South Scrimshaw, Part One
A xenobiologist's tale
It may be ironic that my first post on “Short Musings” is about a video game that some would debate is not even a video game. But this is my blog and I don’t care for such trivial discussion – if I download it from a video game storefront, it’s a video game. Except Detroit Become Human – that’s not a video game but an affront to art itself.
Anyway, South Scrimshaw, Part One is basically a visual storybook – there are no mechanics to speak of other than clicking to proceed through text and narration. There aren’t even any things like dialogue choices that would allow you to shoehorn it into the category of visual novel. Instead it’s a tale of an extraterrestrial whale in a faraway ocean told via the framework of a fictional nature documentary. Think of Blue Planet except without the charm of Attenborough’s grandfatherly dulcet tones. Here Attenborough’s distinctive delivery is substituted with voice actors who are much more robotic, charmless and who occasionally misplace inflections and stumble on the game’s more complex verbiage (at least they’re British). This is entirely forgivable seeing as this is my only quibble with South Scrimshaw and because it is a completely free offering, which is so mind-boggling that I deemed it only right to donate to creator Nathan Marsh’s Ko-fi after I finished the game.
Everything else about South Scrimshaw, Part One is fantastic. I wouldn’t want to reveal the details of the story, since this is a game that is essentially all story, and this post would go beyond what would be considered ‘short musings’ if I were to start waxing lyrical about the contents of the narrative. But let me just tell you that in a short runtime of around ninety minutes, Marsh is able to create an incredibly rich sci-fi lore. First surrounding the human expedition to this extraterrestrial planet and second in the subsequent documentation of the fate of a juvenile whale calf as it strives to survive through to adulthood in a familiar but very much alien ocean. It reminds me of the extremely atmospheric In Other Waters from Jump Over the Age (who also made my favourite game of last year, Citizen Sleeper) except this is coupled with beautifully illustrated, Ghibli-esque watercolour images and animations to give life to the game’s excellent writing and world-building.
As this is just Part One (Marsh is still working on Part Two), this doesn’t recount the whole story and ends just on the cusp of the juvenile whale making a life-defining decision that will shape the destiny of his adult life. It’s not a cliffhanger as such; more a natural endpoint to the first half of this story; but that doesn’t lessen my excitement for what Part Two will bring. There’s enough tantalising intrigue that’ll make me pick it up straight away, whether it’s free or at a (deservedly) premium price.
I’ve always said sea exploration is way more interesting than space exploration – we know for sure there’s some crazy sh*t in our oceans whilst there could be nothing in the infinite reaches of space, or at least what is accessible to us at this moment in time. With South Scrimshaw I get the best of both worlds: I get to satiate the wistful part of my brain that occasionally thinks I should have become a marine biologist whilst also tickling the whimsical side of my brain wondering WTF other alien species could be down there in the depths of the ocean. It’s an impressive labour of love and I’d encourage you to go pick it up (for absolutely nothing!) on itch.io, Steam or GOG.