BobbyGames Fernhold

A Bobby Games original · in the workshop

Fernhold

Keep a terrarium of tiny clay frogs. Build their world by hand, watch them live in it, then send them down the drain pipe on adventures with your friends.

Take a look inside When can I play?

Cosy builder/Frog keeper/Co-op adventures

Somewhere on a desk, under a warm lamp, there is a glass tank. Inside it is a whole world. That world is yours.

The Keep by day: a long planted glass tank on a coffee table, an armchair, a rug and a window
Looking down into the planted tank: broad leaves along the back glass, a pond, moss, a glowing toadstool and three frogs
Inside the tank at frog scale: moss, clover flowers and broad leaves, with a blue dart frog below

The Keep

A whole world on your desk

Your room. A coffee table, a mug going cold, and one glass tank you fill however you like.

Lean in. Pour the soil, set the stones, plant ferns and moss. Every piece goes in by hand, and every tank is different.

Go inside. Drop to frog scale, where the moss is a forest and a pebble is a hill to climb.

The Keeper

Just a pair of soft hands

You are the Keeper. You're never seen and you never speak. You reach into the glass with two clay hands and do everything by touch: tear the bag, tip it, pour. Pick up a stone, turn it, set it down just so.

Hand. Pick anything up, turn it, scale it, set it down. Frogs too, gently, in a cupped palm.

The Keeper's bare clay hand reaching into a freshly misted tank, a blue dart frog on a leaf beside it, a tree frog and a pacman frog nearby

The frogs

Every frog is somebody

Each frog has a name, a temperament and a colour all its own. They hunt the crickets you drop in, find a favourite perch, make friends, and fall asleep in odd places.

Saffron, a yellow and black dart frog, on wet pebbles
Saffron is curious
Pudding, a round green pacman frog, sitting on leaf litter
Pudding wants a cricket
Cobalt, a blue dart frog with black spots, in shallow water
Cobalt has a crush

Swipe to meet them all

Tree frog Climber

Long legs and sticky toes. Walks up the glass and naps on the highest branch you give it.

Pacman frog Ambusher

Round, wide and patient. Digs into the soil and waits for dinner to wander past.

Dart frog Show-off

Tiny and neon: the only bright colours in the tank, and impossible to miss.

Happy, curious, sleepy, smitten, grumpy, startled. You'll learn to read them.

From egg to frog, on your desk

Warm an egg in the incubator, watch it hatch, raise the tadpoles in a jar until they climb out on four legs. Pair your frogs and their young take after them, colours and patterns and all. Frogs never die here: they grow old and retire in comfort.

Egg
Incubator
Tadpole
Frog

Adventures

Down the drain pipe

A pipe at the back of the tank leads out into the house and the garden. Wake a frog with a little magic and it stands up on two legs as frogfolk, ready to go exploring. Whatever it finds, it brings home.

Opens first

The Forage

Under the fern, past the bottle cap

Being dug

The Drainpipe Deeps

Down where the echoes keep

Being dug

The Windowsill Jungle

Up the curtain, past the sentries

Later

The Moonlit Pond

Lily pads under a full moon

Three frogfolk, a blue dart frog, a tree frog and a pacman frog, exploring a raised garden bedA party of three
A rockery of flat stepping stones and wild grass in the back gardenThe rockery
First-person view on the back step, looking at the clay drain pipe with the haul meter aboveBack to the pipe

The Forage

Up to four frogs, one back garden, one sunset

Slip out under the big fern and scavenge the backyard for what the big people lost: buttons, marbles, beads, a whole pocket watch. Carry it all to the basket by the pipe without breaking it, and get home before dusk.

  • SneakThe Shrew hears running and sees in a cone. Crouch, hide, keep your nerve.
  • Lift togetherHeavy finds need two frogs. Drop it and it's worth less.
  • Nobody gets leftBonked? A friend lifts you back up. Frogs never die, not even out here.

Fill your pocket

Brass buttons, glass beads, copper coins, a whole pocket watch. Some finds become tank decor, some buy supplies, and some are just nice to have.

Bring it home

Back through the pipe, the frog that went is the frog that returns, with its finds, its stories and maybe a new hat.

Friends

Better with friends

Your tank is yours. Friends can come round to look, leave a little gift, or head down the pipe with you, their frogs beside yours.

The game's illustrated map of the garden: hills, a winding path, a pond and the vegetable rows The garden map

Go foraging together

Host a run, share the code, and up to four frogs head down the pipe as one party.

Knock on the glass

Visit a friend's Keep. They let you in to look around: visitors look, they don't touch.

Bring a gift

Leave a treat or a little prop on your visit. It waits for them in their post.

Send a postcard

Your tank at its best, as a postcard. Friends see the latest one even when you're away.

Visiting a friend: the Fernhold title over a mossy terrarium, with an 'At the door, waiting for the Keeper to let you in' card

At the door

Knock, and wait at the door until your friend lets you in. Look around, leave a wave, go home. Your own tank saves itself a moment after every change, so nothing you built is ever lost.

Fernhold

Coming soon

Being built, one hop at a time

Fernhold is in the workshop right now. There's no store page yet; when wishlists open, the button will be right here. Until then, tell a friend who likes frogs.

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