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