We are Twinbeard. We made Frog Fractions and we are making Frog Fractions 2. Ask us anything!

What is your favorite fraction? Also what product do you use in your beard(s)?

I, y'know, like 'em all. All the fractions. I enjoy them ambiently.

My secret beard product? Scissors. Don't trim, just gum at them a little bit after showering. It trains the hairs to resist street assaults from folks who just can't stand the sight of a beard lusher than their own.

Do you finally plan to reveal the vast global conspiracy behind IEEE 754 Floating-point Arithmetic which hopes to destroy our children's ability to know precision?

Yes. Seriously, I mean, zero and negative zero? Who decided that we needed both?

Are you hiring?

Depends how the Kickstarter goes. Just how badly do your parents want you out of the house?

My parents are Filipino so I don't think they ever wanted me to leave... Is that a deal breaker?

Hm. That sounds like a sweet deal for anybody who wants to underpay you...

Not paying rent and getting paid at all is sweet deal for me too. So am I hired?

Let's do lunch.

butts

butts

What features/styles of videogame that you didn't include in Frog Fractions do you most regret leaving out, and why did you wind up leaving them out?

Okay, hear me out here. You play a frog, but never once in the game do you jump. Does that seem right to you?

I don’t know if you are aware that some people (including me) are hot on your tail with the strange clues, hidden messages, and coordinates stemming from Frog Fractions 2 and the Kickstarter video. And by hot on your tail, I of course mean completely lost in a Fraction-less void. Anyway, question time...

As a herpetologist-in-training, I’d think Bd (or Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis for any other scientists out there) would be the most important thing in reference to amphibians currently. So my question is: Why do you believe it to be Fractions 2 and is this something we as a community of scientists should keep a close eye on/maybe begin to study?

Thanks for doing this AMA, by the way! I absolutely love the stuff Twinbeard does and Frog Fractions is easily one of the best games ever.

Thank you!

We obviously love our amphibian fan base, but, as hard as it is to tell sometimes, our target demographic is human children! We asked children what they most wanted to play a video game about and they unanimously said "fractions."

P.S. We want to officially apologize for our role exacerbating the pool of human children acting as a Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis disease reservoir. Every boxed copy of Frog Fractions 2 will ship with a large bottle of antibacterial soap.

I knew it! You are all in cahoots for more nefarious purposes because Bd is a fungus, not a bacteria and (as such) can't be dealt with via antibacterial remedies!

The end is coming, and it's name is "Frog Fractions 2"! Also, that means I donated to further the end of the world. Oh well, I get a download, so I suppose that's fair.

I mean antifungal soap! At least, the label will say antifungal.

what your favorite mixed drink?

A horse-sized duck, for sure. Wait, what was the question again?

your favorite mixed drink

Ohh! The duck-sized horses, then.

I'll ask the question that devs usually get asked. How'd you make a living in games? Hard work? Good luck? I've messed about making a few little games myself but I'm not sure how to transfer that to something bigger.

By the way your game is amazing.

Thank you!

I, uh, kind of lucked into it? I built website back-ends for a living for 10 years, making games as a hobby in the meantime. When I was laid off in August 2012, I decided to take my latest game and finish it in time to submit for IGF before I moved on to my next day job. That became Frog Fractions, which exploded all over my face as the Internet has been witness to.

I didn't really make any money for Frog Fractions, so I've been mostly doing contracting gigs since then. It hasn't been very lucrative as yet. The Kickstarter looks like it'll be successful, but just enough for me to get by, not get rich.

The recipe for success in this field as in most is hard work and luck. Make games, make contacts. Game jams are an excellent place to do both. Ideally you want to live in a city with a healthy game development community.

Any cities in particular that stand out to you that have a healthy game dev community?

Other than the Bay Area, Austin and Seattle come to mind as hotbeds. I know some clusters of devs in Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and Toronto.

OH GOD I'M SURROUNDED BY BUGS. I think they're in my hair! I can feel them crawling around! I think this thread is made of bugs. Am I made of bugs?

Yes. Yes you are.

why frog fractions? why not toad trigonometry 2, TOADOL DESTRUCTION? on another note, whats the hardest part about creating a game like this? also, hello

This is the magic of mathematics. Your proposed game absolutely exists in the possibility space of Flash executables -- it's simply that nobody's discovered it yet. But you can rest assured that, out there in the infinite black, Toad Trigonometry 2: TOADOL DESTRUCTION floats, with limitless patience, awaiting the adventurer who will cautiously approach, shine a light on it and give it form and a web page to be hosted on.

Also, hello.

1/2 7/8 5/8 3/4 17/24? 23/56 1/9 4/5! 64/256 DRAGONS 67/99 1/3.

Hey, one of these is not a fraction. Get that exclamation point out of here!

How do you express the number of beards per team member in Fractions 2?

Unfortunately, you need Fractions 2 to express this value, and just like everyone else, we were planning on using Frog Fractions 2 to learn Fractions 2. So, ask again in a couple years!

I'm a math teacher and I want to use Frog Fractions as my final exam. However, it's come to my attention that I might get fired for exposing the children to bug porn. Are there any plans for a SFW version?

Here you go.

Were you the creators of treefrog treasure?

No. Somebody sent me a link to it shortly after Frog Fractions came out. This game was also contemporary. Sometimes an idea's time has just come!

What's the most frogs you've ever fractioned?

ALL OF THEM

Hi Jim! I loved Frog Fractions, I thought it was one of the most brilliant flash games I've played and I highly recommend everyone to take a look at it.

How did you come up with this insane distribution scheme for Frog Fractions 2? Do you already know what you're going to release is as, and are you worried at all that some random indie games will 'pretend' to be Frog Fractions?

Thank you!

For a long time I was reluctant to do a sequel at all, because it would be impossible to surprise people again now that they expect this sort of thing from me. This distribution scheme was the best way I could think of to allow for the surprise and mystery that is core to Frog Fractions 2.

I am actually hoping that several random indie games will pretend to be Frog Fractions 2. And of course you know that I'll never deny it.

Have you ever considered shipping Frog Fractions 2 with a lasergun-like peripheral that requires you to touch your screen with your tongue? For, you know, thematic reasons?

Now I can't consider anything else.

No question here - just wanted to thank you for your continuing involvement with and support of the nice folks over at Cloudboat Armada who do the Indie Games for Good Marathon. You're a cool addition to the group there! ^_^

Yeah, that event is a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to the next one!

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The answer to all three questions is "beards."

Has the odd nature of the Frog Fractions 2 Kickstarter caused you to be inundated with accusations of tomfoolery and shenanigans?

We were very worried about this before launch, and worked hard to make everything as clear as possible. Luckily, even the people who don't like it seem to still "get it."

Was there any specific inspiration behind Frog Fractions, or are you guys just a bunch of gnarly dudes with a wicked senses of humor that wanted to make something goofy?

No singular inspiration, no. Mainly, the development process involved a lot of "wouldn't it be funny if..." conversations.

With the recent scientific discovery of Fractions 2, does the team at Twinbeard have any contingency plans for the possible eventual discovery of Fractions 3?

We've already patented Fractions 3 through 15, so unless someone beats us to market 14 times in a row, I'm not worried about our continuing solvency.

Hey Twinbeard, what is Frog Fractions 2 exactly?

(it's an AMA, amirite?)

Has anybody guessed that it's the Kickstarter itself yet? Because it's the Kickstarter itself. Guys, c'mon.

Loved the first one. Fractions 2 will surely be great as well (no pressure).

... next, Frog Physics?

Oh, I like the dissonance there of having the "f" sound but not the appearance. But it's missing the r. How about "Frog Phrenology"?

Why did you make the decision to stop at fractions 2? While they are clearly important to a growing child's development, fractions 5 are clearly far more important when navigating the myriad challenges faced by a modern-day fractionaut.

What gives?

You have to learn to walk before you can run!

What made you decide to go with a whole number for the title?

After brainstorming for six hours, we got sick of every math joke ever.

What is your favorite sort of cheese

You know how in Canada instead of calling it "sharp" cheddar, they call it "old" cheddar? My favorite sort of cheese is the "extra old cheddar," because that's hilarious.

Or wait, did you mean to eat?

That IS a hilarious name. What is your favorite cheese to eat, too?

Jarlsberg always hits the spot for me.

Which pantheon of deities best represents the outlook and ethos of Twinbeard studios?

(My guess is Norse)

We think this one is the best pantheon.

I have a real problem with the end of Frog Fractions. It appears that my frog, FUCKO, ended up being (spoiler!) the President of Bug Mars. But this is in blatant violation of the Natural-Born Bug clause in the Constitution of Bug Mars.

Are we to believe that FUCKO, having just landed from his text based adventures, can suddenly bypass the rule of law and become Frog-In-Chief? What did the Supreme Bug Court have to say about this? Is there even a checks and balances system set up?

Look, this inaccuracy took me right out of the game and I sincerely hope you can rectify this issue in Frog Fractions 2.

The dance-off supercedes all constitutional law.

Why use frogs? And how do you feel about fractions in general?

They're an intuitive way to represent a non-integer value.

I'm opening my own gaming dev team called Tribeard Studios. Any advice?

Beard oils, also known as "grooming oils." They will keep the source of all your powers supple and your skin soft.

Could Draggy beat system in a slapfight?

Also, does FF2 contain any leather moomins?

Funny story. You know how Frog Fractions ends on a cliffhanger, where you have no idea where Mr. Hop is going next? Get this, world exclusive, he actually went to an entire planet of Leather Moomins. Yeah, that's why we cut that scene.

Frog fractions taught me everything I ever needed to know about fractions. Thanks so much!

Playing brought back memories of hours spent in the computer room at school, playing on the Apple IIGS.

I'm curious, what games do you remember playing?

My favorite from that era was probably Robot Odyssey. Too bad I already knew how to program at the time or I would probably be attributing learning to program to playing it.

It's a bit later on but did you ever play The Manhole? Man I loved that game.

By the way I hear you or someone over there knows my friend jovenisimo the mathematician.

Never played The Manhole! Reminds me of this thing, though: http://www.atrianglemorning.com/games/flash.php

Sure, we know Xander over here! He is a pretty cool guy.

How do you respond to the accusations that twin beards are more a matter of styling and grooming rather than of human exertion and will?

One is an expression of the other. Unless you meant pure force of will, like I telekinetically braided my beard? Because I was only able to do that once.

How did you find your collaborators? Did you reveal the full scope of the project to them, or only revealed tantalizing tidbits like a dancer of an exotic country, covered by veils or fans or cardboard boxes?

Most of the people who helped were beta testers first, who got excited about the project after playing.

I was a complete unknown at the time so there was no need to worry about keeping the details of the project a secret.

I am worrying more about that stuff now. The collaborator process for the sequel is a work-in-progress.

I have had the word "Snausages" stuck in my brain for a solid 25 years now, ever since that commercial for them back in the 90's. I pitched in on Frobert Frost 2 hoping to rid myself of this plight.

Please keep me in your thights.

We've got a team of snausage scientists working the problem right now.

You had some pretty sweet datamoshes in that Frog Fractions 2 trailer. Could we expect more glitch art (or just glitches) throughout the second installment of the series?

I will be putting things I like in Frog Fractions 2, and I like glitch art, so, maybe?

Are you impressed by how quickly people have found and solved some of the hidden elements contained in the Kickstarter pitch?

I think the codec we used has a bug in it, because I have no idea where that stuff came from!

When are you going to ship me all of the bug porn I ordered?

Sorry. The warehouse burned down.

Is it true that Frog Fractions will be a clone of Final Fantasy 2, the American one (aka 4), redone as a first-person shooter, but with tonnes (metric of course) of common elements, specifically so that when people try to do web searches of FF2 they'll get confused?

Also Feeding Frenzy 2 and Final Fight 2.

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Don't forget Denonumerators, introduced in Fractions 2!

So, uh, is it like battletoads?

I never played that one, only the 10000-in-1 pirate kart knock-off, Battlefrogs.

What's your honest opinion and thoughts about the xbox one game titanfall?

I don't like competitive shooters, but I love platformers, especially nontraditional ones like Portal and Mirror's Edge. Titanfall is a game I really wish had a single-player campaign.

All the questions I want to ask involve spoilers. So, let me ask an unrelated question - are you really writing Frog Fractions 2 in Unity3d?

Right now all drafts are made on a T9-83 calculator.

Will there be Occulus Rift support?

Currently we feel OR support limits players who do not have binocular vision. Since a great deal of Bug Mars has compound eyes and Mr. Hop himself has monocular vision, we feel OR support is limiting and exclusive.

Exactly. However, if we meet the Oculus Rift stretch goal, our opinion on monocular vs. binocular vision will reverse immediately and we will fully support Oculus Rift!

I'm considering it! Nothing's set in stone yet.

I'm mantisipating the second game with great excitement!

You've got something on your chin, right... there. No, the other side. Hm. You found it, but it's not coming off. How long have you been a mantisipant?