Frog Fractions 2's Kickstarter Exists, Is Utterly Insane

It is probably an exaggeration to say that Frog Fractions is the most important game of our time, which is why I'm not saying that. But goodness, it was certainly one of a kind - an Olympic-caliber swan dive into a maelstrom of churning madness. To say anything more would be to spoil it for those who haven't peeled past its faux-"edutainment" surface layer, but I can't recommend it enough. It's free, and you'll laugh for a solid hour, sometimes sincerely and other times in bewilderment at just how incredibly far creator Jim Crawford took a really dumb joke. Which brings us to Frog Fractions 2. He wants to take the joke even farther. Much, much farther, to a point that makes the original game look positively tame by comparison. Kickstarter farther. Kickstfarther. Brilliantly unhinged video below.

Hmmmmmm. Some, uh, strange stuff happened in that video - and I don't just mean the overtly oddball bits. Maybe it's worth another viewing or two? For clues of some sort? Hmmmmm.

Yeah, Frog Fractions 2's Kickstarter is probably already a game in itself. But that's only the beginning. Frog Fractions 2 - in whatever downright insane form it takes - won't even be called Frog Fractions 2. Crawford explained:

"It will not 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. Does that Russian flight sim on Desura look suspicious to you? Better play it just to make sure! Or maybe it'll be a plugin for Bonzi Buddy and you'll discover it when your grandpa asks you to make his email go faster. Wait, are you playing Frog Fractions 2 right now?"

"Additional spoiler-free details: it will be considerably larger in scope than Frog Fractions, containing multiple levels of secrets that will take you many play sessions to discover. As such, it will be a downloadable title and will cost money."

But... but what about backers? Well, once enough people have turned the Internet upside-down on this wild scavenger hunt and the truth behind Frog Fractions 2 has gone public, all backers will immediately receive download codes. Oh, and if you figure out the secret before The Jig Is Up, you can email Crawford and he'll send you a code on the spot.

So the game(s) within a game births an ARG within an ARG within a game within a... my brain hurts. This is madness, and Crawford needs $60,000 to make it happen. Normally I'd say a thousand times no to a Kickstarter this seemingly unreliable, but a) I have to applaud wackiness on this level and b) Crawford might be mad, but he's also reliable. He's delivered on multiple projects - many of them free - so I don't imagine he'll cut and run here. Put another way: I dearly hope highway robbery is not Frog Fractions 2.

But one of Frog Fractions' greatest assets is that it was an out-of-nowhere surprise. So will the sequel be any good if - even only on some abstract level, thanks to this Kickstarter - we know it's coming? Crawford's aware of that potential pratfall, but he's pressing on nonetheless.

"Inevitably, some of you will be disappointed, just like some people came away from Frog Fractions feeling like I wasted their time," he concluded. "All I can do is promise you that I will do my damnedest to take you on a ride that is more entertaining, more mysterious, and more fundamentally surprising than Frog Fractions was."

We can only hope.