Craft Jokes for Your Comedy Routine in Leave ’em Laughing

I haven’t played many games in my life that were funny, and even fewer that were funny intentionally.

I haven’t played many games in my life that were funny, and even fewer that were funny intentionally. For whatever reason, games and humor just haven’t mixed well save for a few shining examples, so it takes guts to build a game based entirely around making me laugh. Oscar Brittain, developer of Leave ’em Laughing , managed to crack me up with just his press release for the game, so I have high hopes for his game.

Leave ’em Laughing tells the story of Nelson Smith, a man whose life is pretty much falling to pieces, which provides perfect material for a stand-up routine. Whether he’s bailing his manager out of jail, dodging his ex-girlfriend, or just giving the clerk at the grocery store a hard time, it all ends up in the act. Players can wander an animated version of the developer’s hometown of Fremantle, Australia, talking to the people there and going about their day. Living Nelson’s life will put him in many odd situations, all of which provide material for his comedy act. All of the people in occurrences go into a pool of ideas that you can build into jokes, then place in an order to create your stand-up routine.

While it’s neat to craft jokes, you’re not telling them to just yourself. Nelson follows up each day by going on-stage to go through his routine, and the audience reaction dictates how well the player did. Different audiences on each day have different tastes, so you may find what one liked one night just doesn’t work the next. With its own heckling system, the audience will either be laughing at you or with you. Even if you fail, at least you can go back to your apartment and listen to your records. Filled with music from real world local Fremantle bands, you can at least enjoy some of the great sounds of the area while you fail as a comedian.

Brittain is looking for a little help to finish the project on Kickstarter, only asking for a modest $3,500 to keep a roof over his head while he continues to make the game. Rain does play havoc with computers, after all. You can also help him get his game on Steam with a Greenlight vote, and learn more about the project by keeping up with him on Twitterand the game’s website.