Just spent some time in the prologue. Unfortunately didn't have time to get through all of it, but from what I played, I can say that I am really impressed! Solo development is tough, but despite that hurdle, the game is already looking super promising!

As to the trend that I mentioned, it's clear that this game takes plenty of inspiration from Disco Elysium (great game for those who haven't tried it), but that is not to diminish the identity of this game. DE is a wonderful and super smart game to be inspired by, and I think this is the first game that I've seen follow in it's footsteps of exploring a different way to play rpgs (without combat).

So, about Clam Man 2 specifically. The writing is definitely the star and most prominent piece of gameplay, and it's good! Quite clever and well written. The premise of the game is unique and interesting. Never thought I'd play an rpg about a bunch of aquatic critters with a focus on stand up comedy, but here we are and I actually love it. The world is quaint and fun and relaxing to explore. I personally didn't get to do stand up part of the game yet, though I plan on playing more tonight. The idea of the repertoire as a substitute for the thought cabinet is really good. I had been thinking of ways that someone could do a similar sort of idea, where the character's (not so much the player's) thoughts impact the game, and the repertoire works well (in concept at least, I still have yet to see it in practice). The quest system being used is seemingly identical to DE's quest system and I'm perfectly fine with that. It's still a fresh new take on how to do quests. Traditional quest structure seems less interesting to me than the "my character wants to do a thing and put it down in their notes" style which DE and this game adopt. The stats are interesting and I think that having only four for the scope of the game is probably fine. It would be neat to spread some of those skills thinner into more defined subsets of comedy, though I do understand that the dev wanted to give each skill as much use as possible in and out of comedy. So they probably combined them to achieve that goal. Plus the more skills there are, the harder the game is to make. But if the dev is able to add even 2 more skills, that would increase the replayability and make each playthrough feel more unique. That's why DE's 24 skills work so well, there's so many of them that each playthrough will probably feel very different based on the chosen skills. Obviously 24 is a lofty number and a bit unreasonable for a single dev. Also I saw that I got +1 towards Al, which is neat and I'm sure it would be more apparent what that means during the comedy sections of the game. I hope that things you say and do will adjust skill checks like how you get modifiers in DE, as that makes your choices feel like they really matter. I think that is the case with Clam Man 2, but again, didn't really get to see those modifiers in action.

All in all, I just want to sing the praise that this game deserves, and it's not even out yet (and I did not even get to the "main" part of the game - the stand up! But I don't have to in order to know that this game is a gem. Definitely check it out. I'm sure we'll be seeing more games like this and like DE coming out in the next few years. If there are any others out there in development, please point them out to me so I can keep my eye on them too!

Holy crap what a review! Thank you so much - I really hope the rest of the game lives up to your high praise! :)

The funny thing is that I'm using the same dialogue/quest assets as DE, which in turn means that there will be a lot of similarities visually, but I am doing my best to differentiate it. In general, the comparison to DE is both a blessing and a curse, since it both gives people an immediate idea of what I'm doing with Clam, but also puts me in direct comparison with one of the best games of recent years. :) I think one thing that worries me the most is people taking a quick look at the game and writing it off as a DE ripoff and nothing else, but we'll see. Hopefully, I can keep it interesting and different enough.

You know, originally there *were* more stats - Confidence, Inner Rage and Snark! They were fun, but exactly like you deduced in your original post, it was a ton of extra work and at certain points just diluted the experience and strengths/weaknesses. I'm doing my best to make sure that all stats have their own High/Low hidden options, to maximise that replayability. 

Glad you pointed out the +1 Al thing - that's something that is never told to you in-game. Basically, the characters have relationships to you and based on how you act, they'll like you more or less. That, in turn, is supposed to lead to additional dialogues or quests, but in Open Mic there is only one check for relationships. (At the very end - you don't know it's there unless you play it twice and get different outcomes)

Anyway - huge thanks for the kind words and for sharing your thoughts on the game! I really appreciate it, and it helps me figure out what works and what doesn't - or works less well.