Digital Media Concepts/Toby Fox

From Wikiversity
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Toby Fox
NationalityAmerican
BornOctober 11, 1991
Known ForUndertale
Birth PlaceMassachussetts

Toby Fox (born October 11, 1991) video game developer, composer, and musician most known for developing and composing the soundtrack for the critically acclaimed roleplaying game Undertale.

History[edit | edit source]

Fox was a fan of the game EarthBound and began as a forum member on its fansite, Starmen.net, under the username Radiation. He would be an active member on the site and managed one of the site's forums up until 2011.[1] Before starting work on Undertale, he had little experience in actual game development except for the incomplete games he often made with his three brothers using the proprietary game engine RPG Maker 2000.[2] For a while, Fox developed Undertale in the basement of webcomic artist Andrew Hussie, known for creating the popular comic Homestuck, for which Fox also composed tracks for.[3][4]

Games[edit | edit source]

Undertale[edit | edit source]

Undertale was the first major game completely developed by Toby. He worked on the project independently, with only artwork and sprites being supplied by other creators, mainly freelance artist Temmie Chang.[5] Fox began creating Undertale after already making a battle system using the engine GameMaker: Studio.[6] The original game was meant to be released in 2014 but production was delayed. Undertale was praised for its writing, for which Fox claims he was inspired by internet culture, comedy shows such as Mr. Bean and the game EarthBound.[7] When it came to developing the game itself Fox said he wanted to develop a role-playing game that was non-traditional, had "interesting characters", and that "utilizes the medium as a storytelling device ... instead of having the story and gameplay abstractions be completely separate".[8]Undertale took 2.7 years to completely develop and was financed through a crowdfunding effort on Kickstarter.[9] The game was released on September 15, 2015 for Windows and OS X, and July 17, 2016 for Linux.

Deltarune[edit | edit source]

Deltarune is another of the major games released by Toby. Chapter 1 of the game was released October 31, 2018, and Chapter 2 was relased September 17, 2021.

Musical Contributions[edit | edit source]

Fox is a self-taught musician and has composed soundtracks for many games and comics including Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead, Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Alternia and Homestuck. He composed all of the soundtrack for Undertale as well. When it comes to his influences for producing music, Fox states that he tries to be inspired by everything he listens to, especially tracks in video games.[10]

Discography[edit | edit source]

Awards and Nominations[edit | edit source]

Reception[edit | edit source]

Undertale was released to rave reviews by many magazines and publications. The game and Toby Fox was nominated for and won many awards such as Game of the Year, Best Debut, and Best Game Ever. As for Fox's reaction to the massive success of his own game he stated that it overwhelmed him and caused a lot of stress, as he did not want the game to be tiring or spoiled for anyone. He also stated that he is perfectly comfortable if he never makes a game as successful again.[29]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. "Starmen.net".
  2. "Seagaia".
  3. "Homestuck Kickstarter".
  4. "Game Informer".
  5. "Undertale Kickstarter".
  6. "Existential Gamer".
  7. "Game Informer".
  8. "Seagaia".
  9. "Game Informer".
  10. "The Mary Sue".
  11. "Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead".
  12. "Homestuck Vol. 4".
  13. "Homestuck Vol. 5".
  14. "Alternia".
  15. "Squiddles!".
  16. "The Felt".
  17. "Homestuck for the Holidays".
  18. "Homestuck Vol. 6: Heir Transparent".
  19. "AlterniaBound".
  20. "Homestuck Vol. 7: At the Price of Oblivion".
  21. "The Wanderers".
  22. "Homestuck Vol. 8".
  23. "Improvised Touhou Music with Annoying Commentary".
  24. "I Miss You - EarthBound 2012".
  25. "coloUrs and mayhem: Universe A".
  26. "coloUrs and mayhem: Universe B".
  27. "Cherubim".
  28. "[S] Collide".
  29. "Undertale Blog".
  30. "Game of the Month: October – Undertale". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. October 30, 2015. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  31. "Global Game Awards 2015". Game-Debate. November 27, 2015. Archived from the original on January 16, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  32. Peckham, Matt (December 1, 2015). "Top 10 Video Games". Time. Time Inc. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  33. 33.0 33.1 33.2 Nunneley, Stephany (December 4, 2015). "The Game Awards 2015 – Game of the Year goes to The Witcher 3". VG247. Videogaming247. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
  34. Diver, Mike (December 4, 2015). "The Best 20 Video Games of 2015". Vice. Vice Media. Archived from the original on January 16, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  35. "The RPS Advent Calendar, Dec 16th: Undertale". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. December 16, 2015. Archived from the original on December 26, 2015. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
  36. O'Donnell, Steven; Bendixsen, Stephanie (December 15, 2015). "Game of the Year - Part 1". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on January 16, 2016. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  37. Frank, Allegra (December 16, 2015). "Undertale wins GameFAQs' Best Game Ever contest". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  38. "Game of the Year 2015 Countdown: #20 - #16". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. December 18, 2015. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  39. Sterling, Jim (December 21, 2015). "The Jimquisition Game of the Year Awards 2015". The Jimquisition. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  40. Hansen, Steven (December 22, 2015). "Destructoid's award for Best PC Game of 2015 goes to..." Destructoid. ModernMethod. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  41. "The Escapist's Best Games of 2015". The Escapist. Defy Media. December 25, 2015. p. 3. Archived from the original on February 17, 2016. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  42. Orland, Kyle (December 28, 2015). "The best video games of 2015, as picked by the Ars editor". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. p. 4. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  43. "Giant Bomb's 2015 Game of the Year Awards: Day One Text Recap". Giant Bomb. CBS Interactive. December 28, 2015. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  44. "Giant Bomb's 2015 Game of the Year Awards: Day Three Text Recap". Giant Bomb. CBS Interactive. December 30, 2015. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  45. "Giant Bomb's 2015 Game of the Year Awards: Day Five Text Recap". Giant Bomb. CBS Interactive. January 1, 2016. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  46. "Top 5 Games of 2015". The Escapist. Defy Media. January 7, 2016. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  47. "PC Game of the Year". IGN. IGN Entertainment. January 12, 2016. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  48. "Best Story". IGN. IGN Entertainment. January 12, 2016. Archived from the original on February 17, 2016. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  49. 49.0 49.1 49.2 Frank, Allegra (January 13, 2016). "DICE Awards finalists include Fallout 4, Witcher 3, Life is Strange and more". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on January 16, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  50. 50.0 50.1 50.2 Nunneley, Stephany (January 8, 2016). "The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid 5 lead nominees for GDC 2016 Awards". VG247. Videogaming247. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  51. 51.0 51.1 51.2 Nunneley, Stephany (January 6, 2016). "Her Story, Undertale, Darkest Dungeon receive multiple 2016 IGF Award nominations". VG247. Videogaming247. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  52. "Her Story takes home top honors at the 18th annual IGF Awards". Gamasutra. UBM TechWeb. March 16, 2016. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  53. 53.0 53.1 53.2 Frank, Allegra (January 25, 2016). "Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid 5 among SXSW Gaming Award nominees". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on January 25, 2016. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  54. 54.0 54.1 Sarkar, Samit (March 21, 2016). "The Witcher 3 takes top honors at yet another award show, the SXSW Gaming Awards". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on April 6, 2016. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  55. Nunnely, Stephany (March 10, 2016). "Rocket League, The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, others up for BAFTA Best Game Award". VG247. Videogaming247. Archived from the original on May 2, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  56. Weber, Rachel (April 7, 2016). "Fallout 4 wins best game at BAFTAs". GamesIndustry.biz. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on May 2, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2016.