I already mentioned this in the welcome thread, but here it is again.
"Bulimia: Battle of the Bulge" is a thematic, humorous backstabbing game where you player a pretty, messed up girl trying to become a real person by clawing her way to the top of the heap of super models. The trackers for health beauty and fame are affected by cards (event, food, and drug cards) as well as a few other things. I am looking for a partner with more experience than me (which means just about anybody) who can help flesh out and balance the game as well as an artist who can make it look amazing. I'm thinking a sickly lowbrow cartoonish style of art would work best.
Basically you have three stacks of cards:
Food will range from Chocolate cake to raw Broccoli. "Eating" food will make your health and weight go up and down.
Event cards are where your jobs are, but they are also things like car wrecks, diseases and other random things that will affect you in good or bad ways.
Drugs will range from aspirin to PCP and have a range of effects. Most will get you attention. Say you're pretty high on the health (hotness) track and and you want a quick bump in fame. You can play a PCP card on yourself and go up three fame and draw two action cards for going down two on health. There would also be event cards other players could play on you at that time to screw you over.
There are a few other mechanics, but that's the basic idea. I'm thinking the base mechanic will be pretty simple, draw one play one. Gameplay will be kind of like an advanced NC-17 version of Red Dragon Inn.
Anybody interested in working with me on this?
I'm new here, so I should say really quick that I am not Tosh.0. Being offensive isn't "my thing". However, I don't shy away from controversy. Frequently, this sort of humor is done for cheap laughs. It's easier to be offensive than funny. This game is meant to be social satire. I hope that a realistic portrayal of this subject matter might help people remember that this is a seriously screwed up part of our culture, that it isn't glamorous. In fact, it's tragic.
I see what you are saying, though. I would reach a much broader audience with a more family friendly theme, but wrongness can also be a good selling point. People are so desensitized these days that offensive humor has to be off the charts to even register. Brian being killed on Family guy was the first time I've heard anybody say anything good about that show in years. So, while this game won't be popular for church lock-ins, it is likely to be very popular with the Cards Against Humanity/Kittens in a Blender crowd (both of which are very successful).
My goal is to use the extremely dark humor to draw people in, but keep them playing by providing a game that is intellectually stimulating. I doubt that it will start a national discourse on the brainwashing of America's youth, at least in the way I'd prefer, but who knows? In either case, outrage leads to people wanting to do something about it, which means media attention, which means a sold out game.
Even if this never shows up on the greater radar, there aren't many games that are both humorous and complex. I can't think of any that are anywhere near this dark. Illuminati is the closest I can think of and there's a pretty big gap between Saddam controlling the hippies and "Ha, ha you took heroin to lose weight for a job. I'm playing aids needle on you."
So, I think this game stands an above average chance to make money, and working on it won't make you a bad person.