Clam Man 2: Headliner is an upcoming combatless stand-up comedy RPG inspired by Disco Elysium
Clam Man 2: Headliner is an upcoming combatless stand-up comedy RPG inspired by Disco Elysium
Game News - posted by Infinitron on Mon 8 June 2020, 23:18:44
Tags: Clam Man 2: Headliner; Team ClamDisco Elysium was a huge success, so it's expected that we would see some clones. In Clam Man 2: Headliner, you play as a stand-up comedian clam man in a city inhabited by anthropormophic sea creatures. Like Disco Elysium it has no combat system, with stats related to the protagonist's stand-up comedy skills, and the dialogue interface is basically identical. The game is being developed by a gentleman from Montreal who calls himself Marafrass and it's actually a sequel to a point & click adventure released last year. We discovered it when he launched its Steam page two days ago. Here's the trailer and description:
CLAM MAN 2: HEADLINER is an upcoming stand-up comedy RPG; a combatless, narrative adventure 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!
THE GAME JUDGES WHO YOU ARE
Four different stats dictate your abilities;
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!
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.
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!
There's no release date for Clam Man 2 yet, but a free prologue demo build called Clam Man 2: Open Mic is available on itch.io (the trailer is actually for that). The prologue will also be released on Steam on June 19th.
CLAM MAN 2: HEADLINER is an upcoming stand-up comedy RPG; a combatless, narrative adventure 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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
There's no release date for Clam Man 2 yet, but a free prologue demo build called Clam Man 2: Open Mic is available on itch.io (the trailer is actually for that). The prologue will also be released on Steam on June 19th.
