It's the year 1999. Alternative metal band KoRn releases their fourth album, “Issues,” featuring cover art depicting a torn rag doll on it. The album’s last promotional single, “Somebody Someone,” and its music video, released in 2000, feature the band performing the song amidst some arthropods, like roaches, a spider, and a fly. Two years later, the band released a DVD compilation of music videos, interviews, and different behind-the-scenes clips. But, the twist was that once you put the disc on the DVD player, you would find yourself immersed in some kind of creepy escape room game, navigating through an apparently abandoned asylum and looking for hidden codes to unlock new videos in different locations.
A rag doll, arthropods, and an abandoned house. Sound familiar?
Well, fast forward to 2006, Mariona, now creative and art director at Mango Protocol, drew inspiration from listening to KoRn during those years to write a short and abstract story. In that story, she introduced a character based on the ragdoll from the "Issues" album cover. The narrative unfolded as the ragdoll explored around a house divided into concentric spaces, looking for insects to deliver to a girl who seemed to be working on some kind of obscure project.
Short storyboard inspired by KoRn's fourth album "Issues", and music video compilation "Deuce".
While originally envisioned as a script for a puppetry-based short film, it wasn't until 2018 that the pieces fell into place. Mariona, along with Javi and Jordi, transformed her earlier ideas into the foundation for the fourth installment of the Psychotic Adventures saga: CLeM, a mystery Puzzlevania adventure with a dark twist.
Javi started working on that original abstract story and, knowing Mariona for more than 14 years, distilled all the ideas and thoughts behind it and adapted it into something that could fit better with the team's vision for a narrative-driven puzzle game. Maintaining the dark essence and main elements from Mariona's initial script, he expanded it into a fully realized story that resonated even more personally with her.
Meanwhile, Jordi, armed with this narrative blueprint, crafted the gameplay, designing a really wide range of environmental and self-contained puzzles, each intricately linked to the overarching story. Every puzzle is tightly connected with the narrative, so they always feel coherent with the story, the characters, and the world in the game. Mariona, on the other hand, reimagined all the visuals for the story, starting with the player character — the ragdoll. However, as it usually happens when Mariona starts doodling ideas, not many drafts are needed until the team falls in love with one of them.
We always wanted CLeM to be a cute and creepy experience, and Mariona knew that the ragdoll (that we call “the servant”) needed to have the “cute” element, with a tiny body but a big head, and a static but friendly face. Contemplating a few ideas for the inventory system, the concept of a zip on the nape of the servant’s head emerged as a practical solution since all items could be stored inside, which made a lot of sense and simplified the general design of the servant. It also allowed Jordi to add a nice animation to the zip puller while the servant is walking.
Lastly, Mariona still had many options for the eyes, the zip, maybe an eyebrow and some hair, and other details like patches or the actual colours for every part. Greenish, so they look more like a zombie? Brownish, so they somehow resemble the fabric of a potato sack? Well, during the first year of development we called that character “potato”, so you can guess which colours Mariona decided to go with.
And that's how our cute servant ended up looking how they do!
Final Remarks
We hope you enjoyed learning about the inspirations and creative process behind the servant. Feel free to share your thoughts here, on our socials, and Discord server. We have some more content like this to show you in future publications so you can know more about the beautiful and twisted world of CLeM. Stay tuned!
It's the year 1999. Alternative metal band KoRn releases their fourth album, “Issues,” featuring cover art depicting a torn rag doll on it. The album’s last promotional single, “Somebody Someone,” and its music video, released in 2000, feature the band performing the song amidst some arthropods, like roaches, a spider, and a fly. Two years later, the band released a DVD compilation of music videos, interviews, and different behind-the-scenes clips. But, the twist was that once you put the disc on the DVD player, you would find yourself immersed in some kind of creepy escape room game, navigating through an apparently abandoned asylum and looking for hidden codes to unlock new videos in different locations.
A rag doll, arthropods, and an abandoned house. Sound familiar?
Well, fast forward to 2006, Mariona, now creative and art director at Mango Protocol, drew inspiration from listening to KoRn during those years to write a short and abstract story. In that story, she introduced a character based on the ragdoll from the "Issues" album cover. The narrative unfolded as the ragdoll explored around a house divided into concentric spaces, looking for insects to deliver to a girl who seemed to be working on some kind of obscure project.
Short storyboard inspired by KoRn's fourth album "Issues", and music video compilation "Deuce".
While originally envisioned as a script for a puppetry-based short film, it wasn't until 2018 that the pieces fell into place. Mariona, along with Javi and Jordi, transformed her earlier ideas into the foundation for the fourth installment of the Psychotic Adventures saga: CLeM, a mystery Puzzlevania adventure with a dark twist.
Javi started working on that original abstract story and, knowing Mariona for more than 14 years, distilled all the ideas and thoughts behind it and adapted it into something that could fit better with the team's vision for a narrative-driven puzzle game. Maintaining the dark essence and main elements from Mariona's initial script, he expanded it into a fully realized story that resonated even more personally with her.
Meanwhile, Jordi, armed with this narrative blueprint, crafted the gameplay, designing a really wide range of environmental and self-contained puzzles, each intricately linked to the overarching story. Every puzzle is tightly connected with the narrative, so they always feel coherent with the story, the characters, and the world in the game. Mariona, on the other hand, reimagined all the visuals for the story, starting with the player character — the ragdoll. However, as it usually happens when Mariona starts doodling ideas, not many drafts are needed until the team falls in love with one of them.
We always wanted CLeM to be a cute and creepy experience, and Mariona knew that the ragdoll (that we call “the servant”) needed to have the “cute” element, with a tiny body but a big head, and a static but friendly face. Contemplating a few ideas for the inventory system, the concept of a zip on the nape of the servant’s head emerged as a practical solution since all items could be stored inside, which made a lot of sense and simplified the general design of the servant. It also allowed Jordi to add a nice animation to the zip puller while the servant is walking.
Lastly, Mariona still had many options for the eyes, the zip, maybe an eyebrow and some hair, and other details like patches or the actual colours for every part. Greenish, so they look more like a zombie? Brownish, so they somehow resemble the fabric of a potato sack? Well, during the first year of development we called that character “potato”, so you can guess which colours Mariona decided to go with.
And that's how our cute servant ended up looking how they do!
Final Remarks
We hope you enjoyed learning about the inspirations and creative process behind the servant. Feel free to share your thoughts here, on our socials, and Discord server. We have some more content like this to show you in future publications so you can know more about the beautiful and twisted world of CLeM. Stay tuned!
Hey folks, long time no see! Some of you (especially those who still haven't joined our Discord server... yeah, I'm looking at you :P) may be wondering if we won the lottery and moved to some Polynesian paradise or maybe developed some common sense and finally decided to move into finance... Well, NO! We've been pouring countless hours of work into our upcoming game, CLeM, making it bigger, rounder, smoother, sweeter, in one word, better. But first, let us get into more detail so we can try to get you all hyped up:
Finishing CLeM
CLeM features a TON of content. Throughout 2023, we have been creating the remaining of the more than 20 different rooms the house will feature. Each room has its own purpose throughout the game. As they evolve, so do their contents. They may contain unique puzzles, undergo physical changes, bear heavy dramatic weight, contain key pieces of information that let you dive deeper into the story, hide dark secrets, or let you peek into a happier, simpler past life. But all of them are essential parts of what shapes: THE HOUSE. The house is one of the main characters in this story, and we've been working hard to make sure you'll enjoy every minute you invest in exploring its grounds.
We have also developed and implemented all the mechanics for the different magic toys, making sure that they helped bring a good rhythm to the game discovery and narrative development. Each toy will add a new way to tackle the house exploration and puzzles. As with any worthy "vania" game, you'll need to find new accessible routes, but also keep in mind former dead ends or impossible puzzles to try and look at them from a new skill perspective.
Cutscenes! Yes, we've also been cooking some sweet, sweet cutscenes. We all enjoy these cinematic moments that reward us with high-quality narrative moments after we've been solving those puzzles and have roamed around every available room. We hope you enjoy these traditionally animated pieces that will contribute to the story development from a different perspective.
Making CLeM multilanguage
We want CLeM to be enjoyed by as many people as possible, and what's a better way to immerse yourself into a game than the game speaking your own language? Upon release, CLeM will be available in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, German, Russian, Dutch, Korean, Catalan, Japanese, French, and Brazilian Portuguese so that you should feel at home when the game comes out. Additionally, Mariona, our art director, has channeled some of her deep connection with CLeM's plot to produce some absolutely awesome voiceover tracks for the English and Spanish languages.
Sharing CLeM with the world
We have also been busy attending several international events so we could bring CLeM to as many players as possible around the world. Thus, throughout 2023, CLeM has been present at Indie Dev Day (Barcelona), Gamescom (Köln), and AdventureX (London), and will be present at GamIberica (Porto), and BIG Conference (Bilbao) both physically and digitally.
This has contributed to making CLeM Mango Protocol's most wishlisted game to date, which pumps us up to keep working hard towards launch day!
Finding a new partner for CLeM
We wanted to find a perfect match that shared our passion and commitment for our games. With that in mind, we’ve partnered with Iceberg Interactive to be the publisher for CLeM! They have worked on other similar games in the past, like Strange Horticulture and Still There, and they love CLeM as much as we do, being super involved in making sure that CLeM's quality was up to standards and beyond and in maximizing its reach and success.
Polishing CLeM and getting it ready for release
From now until launch day, we’ll be focused on polishing CLeM and getting it ready to be enjoyed. There are still so many things to produce, like ports, store assets, social posts (like this one!), and many, many more nooks and crannies that need our attention to prepare for launch day, so stay tuned, because THAT day may be closer than you think!
What to do while you wait?
While we’ll be putting the finishing touches to CLeM before launch day, join our discord community to stay up-to-date with all things CLeM and the Psychotic Adventures series! We’ll be showcasing great behind-the-scenes glimpses, running brain-teasing challenges and riddles which, who knows, might come in handy when you explore CLeM's intricate world, and connect with us directly for any chats or questions you may have. Stay up-to-date, sharpen your skills, and be part of the excitement as we countdown to the big day together!
CLeM wins the Best Narrative Award at IndieDevDay 2022
At IndieDevDay 2021 CLeM won the Most Anticipated Game Award. Cool, huh? OK, but in this year's edition of the event CLeM has won the Best Narrative Award. YAS!
In case you are wondering, from left to right: Javi, Mariona and Jordi =)
During the event we really enjoyed discussing with all the attendes that tried the game how they expect the story to unfold. We promise that we'll work the hardest we can to meet, and hopefully exceed, all your expectations. That's why we are continuously updating the demo that you can play right now in the game's store page.
So far, we have fixed some bugs and added a lot of nice tweaks while we keep improving everything we can. We'd love to know what you think of the game so far, so don't hesitate to post it on the community hub. Questions, suggestions, requests... Whatever crosses your mind will be welcome and taken into account.
Thank you all for your support and don't forget to add the game to your wishlist!
이봐. 일어나 그리고 아름다움을 가져와.
CLeM 은 한국어버전도 제공됩니다!
CLeM will also be available in Korean!
Check the updated demo (it includes Korean localisation and a few gameplay tweaks that we are sure you will love).
CLeM hat jetzt eine deutsche Lokalisierung dank unserer Freunde Tolma4Team, in Zusammenarbeit mit Martina Seemann, Steven Korkowsky und Marcel Weyers, der auch Agatha Knife und MechaNika lokalisiert hat.
CLeM now has German localization thanks to our friends Tolma4Team, featuring Martina Seemann, Steven Korkowsky and Marcel Weyers, who also localized both Agatha Knife and MechaNika.
We have also added some new content, including new voices and general gameplay improvements that we have made after taking into account all your feedback.
Demo playthrough + Art making-of + Live Dev Q&A (Session 2)
Join us during the Steam Next Fest on this second broadcast session, on Thursday, June 16th at 10:00 PM CEST. and discover our upcoming Psychotic Adventure, Clem. The dev team will be on the chat, so feel free to ask us anything during the event!
We'll be streaming the complete demo playthrough and showing the creation process of some of the illustrations included in the game, hand-drawn by the studio's art director, Mariona Valls.
Remember that you can play the demo of the game right now. If you like it, don't forget to add it to your wishlist! =)
Demo playthrough + Art making-of + Live Dev Q&A (Session 1)
Join us during the Steam Next Fest on Tuesday, June 14th at 8:00 PM CEST, discover our upcoming Psychotic Adventure, Clem, and ask us anything during the live Q&A session.
We'll be streaming the complete demo playthrough and showing the creation process of some of the illustrations included in the game, hand-drawn by the studio's art director, Mariona Valls.
And don't forget you can download the demo now and play it by yourself so you can discover all the hidden secrets...
Give it a try and let us know what you think! You can share your thoughts on our Discord server, post your feedback on the game's community hub, or just post about it on Twitter or Instagram. And don't forget to add CLeM to your wishlist if you enjoy the demo so you don't miss the release!