...It's been very quiet here for a while, hasn't it?
Every once in a while I get a message or an email or a comment asking for updates on the game, and every time I tell people that I'll try to update the Steam page more often. That has gone terribly so far, but luckily, that's about the only thing that *has* gone terribly.
In short: development of the game over 2024 has been really solid, and I've been making progress faster than ever especially over the last six months or so. The game's in a good state and I can finally see the end of the line somewhere in the distance! (It's still going to take some time, just so you know)
So what's been happening over 2024?
Well, here's some of it:
- The second in-game day of the game is done, first of all, which already is almost four times the size of day one. There's a stupid amount of secret interactions, dialogues, and permutations and it's been a ton of work getting it all in and functional, but it's all there now.
- A bunch of QoL updates to base mechanics and UI (for example, Luck now plays a much greater role in every single dice roll you make) and I've spent some time updating the project to a newer version of Unity. That should mean that, in the future, the possibility of porting Clam2 to another platform might not be such a far-fetched prospect.
- Day three is coming along really nicely! In order to finish the game at some point I've been managing scope as much as I can, but I'm also very happy to say that there's a ton of missable and optional stuff along with secrets and secret interactions, which I've always felt is the lifeblood of any RPG.
- The amount of writing in the game has almost doubled since the start of 2024. It's way, way, too much.
- There's also a bunch of other little things and details I don't want to spoil just yet, but I might be posting more about it in the future (if I remember posting more devlogs, that is)
If you follow Clam2 on twitter (@clam_team) you might have seen some of these updates, as well as sneak peeks at new areas, characters, and mechanics. You'll also have noticed that I'm posting a lot less frequently on any social media! I'm personally taking a break and it's doing me a lot of good, which does affect news on Clam 2 as well unfortunately. To be frank, though, twitter has become just about unusable for me and I really don't intend on engaging with the hellsite any more than I absolutely have to. You can follow updates on bluesky as well, though, where I might be making updates a little more frequently. Anyway - development on the game is going really well and if you're worried that it's stuck in development hell or just not coming out, fret not. It's coming out eventually, once it's done, and I promise you you will be playing it if you want to. No news is good news, essentially. Have a great start of the year, everyone - stay safe out there. //Martin/marafrass P.S. I said I'd have a discord up and running at some point, and I still plan to - once I've got a clear idea of the final stretch of the game, I'll have enough bandwidth to start managing that too!
[ 2025-01-25 04:51:38 CET ] [ Original post ]
Heya, everybody!
CLAM MAN 2: OPEN MIC just received a MASSIVE update!
- Reworked intro!
- New (voiced) characters!
- New quests!
- New attributes and perks!
- Character creation! (and premade archetypes, too)
- UI update!
- Performance and stability improvements!
Play it now and see for yourself!
The full game is still in development and is far from complete, but I hope that this will give you an idea of what I've been working on and adding to the whole experience. I'm hoping that this updated version will give people a better idea of what the actual game will be like, so please keep up the feedback, bug reports, and thoughts in the community page and in reviews! (This is the build that was shown at PAX West 2023, with a ton of added content on top of that. I'm very tired, and I'm going to sleep for two weeks now.)
[ 2023-09-16 00:12:16 CET ] [ Original post ]
Heya folks!
Been a while since my last update - things have been pretty hectic lately!
The big thing coming up (for me, at least) is PAX West in Seattle, WA! I'll be there showing off a new and improved demo for Clam 2, so if you're going, come say hi and try it out! The booth number is 3026, so hope to see you there.
The second big thing is that once PAX is over, I'll be updating Open Mic with all the new features and polish that Headliner's been receiving! This means:
[olist]
Keep an eye out for the update sometime after PAX - there's still a few changes I'll need to make to Open Mic, but in general it's ready for release! Have a good one, //marafrass
[ 2023-08-28 22:14:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hey again folks,
I'll try to post these updates a little more frequently - both to share development progress outside of twitter and also to keep track of development publicly! Sometimes it'll be smaller things, sometimes bigger, and I'm hoping to get some general feedback and comments from anyone looking forward to the game!
1. Production Planning
This past month or so has been a decent amount of planning for the full game. I'm currently aiming for six in-game days, meaning that the final game will be approximately six times as big as Open Mic. That should end up being about 10-12 hours per playthrough, which I think is pretty perfect for a game like this. The idea is still that you should be able to replay it and see new things every time (provided you make different choices and try a different character build) but I also feel like going over 15 hours or so might cause the game to overstay its welcome.
2. Tons of Art
Besides planning, I've been doing tons of new art for the game - all the art for Day Two is now completed, and some of Day Three is already done as well. Every scene in the game is hand-painted (on a tablet, granted) and every frame of animation is drawn and painted separately, so it does take a little bit of time but I feel like I've made pretty swift progress, which feels great.
3. Reworking the Intro
One of the most common points of criticism was that the intro was too slow, or felt railroaded. I didn't initially think it was, but enough people mentioned it for me to reconsider. As a result, the opening scenes are getting reworked to be a lot more interactive. In the final game, you'll get up from your desk and walk around almost instantly after you're done with...
4. CHARACTER CREATION
...which is also something I've been reworking completely! Not only is there now an actual dedicated screen for character building, but I've gone ahead and added three new stats along with a choice of eight perks, which makes your build a little bit more unique. This does mean that a lot of pre-existing dialogue will have to be re-written or heavily edited to make use of all these new features, but I feel like it's worth it at the end of the day to keep the entire game a lot more fresh.
Don't worry about the UI for now - this is all WIP and will be polished for the final game!
That's all for now - next report will probably be ready in a month or so! Next, I'll be finishing the intro rework (should be another week or so) and revamping all the dialogue currently in Open Mic. After that, I'll move on to dialogue for Day Two, which might end up being even more than Day One. (which I think say at around 100,000 words, which is far too many)
Have a good one,
Martin
[ 2023-01-24 07:54:41 CET ] [ Original post ]
Heya folks!
I already posted a brief update in the Steam forums, but I forgot to post here as well. This won't be a long post, but hopefully good news for anyone excited about Headliner!
The game now has funding and is back in full development!
Oh cool, who's funding it?
Clam Man 2: Headliner got picked up by Fig Portfolio Shares, which is a initiative that raised a couple million dollars in order to invest in indie titles. Unlike typical publishers, the FPS doesn't oversee development and instead provides funds for development for a share after release - that means the project still very much is in my hands, and the creative process begins and ends with me. That said, however, they have been suggesting I look into porting the game to other platforms, which I'm more and more interested in.
Wait, I thought the game was already in development?
Unfortunately, no - I initially sought out publishers to help me go solo with Clam 2 and pay the bills during development, but although I had a few interested parties, publishing a solo dev is generally considered a risky undertaking. For the last two years since the release of Open Mic, I joined another indie studio as director and writer for a prequel to their debut game, so with the massive amount of work that came with that there hasn't been much time to work on Clam 2. As of now, however, I've officially wrapped production on that project and I'm back to Clam 2!
That's all good and well but when is it actually coming out?
I'm not sure yet - to give you an idea, the funding I have is roughly for two years of development, but I'm hoping to have the game out sooner than that. More news on that later!
That's great! Congrats!
Thanks, me!
So what are you going to work on next?
One of the main criticisms Open Mic got, both in reviews and time played, was that the intro was too text-heavy and felt railroaded. I'm reworking the intro, and along with that, I'm having a look at some of the internal systems of the game. The stats and dice rolling work in a way that I'm happy with, but there's a lot of features I've wanted to add that don't necessarily work with its current implementation. If it takes a month or so to rework those systems and the final product has far more depth and variety, I'd consider that effort well worth it.
That's all for now - huge thanks to everyone still excited for Headliner. I'm happy to be back on track, and I've got tons of plans for the full game. This thing is a passion project, and since I'm developing this one alone, there's no one to stop me from making it as weird and unique as I want it to be.
Much love,
Martin
[ 2022-11-26 03:49:34 CET ] [ Original post ]
Heya folks, Martin here!
As you've already seen from the title, I decided to overhaul the skill check system in the game. Truth be told, it wasn't very exciting - just a click and then a result. Beyond that, a few players have mentioned that the percentage system was a little obtuse; a skill of 70 needs to roll over 30, and so on. Tabletop RPGs have always been a huge inspiration for Clam Man 2, so what better way to improve the skillchecks in the game than adding the classic d20!
The D20 Update:
Skillchecks are now decided by a d20 (a twenty-sided die) plus your modifiers, and rolling that against a target value! For example, rolling over 7 is easy, while rolling over 16 is a whole other ordeal! Since a few people have asked about stat progression, I thought I'd give you some detail: Every "morning" of the game (after a night of heavy, sweaty standup) you'll be able to allocate more points into your stats! For every 5 points, you'll get an additional +1 to all dice rolls with that stat! The scale starts at 50 - for every 5 points above or below, a +1 modifier is either added or removed! Oh, and another thing; you can now CRIT your rolls!
Rolling a 1 [(A critical failure) will immediately fail the check/b], no matter your modifier, while a 20 (A critical success) will automatically succeed, no matter what! A ton of new lines have been added to the game as a result of this! Other than the d20 overhaul I've also fixed a number of bugs and conditionals that people reported! Thanks to everyone who keeps reporting the bugs, you're a huge help! <3 One last thing - the update is massive and unfortunately not compatible with previous saves. You'll be able to play it from where you left off, but all your modifiers will unfortunately be set to 0. I recommend finishing any run you're currently doing and then updating, or just restarting! Sorry about this - this should be the last major update to Open Mic so this is the last time it'll happen! Personally, I think this is a way better and way more fun system. Dice rolls are more exciting and the numbers simple to understand. I hope you all feel the same way! Let me know how you feel, either in comments here or in the community hub! Much Love, Martin
[ 2020-07-01 21:47:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
WE'RE LIVE!
Thanks to everyone who helped during the development of this, and thanks for all the early testers on itch.io!
Hope you enjoy the game! If you do, feel free to wishlist the full, upcoming project HERE:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1278380/Clam_Man_2_Headliner/
You can also check out the LAUNCH TRAILER HERE:
[previewyoutube=Ky4CRLNBV4Y;full][/previewyoutube]
Have a great weekend folks!
[ 2020-06-19 19:03:45 CET ] [ Original post ]
- Clam Man 2 - Open Mic Linux [904.49 M]
CLAM MAN 2: OPEN MIC
is the prologue to the upcoming Clam Man 2, a stand-up comedy RPG adventure, and the first day in a week of jokes, quests, and saying a lot of really odd things. It's a combatless, narrative RPG that takes you on an unlikely quest in a very unlikely world. Play as the titular Clam Man and uncover a secret lurking in the basement of Snacky Bay Prime Mayonnaise that will change the course of your life! Do quests, get jokes, and do stand-up!If any of that sounds remotely interesting, give the game a shot! It's free! You've got nothing to lose!
Still not convinced? Alright, let me share some of the other things you can do in this game;
- Faint in an attempt to get out of public speaking
- Lie to a child
- Talk to a prehistoric beast
- Cause an earthquake
- Do standup
THE GAME JUDGES WHO YOU ARE
Four different stats dictate your abilities;- Aquadynamics - your ability to perform physical comedy, mime, act out scenarios or just remain deadpan!
- Improv - the ability to think on the spot, be strange and absurd, or come up with new takes or ideas!
- Detection - your ability to perceive the world and use logic to deduce it! The key ingredient in observation comedy!
- Self-Awareness - how much of an absolute mess you are! Taking a page from games like Fallout: New Vegas and 'dumb' playthroughs, high Self-Awareness could turn you into an empathic, nervous wreck, while Low Self-Awareness will let you be mean to children, slap people, and blurt out the most unbelievable b******t you could think of. Yay for self-deprecating comedy!
TONS OF DIALOGUE
If you're averse to lots of reading, this might get tricky - Clam Man 2 has a LOT of branching dialogue, offering tons of replayability! Dialogues also feature tons of static skill checks that only unlock with the right stats; if a conversation only has a couple of available response options, chances are that other outcomes and absurdities hide behind a different character build!GATHER MATERIALS
In order to do stand-up, you need jokes! In Clam Man 2, quests are character-based with choices to be made and errands to be run, and finishing a quest rewards you with material you can use in your shows! Every quest has multiple endings, and depending on your choices, the resulting joke loot will change, and it's impossible to see even half of all the jokes in a single playthrough! (Completionists beware - it could take around six fully optimized runs to see everything in the game!)GET ON STAGE
Each joke you receive from quests will measure your abilities, with classic RPG dice rolls. High stats and the right joke makes all the difference! Succeeding will give you multiple options of where you want to take the joke, and even failing will allow you to choose your destiny in a spiraling maelstrom of stuttering, awkwardness, and pure bad taste. Will you land every joke, or will you bomb your way through your shows?NO FIGHTING
Clam Man 2 is a narrative RPG, with zero combat! (Apart from a part where you can slap a guy in the face.) Furthermore, bombing jokes doesn't lead to a game over - instead, it leads to changes in how characters perceive you, with larger ramifications on the story in the full game! Oh, and you'll also be embarrassing yourself on stage.YOU ONLY GET A TASTE
Clam Man 2: Open Mic is the entire first day of the full game currently in development, but even so has tons of quests, characters, and dialogue to see! The full game is currently in development, and the response to this will determine the direction, changes, and style of the final game! Every single Steam review will be read to gather feedback!WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS
Clam Man 2 is being developed by a solo developer who previously wrote and designed Clam Man, a point'n'click adventure game! You can follow the development on twitter!- OS: Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04
- Processor: 2 ghzMemory: 2 GB RAM
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL 3.2+. Vulkan capable.
- Storage: 1 GB available space
- Processor: Pentium 2000Memory: 4 GB RAMStorage: 1 GB available space
- Memory: 4 GB RAMStorage: 1 GB available space
- Storage: 1 GB available space