Offspring Fling!

A forest creature must rescue all of her children in this indie puzzle-platformer.

Mac

Linux

Gameplay

General

Offspring Fling! is a puzzle, platformer, where the goal of each level is to get all of the offspring (note that some levels don't have any offspring) and the player to the exit. The offspring do not move on their own, so the player must use their abilities to pick up, carry, and throw offspring to solve puzzles and get them to the end of the level. Offspring can only be thrown horizontally to the left or right of the player, but they will always travel in a straight line until they hit a wall or other obstacle, regardless of the distance. When carrying offspring the player will move slower and have a lower maximum jump height. This effect is increased with the more offspring the player is carrying. Carried offspring also maintain their collision properties, thus the player essentially has a taller hit/collision box when carrying offspring. If the player or any offspring die the level is reset.

Speedrunning

Results screen after beating the gold time

In addition to the blue flower awarded for completing a level the player can also earn a gold flower by beating the gold time, and a rainbow flower for beating the developer's time. Gold times can generally be beaten using a normal "intended" route through the level with optimal movement, but beating the developer times will generally require the use of more advanced shortcuts, techniques, and tricks.

Advanced Techniques/Tricks

In addition to the standard movement and pick up/throw mechanics the player also has access to a parry technique and various tricks which take advantage of various quirks and features of the game engine. These are not needed to beat the normal levels, but many are required to beat the developer times and some of the secret levels.

Tunnel Jumping

When travelling through "tunnels" (one tile tall spaces which can't be entered while carrying anything) the player can rapidly jump move faster.

Parry

By pressing in the same direction as an enemy or projectile a few frames before being hit, the player can perform a parry. A successful parry will destroy the projectile or temporarily stun the enemy. There is also an unlockable character (the headband momma) which increases the timing window for performing a parry, and allows the player to jump immediately after a parry, even if it was performed in mid air.

Jump + Grab

Normally carrying anything reduces the player's maximum jump height, but this is determined at the start of a jump, so anything picked up during a jump will not affect the height of that jump. This allows for the player to quickly bring offspring to ledges that can normally only be reached while not carrying anything.

Pick Up + Drop Hover

When the player picks up or drops an offspring or stone they will briefly pause, even if they are in the air. Thus by repeatedly dropping and picking up something it is possible to remain airborne for significantly longer than any normal jump. However, this hovering does not change the player's jump height, distance, or movement speed after each pause, so it is generally only useful in the one secret level (#104 "MAD UPS") which requires its use to complete.

Game Objects

Stone	Stones act as offspring substitutes which can also be picked up and thrown. They mostly interact with other objects and enemies the same as offspring. One exception is when thrown at an enemy projectile, depending on the animation state of the projectile, a stone can destroy the projectile while not having itself be destroyed. Stones also do not need to reach the level exit, so they can be destroyed without the player failing the level (Though in some cases if a stone is destroyed before completing a certain portion of a puzzle the level can become impossible, requiring a restart anyway).
Switch Block	Switch blocks can be in an on or off state. When on they act just like normal platforms which objects and the player can collide with and stand on. When off they have no collision and only appear as an outline.
Destructible Block	Destructible blocks are destroyed when hit by an enemy projectile or a thrown stone or offspring. A projectile will be destroyed at the same time when it hits a destructible block. Thrown offspring or rocks will stop at the point of contact (as if they had hit a normal wall or block) when hitting a destructible block.
Deflector	Deflectors will change the direction of an enemy projectile or thrown object by 90 degrees if hit on the diagonal side. If hit on one of the other sides it is treated as a normal wall. In some levels they can be connected to a switch or button which will rotate the deflector when activated.
Button	Buttons can be pressed by the player, stones, or offspring to change the state of the object they are connected to. There are two types of buttons throughout the game. Some will work like a switch which activates each time the button is pressed, regardless of if it is held down. Others are like pressure plates where the connected object will switch state only while the button is held down, and switch back immediately when the button is no longer held.
Switch	Switches are triggered when hit by an enemy projectile or a thrown offspring or stone. Once hit it switches the state of whatever objects it is linked to.
Weight Platform	Weight Platforms normally stay in place like regular platforms, but once there is enough weight on on them, they begin to fall. The platform will only fall while the total weight is at least 3 (rocks and offspring weigh 1 each, the player weighs 2), and it will always fall at the same rate, regardless of how much additional weight is on it. Anything the player is holding while standing on a weight platform counts towards the total weight. Another important note is that when offspring are idle (standing on the ground, not being carried or thrown) they will perform a small hop at regular intervals. This appears to just be a simple idle animation, but when on a weight platform the offspring's weight will not be counted toward the total during the jump.

Enemies/Hazards

Acid	Acid will kill players and offspring, and destroy rocks on contact. It is normally stationary, but some levels (such as the one shown to the left) feature rising acid.
Hungry Gator	Hungry Gators are simple enemies will walk in a straight line until the run into a wall or ledge, then turn around to continue walking. They will normally kill the player or offspring on contact, but they can be stunned with a thrown offspring or stone.
Angry Bee	Angry Bees are flying enemies will stay in place until the player or an offspring is within a certain range. It will then continually fly toward the nearest player or offspring, which will be killed on contact. However, they can also be stunned by a thrown offspring of stone.
Acid Spitter	Acid Spitters won't hurt the player or offspring on direct contact. Instead, they spit projectile acid which behaves similar to a thrown offspring or stone and can kill you and offspring. However, they can still be stunned like normal enemies to momentarily stop their spitting. In some levels acid spitters are used as part of a timed mechanism, where it will need to break several destructible blocks before being able to hit a switch or other target. Similarly it can be aimed at a switch to create timed switch blocks which turn on and off at regular intervals. This is the only enemy which can't be directly parried since its body does not hurt the player, but its projectiles can be destroyed by parries.
Spike Cuddler	Spike Cuddlers will stay in place until the player is directly in line with it (above. below, or to either side), at which point it will quickly move straight up, down, left, or right based on where the player was. It will move until it hits a wall or other solid object, at which point it will momentarily stop before slowly moving back toward its starting position. Once moved, a spike cuddler will not react to the player again until it resets to its default position. They do not react to offspring, but spike cuddlers will still kill any offspring on contact. They also cannot be stunned by thrown offspring or stones (but they can still be stunned by a parry like other enemies).
The Mighty Dinobaus	The Mighty Dinobaus is the game's only boss. It attacks by spitting patterns of acid at the player, but unlike the acid spitter, the Dinobaus spits acid in an arc. It is normally defeated by dodging patterns of acid spit until a green stone is spit out, which can be thrown to push the Dinobaus back toward a pit of acid. A more difficult, but faster, way to beat it is by using parries on the Dinobaus itself, which will also push it back.

Other Features

Replays

From top to bottom: imported replay, player replay, dev replay, player

The game automatically saves a replay of the player's best time on each level. These are viewed as "ghosts" when playing the level again. Once a player has achieved a fast enough time they will also be able to see the developer replay (displayed as the ninja character). Replays can also be uploaded to and downloaded from the offspring sharing site (see external links section for link), allowing players to share their best times (ghosts from imported replays will appear brighter than the player's own). The game also provides options to change to opacity of, or turn off, replays.

User Created Levels

Players can also import and play user created levels. Levels can be uploaded to and downloaded from the offspring sharing site, which also allows players to submit their own replays on other players' created levels. Like with the game's standard levels, creators can set gold times and add their own dev times and replays to their levels. (However, beating these times won't add to a player's total flower counts in game) The level editor is a separate Adobe Air based application available for Windows and OSX from the sharing website.