Springtail by KeithSwanger

[raw]
made by KeithSwanger for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

LudumDareHeader.png

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!

jumpFail.gif

longFall.gif

tennisBall.gif

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

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🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 236256
08. Oct 2024 · 10:50 UTC
Might be the hardest game of the jam. I get what you were going for, but I really would have appreciated a checkpoint.
Dingbat
08. Oct 2024 · 10:52 UTC
This game is pretty hard but the core game mechanic is a great idea! I could absolutely see some youtubers/streamers playing this getting infuriated lol nice job!
Custodi
08. Oct 2024 · 11:32 UTC
Nice little game kinda Jump Up, springtail has very pretty leg animaton ⸜(。˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

Maybe too big stabilization time, when falling - it takes my control for ~5 seconds, frustrating for such dynamic game.
🎤 KeithSwanger
09. Oct 2024 · 06:58 UTC
@cheeks @dingbat @custodi Thanks for playing!

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!
woona
09. Oct 2024 · 13:52 UTC
Great job with modeling and animating the main character, it looks really cute. Jumping around feels fun but it's the type of game I would prefer watching than playing. 😁 Still, it's very fun and feels polished.

My only complaint would be that distant objects look very blurry, maybe you could tone down post-processing a little bit...
v1ru6
09. Oct 2024 · 18:07 UTC
I'm so bad at platformers.
Nice game!
Ava Skoog
09. Oct 2024 · 18:33 UTC
Very nice and very difficult! Took me probably two hours to beat. I almost got there without cheats a couple of times but once I found out they existed I decided to just use them to get it over with. Still, I barely needed them by the end… 😅

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
10. Oct 2024 · 00:12 UTC
I really like this game, very polished sound animation and gameplay especially, I never felt like something isnt working properly, at first I tried it without cheats, but eventually gave up, but I dont think its problem, difficulty is good for its genere of games like Get over it. Only thing I wish there was more art, but as I understand all time went on polishing mechanics. I hope this game get more attention.![Screenshot 2024-10-09 190743.png](///raw/ab8/16/z/68640.png)
Miku
10. Oct 2024 · 01:57 UTC
I had a hard time with this game but I thought the little jump animation and physics was really funny and cute!
🎤 KeithSwanger
10. Oct 2024 · 04:26 UTC
@ava-skoog Thanks, Ava! Yep, the animation is procedural! My main goal for this jam was to try out rigging a character for custom IK for the first time. Had a ton of fun working out each procedural element! I have the camera lag a bit while turning to show the legs moving, any more felt too disorienting, but I understand wanting to see more of the IK goodness! Thank you for spending so much time with my game, that's so awesome! :)

@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
JulienLussiez
10. Oct 2024 · 04:52 UTC
It's fun. I also like the video on Youtube explaining the jump of the springtails. I learnt something and it was fun, good job!
FireFalls
10. Oct 2024 · 18:46 UTC
This was frustrating, but really fun. Kudos!
LDJam user 371030
10. Oct 2024 · 18:48 UTC
Oh man.. I got really hooked at the simplicity of this along with the jumping mechanic that takes skill to master! Very well done! Now let me try again.. this little masochistic creation since I fell from very big height several times... and now I saw there are several useful keys to use XD

May I ask what engine was this made in?
coatline
10. Oct 2024 · 18:55 UTC
That was really cute! The music in the background fits really well. Also, I really like the procedural animation of the legs on the bug as well as all the little sound effects. Obviously, it reminds me of Bennett Foddy's Getting Over It and I think it achieved that comparison well. Great job!

![Capture.PNG](///raw/c44/31/z/687db.png)
🎤 KeithSwanger
10. Oct 2024 · 18:56 UTC
@aweskybear Unity! Thank you for playing! :)
Gerrit
10. Oct 2024 · 19:10 UTC
Love the bouncy noises :D And I heard them a lot!
badbons
10. Oct 2024 · 19:14 UTC
Amazing! I liked the jump mechanics and physics!! Really intrigued by this big room approach to theme as always, feels so cool
Lizz
10. Oct 2024 · 19:15 UTC
This is surprisingly fun to do! The character is honestly cute, the obstacles are simple yet its easy to see where you need to go. The sound is calm, the sfx are fun. Its nice you did not put any limit or too active music in it, it allows one to do this at their own pace as its not easy. I likely won't finish this game while doing ratings, but maybe in the future. What I miss be an indication of how much you charge up your jump and with the ball for example a differentiating between from where you can climb and where you will fall off if you land. Everything in the distance being hazy is a good effect on one hand, its shows the dephy of the world, however my head and eyes did not like it too much for one reason or another.
RoBOT
10. Oct 2024 · 19:15 UTC
Fun game, reminds me of only up. The physics and the roll of the bug are a bit frustrating, but I guess that makes the game fun. :D Did not really like the depth of field effect. It felt so blurry and fuzzy. It gave me motion sickness, so I had to stop...
f1tzy
10. Oct 2024 · 19:42 UTC
This is really kind of fun, I'm not sure the jump controls are tight enough. But really good job on the concept and the music is great.
HaaYaargh
10. Oct 2024 · 21:48 UTC
I'm obviously aware of time constraints, but I feel like the level would gain a lot, if more platforms actually resembled furniture and household items, there were couple of shelves and one unjumpable rack, but the rest was pretty abstract.

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.
Sockenpuppe
10. Oct 2024 · 22:08 UTC
I did not expect to have this much fun bc I totally suck at these types of games. But this is sooo good.

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.

![Screenshot 2024-10-10 233559.png](///raw/bee/f3/z/68865.png)

I finally decided to enable cheats and managed to escape:

![Screenshot 2024-10-10 235705.png](///raw/bee/f3/z/68864.png)

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.
coatline
11. Oct 2024 · 00:22 UTC
Yeah, I'm just better. Sorry guys.![Capture.PNG](///raw/c44/31/z/6889e.png)
🎤 KeithSwanger
11. Oct 2024 · 00:30 UTC
@coatline Amazing job! Thank you so much for spending time with my game :)

You may be the first jammer to have completed the game legitimately!
Klaus Peter
11. Oct 2024 · 08:52 UTC
I don't know how I managed to do this
![Untitled.png](///raw/ae4/61/z/68923.png)
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
11. Oct 2024 · 08:57 UTC
Well, coatline gave me the motivation I needed to do this legit!

![Skjermbilde 2024-10-11 kl. 10.55.51.png](///raw/4c/z/68926.png)
Klaus Peter
11. Oct 2024 · 09:01 UTC
@keithswanger bro, coatline probably just whipped out MS Paint and filled the cheater label white :joy:
LDJam user 371030
11. Oct 2024 · 15:35 UTC
Ahhh

![Screenshot 2024-10-11 183551.jpg](///raw/659/a5/z/68995.jpg)
🎤 KeithSwanger
11. Oct 2024 · 17:36 UTC
@klaus-peter that sounds like a confession :smirk: haha, thanks for playing! And great job finishing!

@ava-skoog yes! Nice!!! You have become one with the bug.
Klaus Peter
11. Oct 2024 · 18:46 UTC
![Untitled.png](///raw/ae4/61/z/689e7.png)
damn actually now I was motivated as well to try to speedrun it. The training paid off :D
🎤 KeithSwanger
11. Oct 2024 · 19:01 UTC
@klaus-peter amazing! The current WR is 1:48.56, so you're not far off! Really impressive!
Klaus Peter
11. Oct 2024 · 19:37 UTC
@keithswanger who got that run? is there a speedrun.com page? I need to know who I want to beat :joy:
🎤 KeithSwanger
11. Oct 2024 · 19:49 UTC
@klaus-peter No speedrun page... yet... haha. Just some players on discord sending me their times.
Klaus Peter
11. Oct 2024 · 19:53 UTC
@keithswanger damn, would have loved to see their strategies
WhiteFox
11. Oct 2024 · 22:08 UTC
Crazy game. Really fun haha. I needed the cheats to be able to get further than the first ball. I liked the minimal sounds & music and the bug animations were very nice! Great job!
Understudy
11. Oct 2024 · 22:21 UTC
Great game. Extremely masochistic though!
Miles Michell
11. Oct 2024 · 23:06 UTC
The bug is adorable. I'm in it for the cute dark souls of platforming!
Arthurmtro
11. Oct 2024 · 23:24 UTC
I like the cute bug ! super hard but also super fun to play :)
johnnysix
11. Oct 2024 · 23:52 UTC
Very cool, really liked the animation and the style. Maybe a little quicker on the recovery front would be cool, like having random button mashing throw his limbs around wildly to slow down a spin/bounce/slide so there's a bit more friction. Where the bounces are somewhat random also, some kind of visual feedback on the power of the jump ( an actual visual meter/ring ui or just have the bug squat / vibrate more intensely like he's holding the power in ) would make it a little more predictable.
Lachlan James
12. Oct 2024 · 03:47 UTC
Haha! HARD game, I'm glad there were cheats. Reminded me a lot of Getting Over It. Nice use of the theme, I was indeed a tiny creature. I agree with the points about recovery time - bouncing around out of control for long period of time adds a bit of insult to injury when you've already taken the fall.

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.
🎤 KeithSwanger
12. Oct 2024 · 03:51 UTC
@lachlan-james Everything made by me during the jam. Thank you for playing :)
Lachlan James
12. Oct 2024 · 03:58 UTC
@keithswanger Wow dude! That's awesome, well done to you. Just figured I'd check - hard to tell sometimes when someone's just popped an asset in, or spent hours making it - certainly makes a big difference. Thanks for clarifying.
🎤 KeithSwanger
12. Oct 2024 · 04:18 UTC
@lachlan-james I appreciate that!
Aviv Levy
12. Oct 2024 · 10:48 UTC
Pretty cool! But definitely needs checkpoints 😅
Would also appreciate to be able to control the camera.
And maybe more detailed environment (but it's understandable for a jam!)
Fis
12. Oct 2024 · 12:30 UTC
Very nice game, dropping down to the floor is pretty cruel - but these kind of games are entertaining (especially watching someone play it)

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
coatline
12. Oct 2024 · 13:43 UTC
@keithswanger @klaus-peter @ava-skoog

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
🎤 KeithSwanger
12. Oct 2024 · 17:42 UTC
@coatline Hilarious. Thank you for taking the time to make this video, it turned out great! You found a couple new skips that I didn't know about! Congrats on the WR, there are a few people right on your tail! And thank you for spending so much time with my game :)
Klaus Peter
12. Oct 2024 · 20:11 UTC
damn you @coatline :joy: I'm just a second off, but i got a hole lot of new skips up my sleeve! We'll meet again!!!
Klaus Peter
12. Oct 2024 · 20:56 UTC
Lmao easy :smile:
![Untitled.png](///raw/ae4/61/z/68b76.png)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5eYF23HRYY
🎤 KeithSwanger
12. Oct 2024 · 21:00 UTC
@klaus-peter Wow. Insanely impressive. Another skip that I didn't know about! (to the tennis ball rack). Thank you for sharing the video!
Klaus Peter
12. Oct 2024 · 21:23 UTC
@keithswanger Tbh I kind of hate this skip. I can only manage to do it successfully every 3rd time. But if anyone beats me to the record I'm not going to be mad. At least I will have tought them the tennis ball rack skip :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
It's really been a blast with your game :D you should put it out there on Steam!
🎤 KeithSwanger
12. Oct 2024 · 22:38 UTC
@klaus-peter It should be known as the Klaus skip! Thank you for the kind words :)
Ategon
13. Oct 2024 · 16:51 UTC
Thanks for submitting your game to the stream! If you wanted to watch it again in the future heres the vod of the stream (timestamped to your game)

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
🎤 KeithSwanger
13. Oct 2024 · 17:55 UTC
@ategon Totally fine with you using gameplay! And good luck with score chasers! Thanks for playing :)
ssiannas
13. Oct 2024 · 18:33 UTC
Awesome game! Really annoying at times but addicting :stuck_out_tongue:.

Loved the movement control feeling and animations.
wl64
13. Oct 2024 · 19:34 UTC
You've crafted a perfect love hate for me in all the right ways xD the cuteness of the bug vs slightly-humanoid and crawly sfx, and pain of falling vs landing perfectly on legs. Well done! The music is such a great fit too!
Klaus Peter
13. Oct 2024 · 20:30 UTC
Couldn't let that one sit on me :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
https://youtu.be/yf3-jD_xRZ4
LDJam user 379026
19. Oct 2024 · 01:54 UTC
Love the concept, we had a similar idea but opted for a slightly different path. Props on the IK legged bug critter!
vidarn
21. Oct 2024 · 11:27 UTC
Well crafted game. It's minimalist in all the right ways. You've made a lot of good choices in the game design.

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
Tetracold
21. Oct 2024 · 22:23 UTC
this game is awesome, one of my favorites from the jam jam

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