In media rating systems, the MPAA rating PG stands for "parental guidance." It means that children under 13 should have guidance from a parent or guardian in deciding whether to see or how to interpret the media. It's the equivalent of the ESRB game rating Everyone 10+ (E10+), which means that it's acceptable for everyone who is age 10 or older. This is because the content has swear words, mild violence, or mild sexually suggestive themes.
This is a hand-curated collection other people's games, zines, and other creations on itch.io that would meet that rating and are about people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, or asexual (LGBTQIA). Most of the stuff in this collection would be just as family-friendly as a story about a straight person growing up and getting married... except that there was a swear word or two.
This collection is part of my directory of other people's creations on itch.io, Curated Collections of LGBTQIA, where you can find more collections about other topics, and on specific sorts of transgender identities. I personally select and review each creation in them, even if they are different than my own views or experiences as a queer person myself.
Content: Rated PG. Some suggestive language and flirting. Warning for screen shake in certain scenes.
Medium: A computer game. It can run on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Genre and subject: A visual novel. Romance.
About: Help a mermaid get ready for a festival and maybe even find love under the sea. Recommended by The Dialog Tree: A Dating Sim Zine, which praised the character design and world building, and noted that you can play it with or without romance.
Queer themes: Women loving women. Tagged by the game designer as lesbian and LGBT.
Vibe: Cute, uplifting, innocent, and sweet.
Content: Rated PG. Swear words.
Medium: Zine. Designed for reading on your screen, or printing.
About how other people perceive the zinester's gender.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: A booklet.
Length: 10 pages.
About: "Generate the properties of a polycule using random dice tables, for use in a roleplaying game or fiction you're writing or whatever else!"
Content: Rated PG because sometimes there are swear words.
Medium: A random word generator that runs in your web browser.
About: The creator explained in one of the comments,
"Gender has meaning but for me and a lot of others that meaning changes depending on context. In this context specifically it's kind of being thought of as an intimate definition of self, not so much just what literal gender you are or whatever. Although honestly it was just me and some friends having fun thinking of different things that could be somewhat considered a 'gender.'"
Vibe: The sort of queer humor by queer folk that is sort of tongue in cheek while also being sort of all too real and relatable.
Content: Rated PG for swear words. Specific content warnings at the beginning of each chapter.
Medium: An illustrated interactive text created in Twine.
About: A semi-autobiographical story of a trans woman discovering that she is a plural system of dog therianthropes, and learning about that from her friends. Plural Stories review.
Content: Rated PG. Some sensuality, but not explicitly sexual.
Accessibility: An alternative version of the document is in a typeface that is friendly for people who have low vision, Atkinson Hyperlegible.
Medium: 14 full-color pages of instructions for a ritual game. In this case, it's real-life relationship advice expressed in prose as if it was an augmented reality game.
About: Advice for a romantic partner of a transgender man in how to express love to him in a way that affirms his gender identity.
Queer themes: Transgender men. Allies. Queer joy.
Vibe: Romantic.
Content: Rated PG. Sensuality.
Medium: Zine. Full color. One sheet of paper. Designed for printing and folding.
About: A sweet love poem made from magazine clippings, about affirming and embracing your intimate partner's transition and his gender as among the things that you recognize and celebrate about him and enjoy sharing together.
Content: Rated PG because of swear words only, otherwise it's friendly for all ages. Be warned that this story is from the perspective of a child in a domestic abuse situation. The abuse is emotional and mental only, not sexual or physical. Much of the story is about how scary it is to be controlled, manipulated, deceived, threatened, and isolated. PHOTOSENSITIVITY WARNING FOR FLICKERING LIGHTS AND SCREEN SHAKE, which you can turn down in the settings. Other warnings: glitches (intentional and unintentional), rejection, unreality, and breaches between fictional/real space.
Medium: A computer game that simulates a fictional person's desktop computer, where you can chat with characters and use applications, as part of the game play.
Duration: One play through is about three or four hours. You can only reach a save point when you have completed a chapter in the game, which depends on being able to solve the puzzles in that chapter, so a tough chapter might take you about an hour. Plan your play sessions of this game for when you can either commit that amount of time, or leave the game open in the background for when you can come back to it. I found it worthwhile to play the game again from the beginning to explore other dialog choices, because they do reveal more about the story, though every playthrough has largely the same storyline and ending.
Story: It's 1999, and the real friendships you've made in an anime fan forum are your cozy escape from the alienation you experience at high school and in your family.
Queer themes: Transgender girls. Queer youth. Self discovery. The closet.
Vibe: Each chapter teeters between the contrasts of love and safety, and terror and isolation. On the one hand: creative, fun, inspiring, cute, cozy, tender, loving, whimsical, silly. On the other hand: edge-of-your-seat fear of loss, rejection, and mental/emotional abuse. The thrill of satisfaction and competence from being able to solve hard problems and to have the support of others who care about you.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: Zine. Full color picture book.
About: A fan-made spin-off of the classic picture book Goodnight Moon. The bunny is a grown-up now, and though his life has changed a lot, he is still fond of the moon.
Queer themes: The bunny is trans masculine and getting top surgery. He says goodbye to what he leaves behind, and thank you to everyone who helped him get there. All profits from the sale of this book will be donated to the top surgery fund of a trans man in the zinester's family.
Vibe: All of the feelings. Innocent and flirty. Silly and serious. Joy and sadness. Dysphoria and euphoria. Gratitude and grief. It's respectful to the source material even while handling topics that it would not have. It has space for complicated feelings without oversimplifying them, while still being essentially very positive.
Content: Rated PG. Swear words.
Medium: A visual novel created in Ren'py. There are a few meaningful choices, so you can replay to see other events. The ending gives a percentage of how much of the script you've unlocked.
About: This is the story of Casbah's first week living with their partner Marta... in an abandoned morgue.
Queer themes: You and your partner are both nonbinary.
Vibe: Very queer and punk. Tough as well as cozy. They love each other so much. I teared up a few times.
Content: Rated PG because it's all about flirting.
Medium: Tabletop role-playing game. For two partners to play, but it says you can adapt it for more if you're polyamorous.
Story: You and your partner are dragons. Use puns, treasure, and over-the-top sappy flirting to tell each other how much you love each other.
Queer themes: This is based on a comic about a gay dragon couple, so that's what it is by default. ("Bro" doesn't mean a literal brother.) The game says you can adapt it for other genders, if you prefer.
Vibe: goofy, playful, sincere, affectionate, and just celebrating that with no shame.
Content: Rated PG for swear words. Photosensitivity warning: rapidly shaking text.
Medium: An interactive story created with Twine.
Duration: About ten minutes. You can see everything in one play through.
Story: You are an angel and you are going on a date.
Vibe: Wistful.
Content: Rated PG. It's about communal bathing, but it's portrayed in a way that's okay for audiences of all ages, so far as I've seen. (I haven't seen all the endings yet.)
Medium: Computer game. A short visual novel.
Genre and subject: Fiction. Romance.
Length: A play through is about fifteen minutes long. Replay it several times and make different choices to get all the endings. There is a fast forward button to make your replays easier.
Story: Your best friend invites you to her birthday party. It's at a Japanese bath house. You're a little scared to go. For one thing, you have a crush on her! For another thing, the rules in the bath house might not allow you.
Queer themes: Transgender woman protagonist. Women loving women. Bureaucratic discrimination against transgender people.
Vibe: Wholesome, tender, cute, wistful.
Content: Rated PG. Firearms, blood, and war.
Medium: Comic.
About: A historical fiction ghost story romance. "In 1950s Vietnam, a lost soul comes to the aid of his lover's field under attack by American troops."
Vibe: This summary could have been for a very grim story, but it is not.
Content: Rated PG for swear words.
Medium: Personal zine. Fully illustrated. Color. Several formats for reading on screen or printing and folding.
About: The author talks about how the punk subculture resonates with hir as a nonbinary person.
Vibe: Fun, loud, energetic.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: A computer game that can run in your web browser. A short story in a visual novel style.
Duration: Each play through can be about five minutes. You have some meaningful choices. You have to play through it several times to reveal the whole story.
Story: Your friend asks you for advice about someone he likes.
Queer themes: Bisexual men. Self discovery. Homophobia. Being closeted.
Content: Rated PG. Drawings of fantasy body horror as they appeared in the movie Akira.
Medium: A short comic book.
About: An anecdote about how the cartoonist came out to a supportive family member, with timing that the cartoonist felt was ironic.
Content: Rated PG. Swear words. References to sex organs. Background music.
Medium: A computer game created with Bitsy. It runs in your web browser.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction. History.
About: "This game tells the story of the 1st march organised by lesbians in Geneva on May 22, 1982."
Content: Rated PG. Suggestive humor.
Medium: A computer game that runs in your browser.
About: Two players each control their character's arms. Try to make them have a normal handshake without accidentally hugging or making out.
Relevance: Each match has a random pair of characters. They can be the same or different genders. The designer submitted this game to Yuri Game Jam 2017.
Vibe: Goofy, silly, second-hand embarrassment, giggly, laugh out loud.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: A comic book.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction. Memoir.
About how the authors experience the intersection between their genders and their Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
Content: Rated PG. Contains references to cissexism, menstruation, and sex.
Medium: A personal zine of poetry.
About: A nonbinary poet made these seven poems by clipping words out of the informational leaflet that came with their birth control pills that they take to reduce bleeding. The poetry highlights how the leaflet calls some of the desired effects of this medicine "side effects," and how health resources don't mention nonbinary people.
Vibe: Sarcastic yet genuine.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: A tiny computer game created with Bitsy. It runs in your web browser.
Genre and subject: Science fiction fantasy.
About: "explore a gay little moon and discover the source of your gender envy."
Vibe: Silly.
Content: Rated PG. Specific content warnings are in the front of the book.
Medium: Book. Fantasy novel.
Story: A company invented cleaner sources of power for the city. Why is someone stealing them? Because she discovered that the power comes from the stolen souls of witches like herself. She can't safely come forward with this information yet, and a police officer is hot on her trail.
Queer themes: Pretty much every character has one or another queer identity. Its focus is on characters who are genderfluid or on the asexual spectrum, and how they have feelings for one another.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: A computer game created in Bitsy.
Duration: Four minutes. No choices, so one play through will be enough.
Story: You walk around and reflect on your relationship.
Queer themes: An aromantic person in a happy long-term relationship with an agender person. This talks about discovering what being aromantic means, worrying about it, but ultimately finding understanding and happiness together with your partner.
Vibe: Cute, happy.
Content: Rated PG just for some swear words.
Medium: Zine. 8 pages long, with covers. Designed for reading in web browser.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction. Memoir.
About: A personal memoir zine.
Queer themes: About being transgender but finding it difficult to name one's gender.
Content: Rated PG because of how one of the definitions of terms mentions some sex organs.
Medium: A full-color zine, designed to be printed out on a single sheet of paper, cut, and folded. One version is in English, the other version is in Japanese.
About: A tiny zine that gives definitions for what the initialism LGBTQIA stands for, and then a few other relevant words.
Vibe: Cute, cheery, simple.
Content: Rated PG. Swear words.
Medium: Computer game. It runs in your web browser.
Genre and subject: Platformer. Comedy.
About: Inspired by the designer's personal experience! Run and jump to pick up all the estrogen pills that you spilled. With some surprising twists.
Vibe: Humor. Cute.
Content: The "Stonewall Riots" zine is rated G. The "Bisexual Manifesto" zine is rated PG.
Medium: Two mini zines, each of which are designed to be printed on a single sheet of paper.
About:
Stonewall Riots: "The Stonewall Riots were a huge part of LGBT history. Learn about it in a short zine!"
Bisexual Manifesto/coloring book: The bisexual manifesto was published in 1990 in response to biphobia.
Vibe: Celebratory, educational, defiant, proud.
Content: Rated PG. Content warnings for negative self talk and body dysphoria.
Medium: A computer game created with Bitsy. It runs in your web browser.
Duration: About ten minutes. You can see everything in one play through.
About: In this slice of life, explore your home on an ordinary day, thinking about what each thing reminds you of about yourself.
Vibe: The tension between good and bad attitudes about your body.
Content: Rated PG. Swear words.
Medium: A computer game created with Bitsy. It can run in your web browser.
Genre and subject: Comedy.
Length: About ten minutes.
About: "You're a rock. And a dude." Wander and talk with your inanimate object neighbors. You're the only one who isn't nonbinary. They don't get it.
Vibe: Silly.
