Springtail by KeithSwanger

You are a springtail, an amazing tiny creature that lives in soil and eats decaying plant matter. You get your name from your ability to perform an incredible spinning jump that you use to fling yourself away from predators.
Today, however, a pair of muddy shoes unwittingly carried you into a strange place. Although there are no predators around, you must use your amazing jumping ability to escape!



How to Play
Move using WASD
Hold SPACE to power your jump!
Escape the Mudroom!
Works well with a controller!
Press F11 to toggle fullscreen in the standalone build
Cheat Tools
I understand that these types of games are not for everyone. If you’re having a hard time, you can enable cheats to help you get to the end!
To enable cheats, press Ctrl+Alt+T
This enables a few things:
Press G to return to your last grounded position
Press F to save your position
Press T to teleport to your saved position
Press Ctrl+Alt+W to show some game stats that you might find interesting
| Play In Browser | https://keithswanger.itch.io/springtail |
| Windows | https://keithswanger.itch.io/springtail |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/springtail |
Ratings
| Overall | 359th | 3.722⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 247th | 3.744⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 311th | 3.578⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 332th | 3.922⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 692th | 3.422⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 237th | 3.716⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 294th | 3.5⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 573th | 3.488⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 53🗳️ | 24🗨️ |
Maybe too big stabilization time, when falling - it takes my control for ~5 seconds, frustrating for such dynamic game.
I added how to access cheat tools in the description if you're ever interested in a more casual playthrough. Not everyone is a glutton for punishment, I completely understand!
My only complaint would be that distant objects look very blurry, maybe you could tone down post-processing a little bit...
Nice game!
While difficult it doesn't feel unfair. The motion is good, the way you don't go bouncing off in some random direction so you can at least count on going the same way you aimed unless you hit a wall, and the way you can walk a little bit on the side of something before falling off (like a proper bug should)! You quickly get a good sense for how far you'll go depending on how long you hold.
I like the music and it adds a bit of chill. Not sure how I'd do if there was stressful music and I had to race a rising flood or something. The pitter-patter of the legs is nice and the human voice is funny.
Really cool animation on the legs, wish I'd been able to see it more from the side too. Procedural?
I'm unsure about the depth of field. It really fits since I'm tiny, but it's not very nice for motion sickness, so a toggle in the settings would've been good.
Overall very cool! C:
@shakirovich Thank you for playing! You're right, I spent most of the time focused on the character movement. I took this jam a lot more casually than I normally do, at the expense of art. Hence the world has no real models, no textures, there's no UI, and no logo. Instead, I decided to let myself sleep during the jam for once. xD
May I ask what engine was this made in?

I reached without cheating until slippery shelf right at the end, then I returned there and enabled checkpoitns. Too bad I was called out for doing that.
It was fun experience, I loved moments when I managed to backflip and land on my feets.
This point right here is where I was struggling the most. I lost count of how many times I fell down at this spot, always screaming "Noooooo". Bc then I'd have to see the little guy bounce and bounce and bounce. Poor guy is probably concussed as hell.

I finally decided to enable cheats and managed to escape:

I'll give it another try later bc I really want to beat the game without using cheats. Plus I get to listen to the music again which I probably wouldn't even get tired of after listening to it the whole day.
You may be the first jammer to have completed the game legitimately!

This does just feel like getting over it. I don't know if I'm mad that there are no checkpoints or find it really cool. If I had fallen on the last or forlast jump I would have definitely hated it :joy:


@ava-skoog yes! Nice!!! You have become one with the bug.
damn actually now I was motivated as well to try to speedrun it. The training paid off :D
The leg animations of the springtail were GREAT - as well as the little sounds of movement. Subtle stuff, but really tastefully done.
Would love to see clear credits on what was made by you for jam (ie music and sfx?) so as to rate accurately in those areas.
Would also appreciate to be able to control the camera.
And maybe more detailed environment (but it's understandable for a jam!)
Enabling some easy mode with checkpoints would be appreciated, having to cheat feels wrong!
Also, the control combination CTRL+ALT+T does not work well for me on ubuntu linux (playing the web build), as this gets caught by gnome creating a terminal window and doing nothing in the game itself (CTRL+ALT+W for stats works) - I would recommend non-complicated input processing like just a button C for cheat, or adding a menu that's accessible using escape
Here's the story of how I beat the game without cheating if your interested.. :smirk:
Also, I happened to beat the world record of 1:48.56
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eJq3y1sJfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5eYF23HRYY
It's really been a blast with your game :D you should put it out there on Steam!
https://www.youtube.com/live/I2NaC9C0rDI?t=25355
Also Wanted to ask if youre fine with me using gameplay from the game in this LDs [score chasers tournament](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/$405421/ludum-dare-score-chasers-qualification-begins) intermission video. (Would play in the breaks of the tournament on my stream). Last year for reference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuddhZScWxo
Loved the movement control feeling and animations.
https://youtu.be/yf3-jD_xRZ4
The comment section here really elevates the experience, I had a lot of fun watching the speedruns, especially knowing how difficult the game was. I'm very impressed! Thank you all for the entertainment
I really enjoyed playing it. I felt compelled to try again and again, I didn't give up till I completed it legit, even if if it took me a long time.
It's also genuinely so cool to see the progression of the speedrun in the comments, I think that shows the potential this entry has as a speedrun game if you consider expanding on it and making it a full release