South Scrimshaw, Part One

About this game

"The consciousness dawning inside of an aquatic egg is prodded alert.
It is a male whale calf, stirring with a newfound awareness of body."



South Scrimshaw uses the linear VN format to create a science fiction documentary about fictional science. It is composed of over 400 illustrations, painted in a mix of watercolor, ink, and digital media, set against a rich audio backdrop of music and sound effects.



This release contains four chapters, detailing one life from birth to the end of adolescence, along with world building details about the interplanetary human expedition.



"South Scrimshaw is made possible through the support of viewers like you. Thank you."

Latest news

• Announcements·10 Jan 2024Official

  Wishlist South Scrimshaw Part Two

  First I want to repeat my sincere gratitude to everyone following this project. I have put so much work into this and sacrificed so much to do it while living under generally poor conditions. It's hard to articulate how much having even a small an audience means without sounding mawkishly sentimental. But the last six months really saved me. The upcoming chapters are planned to be longer than what came before in Part One. I hope each upcoming release can be enjoyed as a satisfying update on the whale's journey. I'm also being more ambitious with some of the illustration and am trying to push art further. When Ch. 5 finally comes out I hope it's readily apparent what took so long. I've done A LOT of painting since August when I was able to resume work, both digital and watercolor. Everyone who has donated to the project on Ko-fi will receive a fish sketch as part of the supporter mural. The example in the video is still a work in progress, that's the general plan. Fish size roughly matches donation. Basically the people who put up with the wait and help me make this get inscribed into the end as a sea creature doodle. This is the most important thing I could think to give supporters. Basically the people who put up with the wait and help me make this get inscribed into the end as a sea creature doodle. The Making Of art book is also a way to support me and get something in return. However the VN is free and these payments are entirely optional! If I was mad about non-payment I would have set a price on it 😄 Truthfully sharing South Scrimshaw with others is almost of equal value to me as I try to grow my audience. Tl;dr I'm working on Part 2 and you can wishlist it in advance.
  Read full article on Community Announcements (N. O. Marsh)

• Announcements·6 Jul 2023Official

  Artbook DLC Now Available To Support Development!

  The Art of South Scrimshaw: Part One is now available on Steam! Over 200 pages, 4K resolution, the book gives a brief survey of the project's evolution, contains art not in the VN, and shows select illustrations broken down into component parts. After being in development for over three years, South Scrimshaw Part One released early last month to an unexpectedly enthusiastic audience. This art book is a way for newfound fans to see more of the project and provide financial support to the free visual novel. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44159080/4c433debd8140f0a6083998edb1a6c04d8a2bab1.png I tried to take the time to make something worth the money. It's not a full autobiography or anything crazy, but the forward contains my personal reflections, a bit of history, and it isn't written from behind the fourth wall. I hope the extra context about the author's life makes the VN a little bit richer. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44159080/d2d1dddb65540b3a005c787cbcd311746962fce4.png Thank you to everyone who has viewed South Scrimshaw. These last three weeks have been beyond anything I had anticipated.
  Read full article on Community Announcements (nomarsh)

• Press Coverage·29 Jun 2023

  It doesn't seem fair that this wonderfully weird visual novel about alien whales is completely free

  I was just minding my own business on a quiet evening when I stumbled across Alpha Beta Gamer's coverage of South Scrimshaw: Part One, a free visual novel that presents a nature documentary about alien whales. I couldn't ignore a premise that good, but I still had all my expectations blown out of the water (pun fully intended)... Read more.
  Read full article on PC Gamer (Ted Litchfield)

• Announcements·13 Jun 2023Official

  Part One Release and Part Two Timeline

  When Part One published last Friday I posted a retrospective to my Twitter recounting how long the road had been to get here. My mood was more post-mortem than celebration, since until then my passion project has mostly gone unread. In the past three days I’ve received many times more support than the past three years combined. If you've found my weird project and you like it, genuinely thank you. The most common question I'm getting now is, "When is part two." I will do my best to set a schedule here. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44159080/d33c0e7136d299b9c405e34f93fda300a25ab8ed.jpg Pictured: A male Brillo whale, designated as a primary Kronos study subject, unexpectedly emerges near a Pineport boardwalk. In the past I've released chapters episodically as I complete them, and I plan to release Part Two in a similar manner. I work on Scrimshaw obsessively, then I run out of money and have to do paying work, then I work on Scrimshaw and release a chapter is the usual cycle. Right now I have two large commissions that are going to eat the rest of June and a big part of July. I can write and sketch some in the meantime, but actual production of the art and assembling the VN won't begin until I finish these job. Hopefully the money I make now can buy me the free time to really knuckle down and work on this project uninterrupted. I don't think I can make one chapter in less than two months, given the amount of illustration I load into them. However I'm going to be extremely conservative with my estimate and say chapter 5 won't be done until January. I apologize if half a year sounds like an awful wait, but I'm only one person and need to pay the bills and buy groceries. My hope is that, with a long period to prepare, your wait for chapters 6, 7, and 8 will be shorter, and the work will be the quality you are expecting. I am extremely excited for what's next. I've had a complete draft of the story finished for a long time, but it's the details that are the fun part. I think I can m...
  Read full article on Community Announcements (nomarsh)