Frog Fractions 2 has been unearthed. A collective called the Game Detectives discovered the sequel to developer Jim Crawford’s viral, psychedelic browser game inside another Steam game after a two-year hunt.
Glittermitten Grove, released on Steam mid-December, actually contains Frog Fractions 2, as I discovered while poking around in the Frog Fractions 2 Discord today. Its description reads, “Just like the faeries in your garden, we love collecting berries for our prickleberry loaves and finding treasure with our special fribblesham fireworks. Come join us in our faerieland, full of strange adventure!”
UPDATE 8:20 PM: If you want to access Frog Fractions 2 inside of Glittermitten Grove, you have a couple options. First, the easy way: you can use fireworks to dig into the ground, where you’ll eventually find a door. Kinda like the original Frog Fractions! There’s also a door in the sky, but getting up there involves actually playing Glittermitten Grove (which is, to be clear, its own wholly separate game). If you want to access Frog Fractions 2 asap, the first option is your best bet.
We always knew Frog Fractions 2 would exist within another game. In 2014, Crawford launched a Kickstarter for Frog Fractions 2. In it, Crawford insists that what fans are contributing to “won’t be called ‘Frog Fractions 2.’ It will probably be called something like ‘Lost Kingdom: Reckoning,’ by Fork Bomb LLC or ‘Turbo Finance 2015’ by Vespenta Holdings.” Frog Fractions 2, he implied, would be hidden inside another game. The mystery gave rise to the meme, “Is this Frog Fractions 2?” when a new, unknown game came on Steam.
A humorously complex alternate reality game (ARG) lead up to Frog Fractions 2’s release. It involved 23 other indie games on Steam. Developers hid puzzle pieces inside those games as a part of Crawford’s ARG. The ARG soon bled into real life, at one point involving a letter from a “time traveler” found in a real-life library book in Berkeley, California. The most recent development before today’s release was the unlocking of a mystery box.
Early December, Randomiser, a member of the Game Detectives, cracked a puzzle in Unboxing Story, a game uploaded to a site associated with the Frog Fractions 2 ARG. As a reward, he received a locked box in the mail. On December 12th, Game Detectives user Pumodi found the key after completing a real-life “Room Escape” game in Portland, OR. The box’s unlocking was livestreamed on Christmas eve:
Immediately after, Crawford sent out this message:
A Game Detectives admin told me that they actually found the game when “a certain game update that happened after the button was pushed and the tweet was put out already revealed some keywords that related to the entire FF2 ARG.” The December 24th update to Glittermitten Grove led them to the game which, after some tricks and turns and an underground door, ushers players into Frog Fractions 2, which, in the game’s credits, is referred to as “Frog Fractions 3.”
Backers to the Frog Fractions 2 Kickstarter received their Steam keys shortly after. Now, the Game Detectives are celebrating their victory. We’ll see soon if the game was worth the wait. And, anyway, isn’t Frog Fractions 2 really just the friends we made along the way?