Nimrod Campbell and the Laboratory of Yakub

The three protagonists of Nimrod Campbell - Nimrod himself, a blonde white man in an Adventure Scouts uniform; Daniel Zivay, a Black academic with cracked glasses reading a book, and Rebecca Frankl, a black-haired woman brandishing a baseball bat.

Nimrod Campbell and the Laboratory of Yakub is the currently-in-development debut title of SCUMManifesto Games, a modern, satirical spin on the classic point-and-click adventure holding up a critical, post-colonial lens to the adventure genre. Set in the 1930s, it follows the misadventures of our trio of heroes (or, well, protagonists, at least): Quisling ‘Nimrod’ Campbell, would-be adventurer archaeologist and scion of a wealthy American family; Daniel Zivai, a Ph.D. student in archaeology, and Rebecca ‘Becky’ Frankl, a former member of the infamous Purple Gang, hired on as the party’s muscle. Together, our three adventurers investigate a mysterious dynamite-based murder, eventually falling down a rabbit hole of the urban cultural melting pot that was 1930s Detroit, Nazi filmmaker wannabes, and Yakubian mythology.

Nimrod Campbell is the first project I have worked on where I have a defined role — specifically, I am the design lead, responsible for the overall high-level creation of the game’s mechanics and puzzles. Additionally, given the relatively small scope of the team, I get my hands dirty on the programming end whenever needed, as well as providing input on narrative design and writing where appreciated.

The game is yet to be released; once an official vector of communication for SCUMManifesto Games has been set up, I will link it here.

Game Statistics

  • Release: TBA

  • Engine: Godot

  • Project Type: Student

  • Commercial: No

  • Hosting Site: TBD

The Theatre Carcassonne - one of the levels in Nimrod Campbell - as seen from the outside, rendered in a ligne-claire artstyle.

  • See a long-term project through the full development pipeline spanning over multiple years

  • Practice creating a large number of varied, unique puzzles within a narrow set of game mechanics

  • Build a solid, scalable foundation suitable for a project of this size

  • Coordinate with developers and the narrative design team to make sure the game’s mechanics suit the story being told

Design Goals

Project Trivia

  • I met the creative director for the game, Jazz, through Bluesky! Turns out posting can be good for something.

  • The original prototype build of the game was entirely my work for the first eight months or so, before we got another programmer on board! Since then, the game has gone through a rebuild from the ground up, but I’m glad to have been able to get the ball rolling for us originally.