Frog Fractions 2

The development of Frog Fractions 2 was accompanied by two multiple-year ARGs, gaining much media attention.[4][6][7][8][9] Stormdancer had often referred to what would be released as Frog Fractions 2, the game, as "Frog Fractions 3", envisioning the ARGs as "Frog Fractions 2" and a game in and of itself.[10] Large coordinated efforts of players worked together to try to decipher the elements of the ARG.[5]

One ARG involved hiding parts of Frog Fractions 2 within several different indie games on Steam, including Crypt of the NecroDancer, The Magic Circle, Quadrilateral Cowboy, Duskers, Firewatch, and Moon Hunters, where different parts of an "eye sigil" graphic was found, directing players to find a portion of a map within the game, which eventually pointed to real life locations.[11] Stormdancer credits 31 different developers for their help in this portion.[10] Stormdancer ran this ARG and used relationships with developers he met at Game Developers Conferences to work on inserting Frog Fractions 2-related material into their games.[5][3] Stormdancer had found some independent developers had included the sigil without his request in their games, making these games red herrings within the community trying to decipher the puzzle, which he found helped to deepen the mystery akin to an urban legend.[10] He had initially planned to have the sigil ARG lead to a map image that would provide a password that the player could apply within Glittermitten Grove to decrypt the Frog Fractions 2, but felt this forced players to examine the executables of the indie games for art information, and opted for a different approach, eventually deciding to only have Glittermitten Grove update once a milestone in the ARG was met.[10]

The more narrative-driven ARG was initially created by Stormdancer before being handed off to be run by Justin Bortnick, who also served as a writer on the video game. This ARG, initiated by the Kickstarter pitch video, focused on the idea of time travel, and centered on "the story of the 'Resistance' [...], a group that was manipulating timelines to prevent an existential threat called the 'Decay' from destroying their world and our timeline".[3] Bortnick wrote the ARG's narrative alongside the story they were building for Frog Fractions 2, and described that at one point they had considered using the name Fairies vs. Badgers instead of Glittermitten Grove, but dropped that title, requiring him to drop a plot line regarding badgers from the ARG.[3] As the release of the video game neared, Bortnick was producing less content for the ARG, and he and Stormdancer were considering ending it. Near the same time, one of the ARG's players, Erica Newman (a PhD ecologist from the University of California, Berkeley), won a box of clues from an ARG event centered around Indiecade. She received the box in person from Stormdancer, and jokingly offered to write additional ARG content without involving other developers with the goal of keeping players interested and further developing the fictional universe of the ARG. Stormdancer encouraged this, believing this kept the chaotic spirit of Frog Fractions.[3] Newman brought in two others, Justin Melvin, and Micah Edwards, to help with puzzle development. At least six musicians and musical groups were brought in to write original music, and Newman created all art and remaining story elements for the ARG. As Newman's branch of the ARG started gaining attention, it was agreed that she would run out the rest of the ARG. She, Melvin and Edwards then created ARG content that introduced new characters and plot lines, spanned websites like Facebook and YouTube, and incorporated physical puzzles. At the ARG's conclusion, Newman tied her story to Bortnick and Stormdancer's original ARG content as a lead-up to the game's release.[3]

The ARG was solved after 2 years and 8 months in late December 2016. Players of the ARG found clues to a physical location where a box with a button, labeled "FF2", and a key switch was found, as well as to a real-life escape the room game where players found the matching key. The key was shipped to the box recoverer, and was triggered on December 24, 2016; once triggered, Glittermitten Grove was updated with the Frog Fractions 2 content. Newman said that they had set some of the narrative that activating the box would release the "Decay", and had suggested the option of destroying the box to prevent this. Newman said they had no backup plan were the box to be destroyed, because she was confident that the ARG players would release the game no matter what the cost, as was introduced through the narration to them.[3]

The large update to Glittermitten Grove and its content was eventually discovered by players a few days later. Those that backed the Kickstarter could contact Stormdancer for Steam keys if they could tell him the hidden location of game following the activation of the box, though they were encouraged to keep the reveal quiet until more players had found the hidden game.[12] Stormdancer has retrospectively stated he considers the ARG itself to be Frog Fractions 2, with the game being Frog Fractions 3.[13]