Amphibian is the debut title from JARCORP Interactive, a Massachusetts studio founded in 2025 — and it’s a somber, story-driven tactical RPG in which every single character is a frog.
The studio describes the visual approach as “Super2D”: classic old-school perspective enhanced with modern visual effects, somewhere between the Game Boy Advance era and the likes of Sea of Stars and Octopath Traveler. Underneath that is a game with no shops, no money, no random encounters and no grinding whatsoever.
Why There’s No Grinding
As for what we had to cut: the answer is actually, nothing! The “no grinding / always curation” element was a foundational pillar in our original game design document, during pre-production. So many of the game’s systems are actually built on top of it: no shops, no money, etc.
That first line is the whole design philosophy in one sentence, and it explains why the absence of an economy doesn’t feel like a missing feature. If the characters are racing against a drought, a player stopping to farm experience for two hours breaks the fiction more than it breaks the balance.
Golden Sun, Fire Emblem and… Resident Evil?
The stated influences are an unusual set. We asked Greg how they actually fuse in practice — particularly the last one.
As for Golden Sun: I think people forget how linear that game was, even though it technically had an overworld. It had intentionally very limited side-questing as well. There’s technically an overworld in Amphibian, and levels within that world that you enter, but it is very tight and succinct.
As for Resident Evil — I need to be very specific here: I am very into the remake of the first one on the GameCube. With Amphibian, we took some puzzle and riddle solving influence from that. Amphibian also has somewhat of a limited save system — but don’t worry, there are no ink ribbons or save-items. I’m not that much of a madman! (Laughs)
Percentage-chance stat growth on level up, with characters favouring particular stats.
An overworld that’s deliberately tight and linear, with intentionally limited side content.
Puzzle and riddle design, plus a limited save system — mercifully without consumable save items.
The modern half of “Super2D” — old-school perspective with contemporary visual effects.
Injuries That Stay With You
A single blow in Amphibian can leave persistent, grievous injuries with lasting debuffs — and with no shops or economy, there’s no straightforward way to buy your way out of a bad run. We asked how that avoids tipping into feeling punishing.
I want to make it clear to players: the goal of Amphibian is not difficulty. We aren’t making a hardcore experience. We just want players to care about the mechanics, and to put thought into the strategy behind how they play.
That’s a useful clarification, and one worth having on record. A game with persistent injuries, limited saves and no economy reads as brutally hard on a feature list — Greg is explicitly saying that’s not the target. Tension, not punishment.
Why Frogs?
Many people are going to think the idea came from Chrono Trigger’s Frog, which actually isn’t one of my influences, although I understand the connection. What happened was, I kept experiencing “frogs on two legs” in various media throughout my life: Jean from Breath of Fire 2, Frog and Toad, Over the Garden Wall, various enemies in various video games. And I thought: “Has there ever been a game where it’s ALL frogs and toads? Entirely frog-centric?” The conclusion I came to was, “No, not really.”
From there I started putting the ideas together: what if all of the enemies were frog predators? What if every character’s name was “frog” but in a different world language? What kind of conflict would this frog-ecosystem fight over? And then it just clicked. We had to bring it to life.
JARCORP describe the tone as combining the high adventure of the Redwall novels with the emotional worldbuilding of Watership Down — a generation of loss and betrayal between two warring factions, told through a stalwart band of heroes. Which, for anyone who read Watership Down as a child expecting a nice story about bunnies, is a fair warning about where this is heading.
The Composer Is Also the Creative Director
What’s interesting is that throughout development, both things have happened — some musical moments influenced gameplay and scene changes, and vice versa.
Something the audience should know: I’m not an artist at all, in the physical sense. I can barely draw stick figures (laughs). Amphibian’s illustrators, animators, and my co-creator James are also vital to the emotions of a given scene, and the emotions of the game as a whole.
A Musician and a World-Record Pogoer Walk Into a Studio
JARCORP Interactive was founded in 2025 by Greg and James Roumeliotis — the studio’s technical director, Amphibian’s co-creator, and a world-record pogo stick holder. We had to ask.
Before the show, I told James that some of the songs on Millennial Youth were originally written for a video game soundtrack I’d been working on. After the concert, I received a very lengthy text message from James asking me if I wanted to work on a game. I revealed during our first meeting that I already had a story, characters, and pieces of a soundtrack finished. We started prototyping, and it came together very fast.
I am immensely grateful for him — I have no programming experience or ability, and Amphibian would not have happened without him. Typically the rule of thumb is that your first game should be small, but we said “f*** that.” With James’ technical expertise and my existing audio and games industry experience, we decided to go for it. (Laughs) And I hope players enjoy it when they get their hands on it.
Deciding your debut should be a 10-to-15-hour tactical RPG with a full original score, a Grammy-winning sound designer and a branching class system is not the conventional advice. It is, however, a considerably better story.
What’s Actually in It
Tactical turn-based combat where every encounter is placed deliberately. No random encounters, no grinding.
A homebrewed progression system built in-house by James, where no two playthroughs produce the same party composition.
Old-school problem solving with light 2D platforming and both 2D and isometric exploration.
A tight, fast-paced campaign with no filler — and, per JARCORP, a story where you never know who will show up or who will be lost.
Where and When
Amphibian is in development for Steam on PC, Mac and Linux, with Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions also planned. JARCORP’s press materials list a target of early 2028, with their pitch deck indicating PC platforms arriving first and consoles following.
Amphibian’s Steam page is live now, and the world premiere trailer is out today. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one — partly because the game looks genuinely interesting, and partly because we’ve been following it since a conversation in a press room about a very good suit.
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