It’s a new month, and Meltwater is flying on its own now. It’s time to move on to the next project. And if you’re expecting a thematic followup to my dreary antiwar apocalypse simulator, well…you might be a little confused?
FUJOSHI! Dirty Rotten Shippers! (aka SENPAI! Please Notice Me!) is a romance and matchmaking card game for 2-4 players. You take on the role of a group of fujoshi (or himejoshi, or fudanshi, or w/e) and conspire to make seven attractive anime boys (or even…g…girls???) kiss each other!
At the start of the game, players pick the ships they want to bet on, then spend their turns scouting, convincing, and cajoling the NPC protagonists to fall for the right parter. Successful ships score points, and rare pairs score a bonus!
(Placeholder art, not final. Characters are used without permission solely for noncommerical testing, and should not be construed to imply any license, agreement, or tie-in. I just like the anime, ok?)
Despite the theme, this isn’t a light little nothing game. I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from middle and heavyweight games like Argent: the Consortium and Pax Pamir, to create a meaty and involved shipping experience that respects the subject matter and the fangirls who inspired it. After all, why should romance games have to be joke games? (Please look for an essay with that exact title in the near future.)
Of course, the game doesn’t have a publisher lined up yet. And I still adamantly refuse to self-publish. I want to be a designer, not a businesswoman, and I’ve seen more than a few “successful” game Kickstarters crash and burn. But I hope that I’ll be ready to shop the game out to publishers by next year’s convention season.
In the meantime, if you wanna get involved in playtesting, the current beta version of the rules can be found here, and prototype cardsheets and scoresheets should be up soon as well. Contact me and I will get you sorted!
callanswall 