Developer experiences from the trenches
We want to give back to the community — gamers and creative people alike. Frogtoss Labs lets us share the learning and experiments we do every day. We hope that it inspires you to approach design differently and otherwise influences you to create cool things.
We don’t use Frogtoss Labs for press releases, or as a communication tool to reach out to the media. The main Frogtoss site handles that. Labs is for you.
This is the place for experimental screenshots with rough edges, programming tutorials and editor screenshots. Ah yes, editor screenshots. Sometimes seeing an editor in action is cooler than seeing a game. If you agree, you should probably bookmark frogtoss.com/labs. :)
I started Frogtoss in 2003 with the goal of making a living building games that could be maintained by small teams of talented people. They had to be affordable to self-fund; the constraints of traditional publisher funding can lead to short term thinking at the cost of being in control of the bigger picture.
I’ve been thinking about design, business and programming challenges related to games since mullets were acceptable. I’m going to say that was ‘86… you can introduce yourself at GDC or a similar meetup and give me your alternative worldview on mullets if you disagree.
A huge portion of what excites me about the being an independent developer is the opportunity to build something that is truly different. It’s entirely possible to spend a decade in the mainstream industry and measure your impact purely in terms of shipped titles, ignoring the accumulation of possible projects growing in the back of your mind. Eventually you end up with a massive backlog of experimental ideas. Some people can live with letting them stay in a scrapbook. I can’t; I am too curious.
I built up programming chops along the way, and I am extremely interested in using them to get Frogtoss to a unique starting point. Building original technology makes sense if it gets you somewhere you can’t get with off the shelf tools.
We are very interested in what you think. Leave a comment on the blog or send an email to feedback@frogtoss.com or @frogtoss.
