Tambatu Tides

Low water on the river. A ferry waits at the jetty. Painted boats crowd the lanes around it. Each one slides only along its own line. Make a path. Send the ferry out through the river mouth. — The tide turns after every move. High water covers the sandbars. Low water lays them bare. At low tide a boat cannot cross dry sand, and a boat resting on it stays put until the water comes back. So every slide is also a question of timing. — Three reaches: Hulu, Tengah, Kuala. Thirty-six moorings, upstream to the sea. Each mooring has a par. Meet it and three lamps are lit. Every cleared mooring raises one stilt house in the village on the bank. — An evening tide arrives each day, with a streak for the evenings you keep. Hints are earned, not bought: three-lamp clears and evening tides add to them. Undo and restart are always there. Six prow paints wait to be unlocked: Kunyit, Sepang, Pandan, Nila, Emas, Pelita. — Sound, haptics and reduce motion each have their own switch. Tambatu Tides runs without a connection, carries no adverts and sells nothing; every lamp you light is stored on the phone alone.

The first tide is in: three reaches of moorings, a fresh evening tide every day, and a village waiting to be built.