How Would You Make A Comedy/Parody Game?

[The Blue Morpho]

The challenge with the idea of a comedy-game is that in the medium of games gameplay is king. What is "funny" gameplay? Particularly for the player and not just streamer bait.

Let me list off some of the "funny" games from the past few years off the top of my head:
-The South Park RPGs, which afaik is just a JRPG interwoven in a South Park episode so not replicable and low on replay value
-Goat Simulator and other shitpost games that are pretty shallow, simple and only funny once as well
-TABS is arguably a comedy game, and its basically just a toybox with a goofy artstyle that lets the player do absurd things
-Probably the most dominant "funny" games to play are actually team horror games like Lethal Company. They create funny moments during gameplay but require playing with friends.

Also I think doing a reverse-Dustborn or anything too on the nose like that is genuinely fucking retarded. You would need to nail the tone or it would come off as some cringey conservative inc culture product for boomers.

 

[The Last Stand]

The challenge with the idea of a comedy-game is that in the medium of games gameplay is king. What is "funny" gameplay? Particularly for the player and not just streamer bait.

Hmm. Good question. Let me go back to my Saints Row example. You can create your own character and dress/morph them through limitless possibilities. Some activities in Saints Row involve throwing yourself in traffic like a ragdoll (Insurance Fraud) and causing destruction around your vicinity (Mayhem) for points. That fun is amplified in later iterations through co-op and cheats. I think "funny" gameplay is if you enjoy the gameplay loop and can fool around in its sandbox.

 

[instant]

I think Postal is a great example, but I've also come to realize that one of the BIG reason why Postal works so well is that its cathartic. It takes every annoying group you can think of, activists, niggers, immigrants, feds, bad neighbors, and bad coworkers. THEN you get to shoot em up, piss on em, and really fuck their shit up.

Video games are unique in that its an interactive medium. A lot of parodies in other mediums (movies, books) can end up being insufferable because they inevitably have to repeat a lot of the same jokes (since it has to follow a theme to be a parody). Giving the player the opportunity to get back at everyone who's been annoying them would not only alleviate this issue, but actually make it a core feature of the parody.

Any parody game I make would be really similar to Postal in that regard, but a different genre. Maybe I could make an arena shooter where BM's to other players give out power ups. Or alternatively, imagine something like Overwatch but instead of a "Play of the Game" clip you get a "Disrespect of the Game" that everyone in the match HAS to watch through.