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2012 · Twinbeard Studios · Indie · Parody

Frog Fractions

Frog Fractions is a 2012 browser game developed by Twinbeard Studios, a company composed primarily of founder Jim Crawford. The game, released on October 25, 2012, has been described as a spoof of the edutainment game genre. In the game, the player begins by controlling a frog to eat bugs and defend fruit. Later on, the player may spend points on upgrades to improve their frog's abilities. The game does not actually teach the player about fractions; the player's score is given in fractions, but no knowledge of them is necessary to play.

Released: 25 October 2012
Platforms: Browser Windows
Genres: Indie Parody Quiz Rhythm Shooter Simulation
Developers: Twinbeard Studios
Publishers: —
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Third person Text
Themes: Science fiction Comedy Educational
Engine: Adobe Flash
Country: United States
Time to beat: 1hmain story2hcompletionist

About

Frog Fractions is a 2012 browser game developed by Twinbeard Studios, a company composed primarily of founder Jim Stormdancer. The game, released on October 25, 2012, has been described as a spoof of the edutainment game genre. In the game, the player begins by controlling a frog to eat bugs and defend fruit. Later on, the player may spend points on upgrades to improve their frog's abilities. The game does not actually teach the player about fractions; the player's score is given in fractions, but no knowledge of them is necessary to play.

Its sequel, Frog Fractions 2, announced by a Kickstarter in 2014, was released in December 2016 after players successfully completed a multi-segmented alternative reality game assembled by Stormdancer. The first game was later ported to Windows and released on Steam in August 2020 as Frog Fractions: Game of the Decade Edition, along with downloadable content that adds a new playable story.

›Story

Frog Fractions begins with a frog sitting on a lily pad. The player controls the frog, and must use its tongue to attack insects, while collecting and protecting fruit. The game later introduces upgrades that the player may purchase, including lock-on targeting, a cybernetic brain, and a flying dragon. When the player collects enough fruit, they can buy a warp drive, which lets them ride their dragon through an asteroid field to Bug Mars, where the player then battles an alien robot squid.

The player is then sent to Bug Court, where they sign their work visa. The player then travels under the water below Bug Mars, while listening to a narrated history of the creation of boxing. At the end of the maze, the player activates a spaceship, and must complete a text adventure game to return to Bug Mars, where the game appears to end (actually fake credits). Upon returning, the player runs for president in a music simulator game.

Regardless of how well they perform, they succeed in being elected president, and must complete a business simulator manufacturing bug pornography to unlock further upgrades. The game takes about one hour to complete.

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The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Frog Fractions begins with a frog named Hop sitting on a lily pad. The player controls Hop, and must use his tongue to attack insects, while collecting and protecting fruit. The game later introduces upgrades that the player may purchase, including lock-on targeting, a cybernetic brain, and a flying dragon named Draggy. When the player collects enough fruit, they can buy a warp drive, which lets Hop ride Draggy through an asteroid field to Bug Mars, where he then battles an alien robot squid.

Hop is then sent to Bug Court, where he signs for a work visa. Hop then travels under the water below Bug Mars, while listening to a narrated fictional history of the creation of boxing. At the end of the maze, Hop activates a spaceship, and the player must complete a text adventure game to return to Bug Mars. Upon returning, Hop runs for president in a Dance Dance Revolution-style game.

Development

Stormdancer, as the one-man game studio Twinbeard Studios, originally created Frog Fractions to entertain his friends, and to see their reactions when they first played it. Later on, he felt that with the indie genre taking off, Frog Fractions was taken more seriously among gamers. Stormdancer noted that although critics often described the game as a satire on old educational games, he never intentionally developed Frog Fractions with that in mind. Instead, Stormdancer explained that Frog Fractions had an educational theme because of the name's alliteration, and because he considered educational games a part of his youth.

Originally, Frog Fractions included tutorials to teach the player how to progress through the game. However, after Stormdancer asked his friend Tim Ambrogi to play test the game, Ambrogi stated that he did not want to read any of the informational popups that appeared throughout the game because he was too busy focusing on the gameplay. Stormdancer added transitions that made the game feel like a "dream-like progression", which he believed would better appeal to players. For transitions in the game's latter half, Stormdancer wanted the transitions to entertain players more, rather than attempt to make any sense of the game's story. PC World complimented Frog Fractions for using the transitions to draw connections between each scene to add a feeling of consistency, despite the often strange transitions that take place.