Toby Fox

Toby Fox
Toby Fox in 2016
Born
Robert F. Fox

(1991-10-11) October 11, 1991 (age 35)
Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S.
Other names
  • Radiation
  • FwugRadiation
Alma materNortheastern University
Occupations
  • Video game developer
  • composer
Years active2008–present
Known forCreating the video games Undertale and Deltarune
Websitetobyfox.net (archived)
Signature

Robert F. "Toby" Fox (sometimes called Radiation, born October 11, 1991) is an American video game developer and composer. He made the award nominee game Undertale. Later, he would make Deltarune which he has stated is his dream game to make.

When Fox started, he made music for Homestuck. Then he made Undertale and Deltarune. After making Undertale, he also made music for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Pokémon.

Career

Toby Fox made the "EarthBound Halloween Hack", a Halloween-themed ROM hack of EarthBound. It is the earliest thing people know him for. He then made music for the Homestuck during his senior year of high school. Fox has also made music for the 2017 video game Hiveswap, a short story game called Escaped Chasm, and the RPG Little Town Hero, which was arranged by Hitomi Sato. He also made a song for Pokémon Sword and Shield, a song for Itoki Hana's PRAY album, and many songs for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Undertale

The most known work by Fox is the role-playing video game Undertale. The game sold more than 1 million copies. Fox made the game by himself, except for the art, which he asked Temmie Chang to help with. He knew how to do game making before Undertale because he used RPG Maker 2000 with his three brothers to make games and other versions of games. He thought of the characters and ideas for Undertale while in college, and he drew them in his notebook. After its release, Undertale had a big fanbase. Fox said that he did not care if people said that they did not like the game, saying that it was "not for everyone".

Deltarune

On October 30, 2018, Fox said that Undertale fans should check the game's Twitter account in a day. The next day, Fox shared the first chapter of another story with Undertale characters, named Deltarune, (which is "Undertale" with the letters mixed up) for free, saying it was a "survey".

Personal life

Fox was born on October 11, 1991, in Manchester, New Hampshire. As a child, Fox took piano and trumpet lessons; by middle school, he had returned to the piano, performing gaming music by ear. He later learned about environmental science at Northeastern University.

Fox tends to keep matters private and rarely gives interviews. Chronic wrist pain has slowed his output in both coding and music production.

References

  1. ↑ "EarthBound Halloween Hack! « EarthBound Central". earthboundcentral.com. Archived from the original on December 14, 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  2. 1 2 3 Goslin, Austen (November 1, 2019). "Undertale developer is composing a song for Pokémon Sword and Shield". Polygon. Archived from the original on March 28, 2021. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  3. ↑ Tarason, Dominic (April 2, 2019). "Escaped Chasm is a short, sad, free story by Undertale's artist". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  4. ↑ Fox, Toby [@tobyfox] (August 6, 2018). "I composed a vocal song for my friend @1t0lc1 (Itoki Hana's) new album, PRAY" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  5. ↑ @tobyfox (June 1, 2022). "I had the honor of composing the field music for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet! After creating a concept sketch, Game Freak arranged it into many versions that you'll hear throughout the game. You can hear a bit of it in this trailer..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. ↑ @tobyfox (June 1, 2022). "A few more Toby Fox tracks will appear in the game, too, so please look forward to those! This time, my music is not optional!!!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  7. ↑ Hayward, Mark (2020-12-06). "City Matters: Secretive NH game designer created Undertale video game". UnionLeader.com. Retrieved 2024-03-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  8. ↑ Turi, Tim (October 15, 2015). "GI Show – Yoshi's Woolly World, Star Wars: Battlefront, Undertale's Toby Fox". Game Informer. GameStop. Archived from the original on January 30, 2016. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
  9. ↑ Han-Tani, Melos (May 25, 2013). "Toby Fox's Undertale – DEV 2 DEV INTERVIEW #1". ambient-melodic (Interview). Archived from the original on August 8, 2020. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
  10. ↑ Schilling, Chris (May 5, 2018). "The making of Undertale". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  11. ↑ Alexandra, Heather. "Undertale Creator Shares Notebook Full Of Early Concepts And Art". Kotaku. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  12. ↑ "8/10: Undertale Dev Reflects On Unexpected Popularity". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 2016-09-15. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  13. 1 2 Grayson, Nathan. "Undertale Creator: It's OK If People Dislike The Game". Steamed. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Undertale creator's new game is Deltarune, a mysterious surprise". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 1, 2018. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
  15. ↑ "Deltarune Chapter 1 is the free and surprising start of a new Undertale saga". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on May 2, 2019. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 "City Matters: Secretive NH game designer created Undertale video game". December 6, 2020. Archived from the original on June 22, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  17. ↑ "WebVoyage Titles". cocatalog.loc.gov. Archived from the original on 2022-01-08. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
  18. ↑ Fox, Toby [@tobyfox] (October 11, 2017). "It's my 26th birthday" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2018-08-31 – via Twitter.
  19. 1 2 Oakwood, James (2025-06-06). "Fantastic Mr. Fox". Debug. No. 10. pp. 7–11.
  20. ↑ Feeld, Julian (October 9, 2015). "INTERVIEW: TOBY FOX OF UNDERTALE". Existential Gamer. Feeld. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 20, 2016.