Not to encourage a scam kickstarter or anything but I think that tumblr's Clown Husbandry meme (and related offshoots like Knight and Wizard Husbandry) would be a great basis for a cozy game with some horror elements.
Like, you the player have inherited your semi-estranged Grandmother's Clown Ranch via her will. Disillusioned with the corporate drone lifestyle you take a trip out to see the place, and while it's definitely seen better days and has fallen into such disrepair that there aren't even many clowns left there, you smell opportunity and decide to revitalize the ranch and live the Clown Husbandry Life!
Your first clown is a Rodeo Clown inherited from your Grandma, the only clown she had left, and the ranch starts out with some obvious farming game themes borrowed from the likes of Stardew Valley and Story of Seasons. But as you progress you can customize the ranch depending on what kinds of clown you favor, and the actual mechanics have more theme park and zoo sim than farming elements.
Build enrichment for the clowns and attractions for the humans to come and socialize with them. Adopt your clowns out to good homes for humble profits, or make a mint by selling them for higher profit to more questionable buyers. Train your clowns to help increase the ranch's income via shows, parties, and festivals, or hone their skills as hunters and thieves and send them to loot the nearby city.
Different clowns have different inclinations and abilities, and you can breed them for more specialized traits down the line. As the story progresses you can unlock various Clown Dimensions where wild clowns roam, these dimensions are all suffering from some hardship though. Help them with their problems to access new clown types and functions, such as humanely releasing unwanted clowns, traveling to new markets to put on shows, or pleasing the Clown Gods to receive blessings.
Watch out for the Scary Clown breeds in the wild (think Pennywise). They can and will kill you if given the chance, but a skilled enough Clown expert may be able to tame even the most terrifying of encounters, and perhaps find room on their ranch for these misfit predators...
And then ideally there are sequels where you do the same thing but with Knights or Wizards or Henchmen or etc.
