The Other Side

By John "Jack" Fennimore, Dayton Hamann, Reed Hinckley-Barnes, and Kendall Sullivan

The Other Side is a text-based adventure game about a young boy who must fight the evil Skeleton King who lives in a world contained within the boy's closet. To do so, the boy must gather a heroic cape, armor, a sword, a potion, a loyal companion and a coin for the ominous ferryman all found within his house. Solve the puzzles within the boy's home like crafting your own sword and doing your homework to get the items you need to complete the quest. Keep your eyes out for objects within the house that call to mind important memories, for that might be your greatest weapon against the dreaded king. The Other Side is a game about adventure, love, death, loss and the memories we hold dear.

The Other Side was created for an Honors College seminar about interactive literature under the supervision of Professor Stuart Moulthrop at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee in 2016. Our team wanted to create a game that not only had fun puzzles and dialogue but would engage the player beyond a standard adventure game. We incorporated themes of love, death, loss, and acceptance as players collected memories of the protagonist’s family to help defeat the monster in the closet. The whole process not only trained our problem-solving skills and determination needed for a game’s designing, testing, and debugging phases, but gave us invaluable skills in how to make digital media meaningful.

The design intent of our game was to develop an adventure game that offers storytelling depth beyond a straightforward playthrough. If you do nothing but complete each of the five puzzles and beat the game with all of the required items, you will not understand the full story of the game. It is only through interacting with every item in the game’s world that the player can get a full understanding of the game’s story, characters and themes. In addition, there are specific items that grant the players flashback sections that add even more to the story. The player receives certain endings depending on how many flashbacks they have viewed. If they have viewed all of the five flashbacks, then they are able to receive the ideal ending.

This walkthrough will tell you how to get the ideal ending. All playthroughs will require you to retrieve the five key items, Sheets, Football Gear, Sword, Can of Soda and Coin, as well as your dog, Samwise, in order to pass through your closet and into the Netherrealm to confront the final boss. But the only way to get the ideal ending is to examine the five items tied to memories.

You are free to solve each of the five puzzles, obtain each of the six required objects, and look at any or all of the five flashbacks in any order you please. The walkthrough outlined below is just one of the many ways you can get the ideal ending.

You first start in Your Bedroom. Take the Sheets in the room and wear them. Then head north into the Upstairs Hallway, head west into the Parent’s Bedroom, head north into the closet, and then head up to the attic. Then open Harriet’s Things and examine the storybook to receive a flashback.

Now let’s retrieve the Football Gear. Head back into the Upstairs Hallway and then head north into Peter’s Bedroom. Before heading east into Peter’s Closet, examine the record in order to receive another flashback. The only way to head into Peter’s Closet is to go east whenever Peter is facing away from you. You will receive a prompt whenever Peter is facing either away from or towards you. If Peter is facing towards you, then simply wait. If you move east and Peter is facing towards you, Peter will kick the player back out into the Upstairs Hallway. Once you’re in Peter’s Closet, pick up and wear the Football Gear. Then head back out into the Upstairs Hallway.

Now let’s get the coin. From the Upstairs Hallway, head down the staircase and then head east into the Living Room. You are informed that there’s something interesting in the cushions of the sofa, but you can’t get to it until Dad moves off of it. You do this by taking the remote control and dropping it in another part of the house (any part will do, just don’t put it on a supporter, on a container or in a container). Afterwards, head back into the Living Room and examine the Television to switch the TV channel. Then Dad gets up off of the sofa and moves to retrieve the TV Remote. While the Dad is gone, enter the command “search sofa” to receive a coin. Be sure to also examine the Family Photo as it will take you to another flashback.

Now let’s get the Can of Soda. From the Living Room, head east into the Kitchen and examine the medical bill to receive another flashback. Open the Refrigerator to reveal a Can of Soda. You can’t take the Can of Soda until you do your homework. Head back to your room and examine or “do” your homework. You will need to solve between 7 and 15 simple, 4th grade questions from a variety of subjects. You can find the answers to each question in the table at the end of this walkthrough. After completing your homework, you can take the can of soda from the Kitchen (Note: It is recommended that you do your homework right when the game starts so you can get the Can of Soda the first time you head into the Kitchen).

Now let’s get Samwise to follow you. Head south from the Kitchen into the Dining Room and pick up the Slingshot and the String (we will need the string for a later puzzle). Then head north back into the Kitchen, east into the Living Room, north into the Entryway, and then north again into the Front Yard. Here you will see Samwise and a Squirrel. Samwise won’t follow you until the Squirrel is gone. Take the Acorn in the Front Yard. If you have both the slingshot and the acorn, enter the command “shoot squirrel” and the squirrel will go away. The slingshot should break. Now Samwise will follow you around for the rest of the game.

Now you need to obtain a Sword. You should have already picked up the string from the Dining Room when you went to get the slingshot for the previous puzzle. From the Front Yard, head south into the Entranceway, south into the Living Room, east into the Kitchen, and then north into the Garage. Take the Rubber Handles from the Bicycle. Then head north into the Kitchen, north into the Dining Room, and then north into the Back Yard. Pick up the Sticks in the Back Yard and then Grandma will grant you a Sword if you have the String and Rubber Handles in addition to the Sticks. While you’re in the background, examine the Flowers for the final flashback.

Once you have the key items in your inventory as well as Samwise by your side, you can continue on to the final battle. Head back to Your Bedroom and head west into The Ominous River and then head north into the Ominous Pier. You cannot head north to the Cave Entrance until you give the Coin to the Cloaked Man. Enter the command “give coin” to give the coin to the Cloaked Man and then enter the command “climb onto gondola” to climb onto the gondola. You will head north into the Cave Entrance. If you have the four other key items along with Samwise, you can precede north into the Cave Throne Room. Then enter “attack Skeleton King” as a command in the Cave Throne Room to initiate the final battle.

First you will receive a description of the battle then the command prompt “What Will You Use?”. To defeat the Skeleton King, use the following items as you are prompted: soda, cape, armor, Samwise, sword. Then after you defeat the Skeleton King, do any kind of action to advance the game. If you defeated the Skeleton King but didn’t examine all five of the items tied to flashbacks, Storybook, Record, Family Photo, Medical Bill and Flowers, then you will beat the game with an incomplete or bad ending. But if you defeated the Skeleton King and examined all five of the items tied to flashbacks, then you will beat the game with the ideal ending.

 

Homework Puzzle Questions & Answers 

 

"7 x 7 =""49|forty.nine" 

"What is the last name of the third president?""Jefferson" 

"Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the _____""Cell" 

"1.3 + 7.9 =""9.2" 

"How many cents is a half dollar worth?""50|fifty" 

"What year did we land on the moon?""1969" 

"Name a word that ends with 'tion'.""tion$" 

"True or False: The sun is a star.""true|t|2tru" 

"What prefix means three?""tri|tri." 

"True or False: 2/8 is greater than 0.25""false|f|falls" 

"2 + 4,000 + 40 + 600 =""4642|4.642" 

"Name a word that begins with 'post'.""^post" 

"In Roman Numerals, XLIV =""44|forty.four" 

"Round 1.6 to the nearest whole number.""2|2.0|two" 

"True or False: 3% is less than 1/25.""true|t|2tru" 

"How many cents is one quarter and one dollar?""125|one.hundred.twenty.five" 

"Who invented the cotton gin?""Eli Whitney" 

"4^2 =""16|sixteen" 

"Name this punctuation: ';'.""semicolon|semi.colon" 

"Name a word beginning with 'x'.""^x" 

"When two words sound the same but are spelled differently, they are called _______""homophone|homophones" 

"A synonym for 'easy' might be ________""simple|basic|effortless|straightforward|uncomplicated|smooth|obvious|not difficult|your (mom|mother)" 

"An antonym for 'easy' might be _______""hard|difficult|complicated|unclear|arduous|laborious|intricate|exhausting|demanding" 

"Midnight is 12:00__""A.m.|am" 

"Noon is 12:00__""p.m.|pm" 

"The capitol of the United States is:""Washington (d.c.|dc|d.c|dc.)" 

"Name a continent.""North America|South America|Europe|Asia|Africa|Australia|Antarctica" 

"Red and blue together make ______""purple|violet|indigo" 

"What musical note comes after G#?""A" 

"What does president FDR's name stand for?""Franklin <span class="normaltextrun" <delano<="" span="">>span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Roosevelt|freedom" 

"How many years are in a century?""100|one.hundred|a hundred|hundred"