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Creating, designing, composing music for, and writing the video game "Undertale" and creating "Deltarune". Also known for his contributions to the "Homestuck" webcomic as a composer.
Key Dates and Places
Born Date: October 11, 1991.
Born Place: United States.
Career
Current occupation: Video game developer, composer, designer, writer.
Past occupations: Freelance composer, Flash animator (early in his career).
Current Place of Work: Toby Fox (Independent developer/self-employed).
Achievements and Recognition
Awards: IGN's Best PC Game (2015) - "Undertale", IGN's Best Overall Game (2015) - "Undertale", The Game Awards Trending Gamer (2015), BAFTA Games Award for Music (2016) - "Undertale".
Other Recognition: Time Magazine included "Undertale" in the 10 Best Video Games of 2015.
Skills
Game development, musical composition (primarily using Famitracker and FL Studio), game design, writing, character design, programming (GameMaker Studio).
Languages
Languages Spoken: English.
Main Milestones
Birth and Early Life
October 11, 1991
Robert F. was born in New Hampshire on October 11, 1991. Little is publicly known about his very early childhood, but his later work reflects a clear influence from classic video games and anime. This suggests formative years filled with immersion in these media, laying the groundwork for his future creative endeavors.
EarthBound ROM Hacks
Early to Mid 2000s
Before achieving mainstream success, Toby Fox was active in the "EarthBound" community, creating ROM hacks. These were modifications to the original game that often involved new storylines, characters, and gameplay mechanics. This early experience provided him with invaluable experience in game design, programming, and storytelling, skills he would later leverage in his own independent projects. He was already honing his craft, learning to manipulate existing systems to create something entirely new.
Homestuck Music Contributions
2009
Toby Fox began contributing music to Andrew Hussie's popular webcomic "Homestuck". His eclectic and energetic compositions quickly gained a following within the "Homestuck" fandom. This collaboration significantly boosted his visibility and provided a platform to experiment with different musical styles and genres. "Homestuck" exposed his talents to a large online audience, establishing him as a composer to watch.
Development of "Undertale"
2012 - 2015
Toby Fox independently developed "Undertale", a role-playing video game with a unique combat system that allows players to choose pacifist solutions. He handled the majority of the game's creation himself, including writing, composing the soundtrack, and designing the gameplay. The game was initially funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign, reflecting a strong belief in his vision from early supporters. This period was a crucial testament to his dedication and singular vision.
"Undertale" Release
September 15, 2015
"Undertale" was released to critical acclaim, praised for its innovative gameplay, memorable characters, emotional storytelling, and exceptional soundtrack. The game quickly became a cult classic and garnered a massive online following. "Undertale"'s success established Toby Fox as a major force in the indie game scene and earned him numerous awards and accolades.
Post- "Undertale" Recognition and Work
2016-2018
Following the immense success of "Undertale", Toby Fox remained relatively private but continued to contribute to other projects. He created music for the "Pokémon Sword and Shield" games, demonstrating his continued involvement in the wider gaming industry. He also focused on maintaining and updating "Undertale" and engaging with its passionate community.
"Deltarune" Chapter 1 Release
October 31, 2018
Toby Fox surprised fans with the release of the first chapter of "Deltarune", a new project described as not being a direct sequel to "Undertale". The release was unexpected and generated immense excitement. The demo demonstrated an evolution in his game design, with more complex battle mechanics and a similarly compelling narrative, building anticipation for future chapters.
"Deltarune" Chapters 2 Released
September 17, 2021
Toby Fox released "Deltarune" Chapter 2. Chapter 2 was released for free, like Chapter 1, with the promise that the following chapters would come at a price. While the world had to wait a few more years, many fans enjoyed finally getting to continue the adventure. The game had a significant impact on the gaming community again, receiving high praise for its story, characters, music, and humor. It generated immense discussions and fan theories, similar to those surrounding "Undertale".
Fox's early work consisted primarily of composing music, notably for the webcomicHomestuck. Following the success of Undertale, he went on to compose music for a number of other indie games. Other notable works include contributing to the soundtracks of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the Pokémon video games.
Fox has described himself as being mesmerised by the music and atmosphere of Final Fantasy VI. Other Japanese role-playing games, such as EarthBound, Secret of Mana and Super Mario RPG served as major inspirations; Fox looked up to Yoko Shimomura's works in particular. Her song "Megalomania" for the game Live A Live was particularly inspiring for Fox, and he originally intended to use an EarthBound-themed cover of the song in a game, but he got tired of transcribing it and eventually made a new song called "Megalovania".[5]
In middle school, he discovered the Touhou Project series when he downloaded the demos for the sixth and seventh games in the series. He played a piano rendition of the Touhou Project track "Necrofantasia" at his church's summer camp. He was inspired by Touhou's philosophy of not giving up on a game simply to hear the music.[6]
Fox's earliest experiences in game development involved using RPG Maker 2000 with his three brothers to make role-playing games and creating ROM hacks in high school.[7][8] His most notable early project was the EarthBound Halloween Hack,[9][10] a Halloween-themed ROM hack of EarthBound, which released in 2008. He then moved on to compose a variety of music for Andrew Hussie's 2009 webcomic Homestuck during his senior year of high school. Though he did not initially respond when Hussie started a Music Contribution Team in April 2009 and put up a news post asking composers to participate, Hussie took note of his work when Fox started uploading piano covers of the webcomic's music on the MS Paint Adventures forums.[11][4]
Fox was production coordinator of Homestuck's soundtrack until its conclusion in 2016, composing music including a version of "Megalovania"; he credited this with giving him experience with digital audio workstation software.[11][12][4] Additionally, he has stated in a tribute post to musician George Buzinkai that tracks such as the unused Homestuck theme called "Patient" inspired Undertale themes such as "Another Medium". In particular, his remix of Buzinkai's song Doctor, titled "Savior of the Waking World", was a "turning point" in his musical journey; it was used as the background music for a major moment in the fifth act of Homestuck.[13]
Fox's most well-known work is the 2015 role-playing video gameUndertale, which he also composed the soundtrack for.[1] The game sold more than 1 million copies,[14] becoming a "breakout hit" and "pop-culture phenomenon".[15] Fox worked on the entire game independently, besides the art assets—which he asked Temmie (Tuyoki) Chang to help with—to avoid relying on others.[16] He thought of the character designs and ideas for Undertale while in college, where he drew them in his notebook.[17]
Close-up of the face sprite of the "Annoying Dog" from Undertale, which is a self-insertion of Fox
Following its release, Undertale garnered an extensive fanbase.[18][19] Fox commented that he did not mind if people stated that they did not like the game, saying that it was "not for everyone".[19] Despite Undertale's awards and widespread acclaim, Fox wrote that his personal opinion was that the game was still "niche" and deserved an "8/10" review score.[18][20]
In 2016, Fox released a number of unused musical tracks from Undertale.[21] He also became a contributor to the A Profound Waste of Time magazine.[22] Fox was then chosen to be part of the 2018 Games Forbes 30 Under 30 list for his role in creating Undertale; by then the game had sold over 2 million copies.[23]
The success of Undertale, especially in Japan, afforded Fox the opportunity to visit Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai at his home, where they discussed the series and played Super Smash Bros. Ultimate against each other, and the two reportedly had a very similar skill level, trading wins and losses equally. Sans, a character from Undertale, was later included in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a Mii costume available through downloadable content, along with an instrumental composition "Megalovania", for which Fox provided a new arrangement.[24][25][26]
On October 30, 2018, Fox tweeted a request for fans of Undertale to check the game's official Twitter account in 24 hours. The following day, Fox released the first chapter of the followup to Undertale, named Deltarune for free under the guise of a "survey".[27][28] On November 1, Fox shared more details regarding the game, including that the rest of the chapters were expected to release simultaneously, but work had not yet started, and there was no estimated timeframe for completion.[29] Fox also stated that he had been working on the project since 2012, and that the idea for Undertale developed from Deltarune during production.[29][30] On June 12, 2019, as only the first chapter of Deltarune had been playable for several months, Fox expressed on his Twitter account he had hope he would complete the rest of Deltarune, saying: "Slowly I'm writing and drawing it all out."[31] He stated that he had written "about 50 songs past Chapter 1".[32]
On September 17, 2021, Fox released the second chapter of Deltarune for free since "the world has been really tough for everybody recently", referring to the struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic. He released the next two chapters, bundled in with the first two, as a paid game on June 4, 2025.[33][34][35][36] He is currently working on Chapter 5,[37] which is set to release in 2026.[38]
In 2024, he partnered with Japanese game developer ZUN for the game Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost, which included a track that combined the Touhou song "U.N - Owen Was Her?" with the Undyne battle song "Battle Against a True Hero" from Undertale as "U.N. - Owen Was Hero?".[45] In September of the same year, he announced a new partnership for the same game on YouTube. The video contains a very brief preview of the song, which appears to be based on "Megalovania".[46]
Fox is secretive and does not typically do interviews.[1][47] He has chronic wrist and hand pain that regularly disables him from programming and composing, and often relies on speech-to-text software as his computer input method. In September 2020, Fox cited a flare-up of this pain as a factor in the delayed development of Deltarune's second chapter.[4][48]
^Roach, James (December 4, 2019). "'yeah, it is'". tumblr. Archived from the original on August 20, 2023. Retrieved August 20, 2023. the title is meant to answer the question you ask while listening 'is this... megalovania?' then you go and check the track in the credits and it gives you your answer.
This is a community hub built on top of the Toby Fox Wikipedia article. Here, you can discuss, collect, and organize anything related to Toby Fox. The purpose of the hub is to connect people, foster deeper knowledge, and help improve the root Wikipedia article.
This is a community hub built on top of the Toby Fox Wikipedia article. Here, you can discuss, collect, and organize anything related to Toby Fox. The purpose of the hub is to connect people, foster deeper knowledge, and help improve the root Wikipedia article.
