so after the game says ‘press space to jump’ no more instructions are given, i’m assuming there’s more to do than wander and bounce around but nothing i pressed helped

Ohhhhhh, duuuuude. I make games on sfml too, i will give you several advantages. Put all stuff like your pngs and wavs in separate directory, it will make game files more pretty look. Also you can remove a console, if you will include sfml-main and put in settings compiler/system/ window instead of console. And also you do not need all thoose dll in game files. You do not use sfml-network, so just delete it. Also files will be looks more pretty, if you make a static compilation of your proj, but it may be hard, so it's okey. It's all about sfml, now about game. I like your 1 bit art, it looks pretty and recording all sound in game by your self sound funny, good idea)) And you also took a good font, dude, but i have no idea how to finish your game. Is it possible?