What is this?
Frogatto is an open-source “platformer” game, which means you’re given a cross-section view into the world, and you help a small green fellow named Frogatto walk and jump between solid footholds whilst you lead him through his story. There’s a long history to the genre, so just by being in it we inevitably have a lot in common with other games, however, we’re not trying to clone any specific game.
Although frogatto is finished and fully-playable, we’re planning some major additions to the game over the next few years. Don’t hesitate to download it now, but keep an eye on this site, because we’ll be posting some exciting new stuff over time.
What does it run on?
Frogatto was written for computers (windows, mac, and linux), and the iPhone. It runs well on any iPhone, even the oldest ones.
As for computers, it runs on Mac, Windows, or Linux (including Pandora), and should work on any computer made in the last 8 years or so. Specifically, you need OpenGL support, and at least Windows XP or Mac OS 10.4. Hardware needs to be at least: 40mb of ram, a 500mhz CPU, and a graphics card at least as good as the first ATI radeons.
People have suggested ports to various platforms (like PSP, DS, Dreamcast, etc). We ourselves are completely incapable of doing this – we know nothing about programming for these, we don’t own these devices ourselves, and we can’t afford to pay someone else to do it. If you can do a port, we’d be happy to do business with you (including potential freeware releases, such as for the Pandora/GP2x). But asking our current team to do it is useless.
How much does it cost?
On computers? Nothing. Enjoy it, and please spread the word!
On the iPhone? Between $1 – $5, depending if it’s on sale.
Do you have a level editor?
Can I help out?
Sure. We’re open to level designs, and new puzzles. However, keep in mind that if you do help out, we’re not going to pay you, and anything you give us is ours to sell. We’re not jerks, here, we’re just covering our butt by not making any “legally-binding” promises. (Realistically, we’re happy to put you in the credits, and if you’re good, we’d love to have you on the team.)
What’s “Open Source”?
Open source means you can see (and reuse) the code we built the game from. This makes frogatto infinitely moddable (and fixable, and maintainable, unlike closed-source ‘moddable’ games which leave you permanently stuck with engine bugs or future incompatibilities with, say, the next generation of operating systems or whatnot). Even more importantly, this means you could take frogatto’s code and build your own 2d game out of it. We can help with advice on that – we’d love to see that happen.
We strongly welcome mods, and are interested in including any really good mods or new levels, in the core game.
We’re also interested in translations; we’ve got support for them in the code, but we’ve only got a few people working on them right now. Please hop in and help out!