400 Years

been able to find and climb down inside the volcano where you can prevent the eruption.

needing a helping hand, just past the hungry villagers who flee from me in terror.

During the winter, venture across the big body of water to the left. Then wait until fall, and pick up the grain you'll find growing on the shore there. Go back to the right, following the underwater passage that should take you down, around, and up to the village again after climbing some trees, and plant the grain there when prompted. (Note that making time pass will turn the grain to dust while you're carrying it.) Then, park yourself by the edge of the water and wait. Wait a long time. The people will use the grain to feed themselves and grow and expand and eventually they will build a bridge across both the big body of water, and the little one you couldn't cross by yourself.

It's after I fell in the middle of the water and climbed some stalactites and stalagmites. I'm at another village. I found a chestnut up and at the left side of the screen and planted it there, but before the tree grows tall enough, it gets cut down. I tried a few times, and it's year 217.

all the way to the right. First, grab your chestnut. In the fall, the boat parks itself at the far right side of the water, so you can use the net to climb up and get to the other side of the shore without having to wait to make time pass. You'll find a place to plant the nut and grow your tree over there. Unfortunately, I don't think the trees on the left side of the screen are ever meant to grow tall enough to climb.

I thought the ending had a quiet nobility that went with the sort of relentless timelessness of the game. My main problem was you just see a plane pass overhead... and that's it. That's all. I was hoping maybe for an extended scene where you could see, say, the villages you'd saved growing even bigger... and maybe even a little monument in one of them to you. After all, you're the thing that got them through the winter when they had no food. It just would have been more satisfying a wrap-up for me.

Kind of a bittersweet ending.

Using the final chestnuts a second time, you can climb the cliff that is past the right side of the volcano, another tree will automatically grow, giving access to

It makes it the ending much more poignant. The little short-lived people never knew or appreciated that the scary walking stone head saved all of their lives.

I knew I needed to let the tree I planted at the foot of the cliff before the volcano grow first so that the chestnut wouldn't turn to dust in my hands while it grew, so after about 10 years I came back in the winter to find the villagers must have cut down the tree I needed to climb to get to the chestnuts, because it was just a stump.

1. Stand up and head to the right. Don't be afraid of water... stone can't breathe, so just walk right through it!

2. When you encounter the second pond with no slope to climb out the other side on, press and hold [spacebar] to advance time to winter so it freezes over.

3. Continue heading right.

4. Climb the first tree at the cliff.

5. On top of the ledge, press and hold [spacebar] to advance time to wait for the second tree to grow large enough to climb... about ten years!

6. Once you've climbed up, advance the time to fall.

7. Head to the right and press [E] to pick up one of the chesnuts. Be careful not to advance time while carrying it since it will crumble to dust! (Don't worry, you can always advance to fall again and pick up another if this happens.)

8. Continue to the right until you hit a wall, and press [E] again while standing close to it to plant the chestnut.

9. Advance time until the newly planted tree is tall enough to climb. (Around ten to thirteen years or so.)

10. Climb the tree, and once atop the cliff, advance the time to winter.

11. Head to the right, crossing over the frozen water, and continue on.

12. When you get to the cliff, just step off. Don't be scared, you're very sturdy.

13. Making sure the season is still set to winter, continue to the right past the village and cross the frozen water.

14. On the other side of the water, advance the time to fall.

15. Press [E] while standing in it to pick some of the grain you find growing there. Once again, don't advance time or the grain will crumble to dust and you'll have to come back for more.

16. Head to the left back towards the village and fall into the water you had just crossed.

17. Walk along under the water to the left, through the tunnel, until you reach a tree.

18. Climb the tree and head to the right until you fall back to the village.

19. Press [E] when prompted to plant the grain, right at the spot you fell in.

20. Head to the right and stand beside the water.

21. Advance time for... a long time. Over the span of several decades, you will notice the village begin to improve, and eventually they will start building a bridge.

22. When the bridge is completed (you can stop advancing time whenever you like to check on its progress) head to the right and cross it.

23. Where you originally found the grain, you should now find a new settlement of villagers.

24. Keep heading to the right until you encounter a small pond of water. If there is no bridge across it yet, advance time more years until the villagers build a bridge across that gap as well.

25. Proceed to the right until you encounter another big body of water.

26. Advance time while standing on the shore until it is winter and the water has frozen over.

27. Head across the water while it's iced over, but stop roughly in the middle of the lake and advance time so the ice melts.

28. If done correctly, you should fall through the ice and down a long, long tunnel underwater. If you missed, just climb out and try again.

29. Walk all the way to the right, climbing the slope, until you reach a wall with stalactites and stalagmites growing from the ceiling and floor.

30. Once more, advance time until the stalactites have grown up from the ground enough for you to climb over the wall. This will take a LONG TIME, easily over 70 years, so be patient.

31. Climb over the wall and proceed to the right down into the water.

32. Advance time to summer and continue walking through the water to the right. Eventually, you should encounter a net dangling from the surface. Use this to climb up to land. (The boat only both has its net down and is close to the left side of the screen where you want it in the summer.)

33. Head to the left through the village until you encounter a wall.

34. Advance time once more until the tree there grows tall enough to climb... don't worry if you can't see it right away, it's there.

35. At the top of the wall once you can climb, advance time to fall.

36. Pick up one of the chestnuts lying on the ground.

37. Head back to the right.

38. Keep walking right until you fall into the water you climbed up out of.

39. The boat should now be parked on the right side of the shore opposite the village. Use its net to climb up and out.

40. Walk up to the wall and plant your chestnut against it.

41. Once more, advance time until your newly planted tree is tall enough to climb.

42. Climb the tree and continue walking to the right.

43. At the top of the tall, sooty mountain, you should find a hole. Climb all the way down it.

44. When prompted, press [E] to block the lava, and then advance time to see the results.

Trees have a lifecircle, they grow up and die, and start growing again. Just wait a couple of years and the "cut-down" tree will start growing again

Even though minimal I thought it was touching on 2 things:
- the civilisation by 2013 had been able to advance to jet aeroplanes
- even an eruption that doesn't cause a "calamity" can still ground air travel, as we have seen recently

there's a big flash and an image of burning trees and it says "the world is destroyed by fire" or something like that.

"Too late...the world has burned to ashes"

saving the day or not

Here lies a traveler between worlds,
whose name is unknown.
May his curious soul find a way home,
like you have found his resting place.

That tombstone inscription reminds me of nothing so much as Saint-Exup�ry's The Little Prince. Which is odd, because the time periods, location etc. would be all off?

So I wonder what the creator's intended reference was, if there was a particular one.

And the little prince in the end commits assisted suicide, (with the help of the serpent) in order to travel back to his asteroid. He then physically disappears from this planet.

spending five minutes, holding one key down, walking under water through an unvarying tunnel just to revisit the same place twice.

when I came back with the chestnut, the tree I planted was gone! There wasn't even a stump left!

The tomb marks the grave of the idol's creator. The idol was made by an alien traveller, perhaps as a protector or guardian.

Who made the tombstone and buried the traveler? I guess it could have been the stone head, but he would have had a very hard time getting from there to where he was at the beginning.

At first, I thought I was going to have to sacrifice myself and be melted by the lava to save the world. And after falling in love with all those people in the villages, I was ready to do it and count that as a good ending.

But then... when I saw what really happened... I just started crying with relief and joy. All I could think was how comfortable that must be... for that kind of a creature... to have someplace quiet and warm to just... think. And to feel good, knowing that he'd saved everyone.

If I have an eternity myself, I hope it feels that beautiful and peaceful.

The plane, to me, is there to show that because of the stone idol's quest, the world has survived all the way from ancient times to the present day.

And in a deeper way, I think it's meant to make us wonder: who might have given us some of the gifts we have now, and we don't even know? Even our very lives?

Maybe thousands of years ago, some cave-person gave her life to save the life of one of my ancestors, and if not for her heroism, I would never have lived.

If that's so: thank you.