Before I answer the questions, I just want to say that this was a really delightful mini game to play! The writing was great!!!
2a) I think you were extremely effective in using many different shades of blue to convey your story. While most of the colors were all still blue, each environment was rich and unique in its own way.
2b) getting to the glacier was a little bit of a challenge for me, but other than that I think it was easy to figure out what direction the game was trying to steer me.