosted on any division of CoG for other reasons. The reason is that I am using some elements from Hannah’s Creme series (and other games) and Capcom’s Mega Man series. So that rules out official publication.
My story also has the following themes: comic violence, death, blood, cursing, serious emotions, vaguely sexual overtones and some implicit religious symbolism. I probably should have given this warning. I do not present them in a positive light. So long as you do the same, your story will be green-lit.
Not having read much of @Felicity_Banks story, (I tried skimming it a little to find if it was anything particularly gruesome that stood out early on but can’t say I found anything). Anyway, I can’t say with certainty that the story sets a positive light on murder or not, but I didn’t sense that vibe. But it looked to me that the MC thinks of it in a not necessarily negative light—but that is not the story’s perspective, that’s the character’s. Are anti heroes / unreliable narrators / villain POV’s not allowed then too?
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If antiheroes are banned, then some games won’t make the cut. My story’s chapter 1 opens with a dialogue between villains- there was no reason to cut it out, since I wanted to add suspense.
The blanket rule is “Games must not contain deeply offensive material” and my understanding is that it’s assessed on a case by case basis at submission - there will be a lot of context to consider.
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