Indie Game Spotlight: Frogsong (@brodnork)
This week’s Indie Game Spotlight is all about Frogsong, a story-driven adventure game about a tiny frog trying to prove their worth. It has a heartfelt story and lots of fun characters to talk to on your journey.
We spoke with Brandon Braun, the creator of Frogsong, who handles most of the development—the art, most of the programming, the story, the level design…it’s busy work!
Frogsong looks like it has a lot of different animal friends. What kind of animals can we expect to meet in the land of Salia?
The only sapient creatures in Salia are frogs and toads, but Chorus will encounter lots of different animals, with most of the enemies being insects. You’ll also run into snails, snakes, bats, and all sorts of mysterious creatures!
How does Frogsong address themes of hope, identity, and what it means to be important?
The story of Frogsong starts off with Chorus moving to a new town to start a better life. Being much smaller than the other warriors, Chorus struggles to get anyone to take them seriously. The story is centered around Chorus fighting to be accepted for who they really are and distancing themself from their old identity. Chorus spends most of the game trying to prove they’re important, too, despite their small size. The story takes from a lot of very personal life experiences that I think make the game heartfelt and authentic. I’m hoping it resonates with a lot of people.
Have you learned any interesting frog facts while working on the game?
Tons! I’m a huge fan of frogs already, so I had a lot of fun putting in lots of research for the game. Did you know that there’s an extinct species of frog that raised its tadpoles in its own mouth? Or that frogs use their eyeballs to push food down their throat? Or a species of frog that breaks its own toes when threatened and uses its own broken bones as claws? Frogs are super weird.
What do you hope players will take away from your game?
I want players to feel important, no matter what disadvantages they may have or what they’ve achieved. You don’t have to do amazing things to matter. That’s what the game’s tagline—“It’s okay to be small”—means to me.
Frogsong will be up for purchase on Steam and itch.io, for PC, Mac, and Linux, with more platforms hopefully being added later in development! You can keep up with all updates by following their Tumblr here!