Topic: The Cold Hand Reef [MAGS AUG 2015]

[MiteWiseacreLives!]

Shadow:

The arrow buttons remaining visible is a bug, they should disappear when night falls and the bad ending cutscene is triggered. I'll fix hat one and upload a new version today.

So the reason I got that ending was because night fell and nothing I did to trigger it? Is there a way to prevent it from happening?

SHADOW

No, I'm afraid there is no way to stop the sun from setting, but you CAN escape the reef and sail away before that happens.

Hey wait a minute!
There must be way more to this game than I thought..

Spoiler: ShowHide

I went to grab a piece of sail from the water with the gaff, then the hands took me under
So is there a bunch of game I missed out on??

[Mandle]

Spoiler: ShowHide

I went to grab a piece of sail from the water with the gaff, then the hands took me under
So is there a bunch of game I missed out on??

Yes...quite a bit more:

Spoiler: ShowHide

When the hand grabs the gaff start clicking the mouse to fight it. It's pretty easy to beat and then you can continue.

[WHAM]

MASSIVE SPOILERS:

Spoiler: ShowHide

The father was trying to drown the daughter not because he wanted to kill her but because he just wanted to have her back with him, and did not realise the consequences of that until she reminded him about their (alive) life together by showing the family drawing. I guess his mind is in some kind of dreamlike state, not realising he is dead, until she snaps him out of it by showing him the drawing. (A nice allegory of parents never wanting to let go of their kids even when it's time for them to grow up and go their own ways...although this is just my own obsevation and doesn't need mentioning to kids)...

Kids will also probably ask what happened to the father character in the first place. My theory is that the drowned wife came for him because she wanted him back by her side in much the same way that he came back for the daughter later. This would be a good opportunity for discussion with children about what they imagined happened...

This is also just what I personally got from the story after a few playthroughs. Game author can confirm or deny?

You have just, pretty much verbatim, laid out the story I had written out for the game in the design doc.
It seems that I did manage to create a somewhat coherent story, despite the limitations in the tools with which to convey then.
Very good!

[Cassiebsg]

@Mandle

Spoiler: ShowHide

You do see the father at the end, together with the mother and "saying" that now it's just them two, no child. Thought that was somewhat sad though.
so no need to guess that part.

[Mandle]

@Mandle

Spoiler: ShowHide

You do see the father at the end, together with the mother and "saying" that now it's just them two, no child. Thought that was somewhat sad though.
so no need to guess that part.

Yup,

Spoiler: ShowHide

...you do see them together at the end but I just meant that there is some ambiguity in exactly how the father ended up drowning. It could have been the wife coming for him, or one of the other drowned people, or the whole gang of them...

I also thought the ending was sad, but in a bittersweet kind of way: The father gets his wish to be back together with his wife but must lose his child to do so. I was then nervous through the whole flash-forward scene of the new happy family at the end that a cold, black hand was going to reach up and pull the little tyke under.

[Cassiebsg]

@Mandle

Spoiler: ShowHide

I assumed he saw the wife and choose to save/join her by jumping in the water. But yeah, it could have been the others that pulled him in.
And I felt about exactly the same watching the happy kid in the water...