Snail Scales manual

The story

First, she was trapped in a series of Möbius strips, then an infinite plane, and then she broke apart and became whole again, all because of a triangular wizard. Now, our circular protagonist O is lost, and to pass the time she has decided to go for a walk in the snow.

Eventually, she comes to a strange place full of scales, and feels strangely cold, though the cold feels… different, somehow. At least, this time it doesn't seem to be the wizard's doing. As she explores a bit, she encounters some snail-like creature, which is circular like her, and seem to be copying what she's doing. But everywhere she goes, she seems to be getting deeper, further away from home, wherever that is. Can she make it out, somehow?

Controls

By default, you can you arrows to move and Z to jump, or WASD to move and J to jump. Up/W is not used at all in this game, outside of menus. Shift slows down everything in the whole game (halves the framerate). These can be changed in the Options menu.

If you tap the screen, touch controls will appear. However, the game is designed primarily for keyboard.

The snail

A circle with a gray spiral and a black spiral

This strange creature will copy O's movements. They will start moving when you walk past them. When they're moving, they will record your movements for ten seconds, while simultaneously replaying it at half-speed. After twenty seconds, or if they fall off-screen, they will return to their original location. While they're moving, you can stand on their hand, they can stand on yours, and they can weigh down scales and push buttons.

Some tips:

Your movement is the same in the air as on the ground, so as long as neither you nor the snail walk into a wall or stand on another's head, their horizontal position will (in theory) be the same as yours was.
Their movements are based on the keys you press. This means that, for instance, if you walk into a wall, but they're not blocked at that point in their movement, they can move forward.
If they try to jump while in the air, a sound will play and (post-jam version only) a no-up-arrow sign will appear where they are.
The spirals indicate how much time is left. The black spiral is for recording your movements, and the gray spiral is for playing them back.
You can also reset them by walking past their original location (indicated by a dashed line) (post-jam version only).

Scales

A simple drawing of a scale, in white, with black lines holding the stuff

Both you and the snail can stand on the scales. If one side is heavier than the other, then that side will go down while the other side will go up. If both sides weigh the same, the scale will stay in place.

Some tips:

Everything's weight is proportional to its area.
You and the snail have the exact same weight.
It doesn't matter how much heavier one side is; it will always move at the same speed, if at all.
The maximum the platforms can be separated varies from scale to scale.

Other things in the game

Boxes: These can weigh down scales.
Buttons: If something steps on these, it'll make something grow bigger. Frequently, it's something outside the level, so you might need to go back to see what's changed.
Snow: If you roll around on these, you'll get bigger, since you're a snowball.
Falling platform: If something at least the weight of the player lands on one of these, it'll fall down.

Warning: spoilers

Sun: The sun will cause to to melt, getting smaller. Be careful, though! If you get too small, you will die, and the snail will be sad.
Icicle: These will fall if you or the snail is directly under them, and will hurt if they land on you (but the snail has a hard shell, so they'll be okay). They also seem to have some sort of interaction with scales
Snail mail: Once you get this, any time you're standing on a brick platform (i.e., not a scale or a box), you can hold Down and press Jump to call the snail to your current position (even if the snail isn't on-screen). This will also put the snail into an inactive state; walk past them to activate them again.

Options

Click "Options…" on the title screen or pause screen to get to the options menu.

Audio: Change audio settings, or access a sound test.
Inline/Fill window/Full screen: "Inline" displays the game and the description; "Fill window" hides everything else and attempts to fill the window; "Full screen" makes it full screen. Some of these options might be unavailable depending on your browser and which site you're using to view the game. You can exit full screen mode by pressing Escape, or going back to the options menu and choosing Inline. This option is not saved.
Appearance:

Black and White: Switch the color palette to black-and-white mode, which is higher contrast than the default palette. While things are pretty high contrast and I hope colorblind accessible, this is there just in case.
Simpler graphics: Disable certain graphical effects, which will hopefully make it run better on older computers (I'm pretty much guessing, though).
Simpler zoom animation: Changes the animation for going into and out of levels

Assist options: Display a menu of options for making the game easier

Infinite jumps: Allows you and the snail to jump in midair. (This will still show the no-up-arrow symbol, however, indicating that the jump wouldn't normally be allowed.)
Invincible: Prevents you from dying.
Game speed: Slows down (or speeds up) the game. Holding Shift is pretty much the same as temporarily setting this to 50%.
Start in: Loads a premade save file from various points in the game.

Controls: Remap your controls