Toby Fox facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Toby Fox
An image of the Annoying Dog from Undertale, which Fox commonly uses for his public image
Born	Robert F. Fox (1991-10-11) October 11, 1991 (age 33) Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S.
Other names	Radiation FwugRadiation
Alma mater	Northeastern University
Occupation	Video game developer composer
Years active	2008–present
Works	Undertale, Deltarune

Robert F. "Toby" Fox (born October 11, 1991) is an American video game developer and composer. This means he creates video games and writes music for them. He is most famous for making the role-playing game Undertale. This game was very popular and won many awards.

Toby Fox also created Deltarune, which is a game connected to Undertale. It has many similar characters and ideas. Before making these games, Fox mostly wrote music. He composed music for the webcomic Homestuck. After Undertale became a big hit, he also wrote music for other indie games. He even helped with the music for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the Pokémon games.

Early Life

Robert F. Fox was born on October 11, 1991. He grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire. He has three brothers. Toby Fox went to Northeastern University. He studied environmental science there and finished his studies in 2014.

Career Highlights

Game Inspirations

When Toby Fox was a kid, he loved the music and feeling of Final Fantasy VI. Other Japanese role-playing games like EarthBound, Secret of Mana, and Super Mario RPG also gave him many ideas. He especially admired the music of Yoko Shimomura. Her song "Megalomania" from the game Live A Live was very inspiring to him. He first wanted to use a version of this song for an EarthBound-themed game. But he ended up creating a new song called "Megalovania" instead.

In middle school, he found the Touhou Project games. He liked how these games encouraged players to keep going just to hear the music. Fox even played a piano version of a Touhou Project song at a summer camp.

First Projects

Toby Fox's first well-known work was EarthBound Halloween Hack. This was a special Halloween version of the game EarthBound made in 2008. After that, he started writing music for Andrew Hussie's webcomic Homestuck. He began doing this in high school. Hussie noticed Fox's talent when he posted piano covers of the webcomic's music online.

Fox created many famous songs for Homestuck until 2016. These included different versions of "Megalovania" and "Descend". He said that some unused Homestuck songs inspired themes in Undertale.

Undertale Success

Fox's most famous game is Undertale, released in 2015. He also wrote all the music for it. The game sold over 1 million copies. It became a huge hit and a big part of pop culture. Toby Fox made almost the entire game by himself. Only the art was done by someone else, Temmie (Tuyoki) Chang.

Before Undertale, Fox had some experience making games. He used a program called RPG Maker 2000 with his brothers. They made role-playing games and EarthBound ROM hacks in high school. He thought of the characters and ideas for Undertale while he was in college. He drew them in his notebook.

After Undertale came out, it gained a huge number of fans. Fox said he didn't mind if people didn't like the game, as it was "not for everyone". Even with all its awards, Fox personally felt the game was "niche" and deserved an "8/10" score.

In 2016, Fox released some unused music from Undertale. He was also named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2018 for creating Undertale. By then, the game had sold over 2 million copies.

Because Undertale was so popular, especially in Japan, Fox got to meet Masahiro Sakurai. Sakurai is the creator of Super Smash Bros.. They played Super Smash Bros. Ultimate together. Later, Sans, a character from Undertale, was added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Players could get a Sans costume for their Mii character. The song "Megalovania" was also added, with a new version by Fox.

Deltarune Journey

On October 30, 2018, Toby Fox told Undertale fans to check the game's Twitter account. The next day, he released the first part of Deltarune for free. Deltarune is an anagram of "Undertale". He called it a "survey". Fox later shared that he had been working on Deltarune since 2012. He said the idea for Undertale actually came from Deltarune during its creation.

On September 17, 2021, Fox released the second part of Deltarune for free. He said he did this because "the world has been really tough for everybody recently," referring to the COVID-19 pandemic. He plans to release the next two parts together in 2025. These will cost money, more than Undertale.

Music Composing

Toby Fox has written music for many other games. These include the 2017 Homestuck game Hiveswap. He also composed for Escaped Chasm, a game by Undertale artist Temmie Chang. He wrote music for Game Freak's 2019 game Little Town Hero.

He also composed a song for Pokémon Sword and Shield. He wrote a vocal song for Itoki Hana's PRAY album. Fox also created several songs for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. He even remixed Ed Sheeran's song "Celestial" for a Scarlet and Violet expansion.

In 2024, he worked with Japanese game developer ZUN. They created a song for the game Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost. This song combined a Touhou song with the Undyne battle song from Undertale.

Personal Life

Toby Fox likes to keep his personal life private. He usually does not do interviews. He has chronic wrist and hand pain. This pain often stops him from programming and composing music. In September 2020, he said this pain was why Deltarune's second part was delayed.

Works

Games He Made

Guest Composer Roles

• Hiveswap Friendsim (2018)
• YIIK: A Postmodern RPG (2019)
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2019) - DLC only
• Pesterquest (2019)
• Pokémon Sword and Shield (2019)
• Omori (2020) - jukebox music only
• beatmania IIDX 30 RESIDENT (2022)
• Mr. Saitou (2023)
• Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost (2024)
• Fields of Mistria (2024)
• Chunithm Verse (2024)

Other Projects