The Scab by LDJam user 929

made by LDJam user 929 for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

NOTE: For the best experience, we recommend playing the downloadable version! The web version is missing a couple of features.

Introduction

The little island docks' crew is on strike!

You have been chosen to blend in, chat to the crew members and other involved individuals, and figure out the name of the strike leader. Use the clues you collect from dialogues to make them talk!

Controls

WSAD to move, mouse click to initiate dialogues.

Click and drag clues to collect them into your journal. cc<em>collect</em>clue.gif

Click and drag collected clues from your journal onto other characters to unlock additional dialogues! cc<em>use</em>clue.gif

Goal

Use the strike leader's name on your boat to win!!!

Bonus challenge:

Can you collect all 12 existing clues?

About

Made with Godot 4.5

Additional updates after deadline:

1) Fixed outro not triggering on game end

2) Added macOS export

3) Fixed speech bubbles positioning and pickup detection

4) Fixed some sounds not looping

Source code (GitHub)	https://github.com/plusonelevel/ld58
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/the-scab

Ratings

Given

10🗳️

10🗨️

Feedback

Neandi

Oct 06th · 23:18 UTC

Really cool Idea! Haven't seen that anywhere else before.

Antarktis

Oct 07th · 13:42 UTC

nice idea ！

egor.ae_game

Oct 07th · 15:06 UTC

Very cool!

Andreyvhc

Oct 07th · 15:07 UTC

Wow, this is the first time I've seen an interesting game on Gadot, the implementation is cool, there's something to work on.

manabreak

Oct 07th · 15:16 UTC

Absolutely awesome mood here - even though there was no sound, I was reeled in right from the beginning. This kind of gameplay could very well be worked to something big, something like Disco Elysium where your actions make difference. I imagine you could make moral choices by talking to people, outing others, praising some... This is gold!

LDJam user 236256

Oct 07th · 15:17 UTC

Fun concept but there seems to be a bug where I can't drag Popov's name into the book. I've exhausted every other dialogue and I'm pretty sure I can't continue unless I get Popov to wake the sleeping guy up.

Cisco

Oct 07th · 15:19 UTC

Great mood and graphics! I love the birds flying around — it really makes the game feel alive.
The concept is great and fits the theme really well.

Nadan

Oct 07th · 15:21 UTC

@cheeks Hi, thank you for your feedback! Yes, there’s currently a bug that requires some clues to be dragged from slightly farther to the left than they appear. We’re working on a fix and hope to have it out later today.

LDJam user 236256

Oct 07th · 15:23 UTC

Update: Click and drag on the red name Popov didn't work, but clicking a little to the left and down of the text grabbed it, so it seems the bug is just that the placement of where to click was slightly off. I was able to get the name and then complete game. Hopefully this comment helps anyone else stuck on getting Popov's name.

🎤 LDJam user 929

Oct 07th · 16:09 UTC

Thanks for all the feedback so far guys! We adjusted the bubbles so the clues should be easier to pick up now.

Edit: Okay, NOW it should be fixed. :upside_down:

Nadan

Oct 07th · 16:10 UTC

@manabreak It´s pretty funny that you say that :D Obviously, me and @parxer both are huge fans of Disco Elysium (who isn’t). But you know - we were just jamming as usual, I was building the world, he was writing the story and only about an hour before the submission deadline I asked him “This feel pretty Disco, right?” and he was like “ Ohhh, yeah, I completely forgot there was a strike in Disco too!” :D So that’s that. Apparently our subconsciousness dragged us here. But you know - there’s never enough Disco in the world :D

Flokami

Oct 07th · 18:22 UTC

Very good and original entry !

Damyyr

Oct 07th · 19:02 UTC

Such a cool mechanic ! Like other mentioned, I could see this in bigger game, very fun !
Without more research on my part, I always thought Godot was only nice for 2D, thanks for this realization :)

Nadan

Oct 07th · 21:01 UTC

@damyyr Hey, thanks for the kind words! I have to say Godot is really great tool even for 3D! If you somewhat like what we´ve done, you´re gonna enjoy 3d in Godot very much. Let me quickly explain why - we are working in Godot´s Compatibility mode, because it allows the WebGL support and therefore we can place the game on the web. But if you actually go for desktop build in Godot´s Forward mode, you can get to whole another level with the rendering. You can find a lot of great tutorials and showcases on YouTube regarding the rendering modes in Godot. Just wanted to let you know :)

Theogen

Oct 08th · 23:13 UTC

Very unique interpretation of the theme. The journal is such cool concept! And the graphics look fantastic. My 3D open-world game was made with Godot too, and I was surprised with how relatively easy it was! It's not as polished as yours visually, but still.

![20251008_19h05m25s_grim.png](///raw/b34/43/z/6f066.png)

hulien22

Oct 09th · 02:57 UTC

Super cool game concept! Really liked the atmosphere set by the art and the bg sounds. Wasn't super clear to me that you had to go back to the boat at the end - spent a bit going around in circles until I went back and read the game description again..

This felt like the crossover I didn't know I wanted between Case of the Golden Idol + Disco Elysium - great work!

Catusfelony

Oct 09th · 03:11 UTC

Very interesting! The game we made for LD57 had a similar mechanic where you had to use people's words to inquire further and progress the story. I think it's a really great way to get the player to think about things, perfect for a detective mystery! This was indeed very fun to figure out. I love the minimalist style too. Good stuff! ^-^

...Mario's reaction to using his name on him got a chuckle out of me x3

wo_ri_gou_le

Oct 09th · 04:17 UTC

Impressive! Is this drag collecting sort of play original? That'd be impressive. And the Mario joke works on me lol.

Also, I found that the journal is probably a big 3d model inside the main scene, the tower casts shadows on it! If you want better results, there is a trick doing that, put the book in a seperate scene and use subviewport to render it, enable it's own world3D to avoid any interactions, then it will render it as a 2d texutre in the 2d layer, that way it will always displayed above everything. I use this a lot, I like 3d immersive UI too!

🎤 LDJam user 929

Oct 09th · 07:54 UTC

@wo-ri-gou-le That's a good tip, thanks! Next time :grin:

I'm not sure how much I can attest to the mechanism being original - I'm not aware of any direct influence when I was thinking it up, but there's definitely some inspirations, even if subconcious - the Morrowind journal comes to mind, without the drag and drop of course.

And hey, thanks for the feedback!

Eugenik

Oct 09th · 08:35 UTC

Amazing original concept!.

Ira Baciu

Oct 09th · 10:12 UTC

Graphics are wild!!! U did this in three days? Omg

Nadan

Oct 09th · 11:26 UTC

@ira-baciu Thank you, so nice to hear that! To be fair, graphics was the **only** thing I did for those three days. 🥲 All the rest was @parxer :D

stuckne1

Oct 09th · 12:14 UTC

Oh wow! Art style is killer. Yea, Disco Elysium immediately popped in my head as well while playing this =).

I'm also a big fan of Godot. I have been using it for 3d as well.

Again, great job! I agree with others that this is definitely worth expanding.