Now that 24 hours have passed we have our winner!
A huge thanks to @frezik@midwest.social for suggesting this awesome idea!
A survival crafting game where the tech tree goes backwards. You start in a prepper hole with working water filtration, food sources, etc, and everything is nice. Then something breaks and maybe you fix it. Something else breaks and maybe you fix that. Three things break at once, and at least one of them is going to stay broken. Have to do something more primitive and time consuming.
Eventually, enough things break that it’s no longer sustainable and you die. Game ranks you based on how long you last.
I would also like to thank every person in the comments for making their wonderful suggestions! I've read through every single one of them and all of them are really good!
You can view the game's code at https://github.com/SamLeeway/project-196, which is currently empty at the time of writing this, but every day from now I will contribute code there.
The game currently does not have any name other than "Project 196", so I will probably host a poll when we have at least something playable.
When the game would be playable? Making games ain't easy so it's pretty hard to estimate. I would say in around a week or so I should have a rough prototype if things go right.
Update
Didn't really have much time to work on this this week, so my week estimate is going out of the window. I will not estimate anymore. But I am still working on things, so game will happen. :)
A puzzle game with simple graphics where you are the reanimated corpse of some environmental activist who was killed by being thrown into a chemical vat and flushed to the river. The forest brings you back to life with the goal of eating ~~billionaires~~ bad people who live in their mansions equiped with bunkers and panic rooms.
Edit for additional thoughts: bonus levels could be something akin to Epstein Island or Davos. Would be nice if "the help" could also get in on the fun, like you crack the safe with their passports and in return they give you the passcode to the safe room.
I think we've found our masterpiece. This absolutely rocks.