Toby Fox Net Worth (2024)
Lifestyle | Bio | Facts [UPDATED]

Toby Fox was born on October 11, 1991, in Boston Massachusetts and grew up in a typical middle-class family.

And like most kids, Toby grew up playing video games, especially role playing games.

But aside from that…

…Tobby’s also able to polish his musical skills. In fact, he knows a thing or two about composing a good piece of music, and this talent would be instrumental in jumpstarting his career early on in his life. 

Growing up, Toby and his brothers were big fans of Japanese games. 

If you’re a video game fan, you’d know that the Japanese are the master when it comes to banging games with cool storylines and graphics!

No wonder, these games inspired Toby early on, even with the earliest PC game that he had. And it proved to be an inspiration for his works in the future.

Wonder what Toby Fox’s favorite video game is?

Well, it’s not Tekken, Call of Duty, or any of the most popular original generation games that most people would expect a millennial game designer would have had.

Toby  Fox was obsessed with the Japanese adventure game called Earthbound.

This video game was a lesser-known one with just a few handfuls of fans and a small community.

Miffed at the game’s low popularity, Toby scoured the internet and found some communities of Earthbound fans like him. He became known by his alias “Radiation.’

And he wasn’t just a simple fan.

The future video game developer was also a very proactive fan.

In fact, he made acquaintances with other online gamers and teamed up with them to create new hacks for their favorite video game.

These hacks weren’t super explosive, and they’re amateur at best but have some very interesting and creative concepts.

Toby then sent them to different contests ran by the different Earthbound communities.

We’re not sure if he did win them, but one thing is for sure: it made his name more popular in the underground gaming community and got him a small following who will also eventually support him in building his very own video game.

Toby Fox as Video Game Developer

Toby, along with his brothers, had been trying their hands at making their own video game as early as 2000.

In case you’re wondering…

…yep, he was just 9 years old then!

Using the software called RPGmaker, Toby and his bros tried experimenting and exploring the world of game development and design, but nothing came out of it.

But hey, they were just children then.

That’s not his only gaming experience at that age, though.

Aside from making hacks for Earthbound and trying to design an RPG, Toby and his squad were also quite adept at getting their hands on games that are rare in the U.S.A.!

We’re talking about games that haven’t been released outside of Japan.

Whatever Toby did to be able to get them, he sure was doing something right because it proved to be beneficial to him and his future career and professional life.

These futuristic and highly advanced Japanese video games gave young Toby a peek at the future of video gaming and gave him more advantage than the average gamer or aspiring game developer in his time.

And finally.

In as early as 2012, Toby started working on his what would be the most epic and popular role playing video game.

Actually, it was quite the process and it took some time for Toby to develop his ideas.

And boy, he had many of ‘em!

And one of the main ideas he had was that he wanted the game to be different from the usual American video game. 

As expected…

…Toby took inspiration in Japanese video games such as Shin Megami Tensei where the main character can talk with the monster he’s about to battle with. 

And getting more and more out of the box because of his desire to make the game out of the ordinary, Toby thought of more ways to create a dynamic gaming experience for the users…such as having more options to face the opponents aside from the classic head to head battle.

In fact…

…he made it out to give the players repercussions whenever they resort to pure violence in killing the enemy.

Looking for Toby? There he is…. Out of the box!

Actually, Toby started creating the characters in his notebook while in college, and they developed over time, with Toby adding more and more functions and features to them.

The finished product turned out to be interesting and full of substance.

Most of the characters were designed to be fun parodies of the clichés that are most commonly found in many American video games of that time.

Then at the very center of the storyline, there’s a battle mechanism and the very dynamic motivations behind every character.

It’s as if they’re really alive!

Do you know what’s cooler?

This may sound like nothing new now, but Toby Fox was one of the pioneers of this gaming style.

The leading character wasn’t given a name. He’s just simply called “human” while the player is called “you.”

Toby’s goal with this was for the character to symbolize and represent the whole of humanity and for the players to connect with it not just mentally and not just for entertainment but on a deeper level, an emotional level.

And as a step further from the usual American gaming experience…

Toby wanted to avoid the very straight and traditional path most role playing games have, where the player is only required to do tasks after tasks to get to their final destination.

So aside from a branching storyline and challenges, Toby also left super subtle “Easter eggs” throughout the game for the players to discover by themselves or accidentally, to add to the realistically spontaneous feel of the game.

Can you spell GENIUS?

Toby finally finished the game with a demo version, but there’s just one problem.

He was young and he didn’t have the funds to develop it, let alone release it in the market.

Well, thankfully, Toby was quite an active participant in several online gaming communities online and offline so he’s able to make friends and acquaintances in the video gaming field.

Look at what passion can do!

So the very much inspired and determined Toby gave away the blueprint of his game to some of these friends and people in the gaming industry for them to test it out and give their testimonials.

As expected…

…his new game got positive feedback and great reviews!

But still, it wasn’t enough to fund the game.

So in 2013, Toby Fox launched a crowd-funding campaign for Undertale on Kickstarter. His target amount was $5000.

Yep, from $5000 to Toby Fox net worth that’s multi-million now.

In this campaign, Toby highlighted the features that make the game different from the others- and well, that’s quite a lot.

Now, this where you hold your horses.

With a target amount of $5,000, Toby was able to collet- wait for it- $51,124!

Yep, that’s like, more than 100%.

After collecting the funds, the young RPG maker started working on the game and improving it more, securing an epic gaming experience for the users. 

Finally…

In September 2015, Undertale was released commercially. It initially didn’t perform well but it soon picked up the pace and became a well-acclaimed game- commercially and critically!

Not even one year had passed and the game sold over 1 million copies. 

It also received awards and nominations such as The Game of the Year by Zero Punctuation and The Jimquisition as well as Rock, Paper, Shotgun game of the month in October 2015 and Destructoid’s Best PC Game. 

It became a “pop culture phenomenon and breakout hit instantly. 

In 2016, Undertale was also awarded the Audience Award at the Independent Games Festival.

And speaking of independent…

…Toby developed and designed the entire game independently, with just a couple of people to help him out, such as Temmie ‘Tuyoki’ Chang for the art assets.

The game Undertale soon had a sequel called Deltarune which Fox released exclusively in 2018 under the guise of a survey and by 2019, the game became playable.

Toby Fox music career

Well, no, he’s not a pop star- if that’s what you’re thinking.

Long before Undertale, Toby has been making piano covers that kickstarted his professional life in the musical industry.

Did you know?

Toby has been in the public domain since 2009. He composed music bits for American author and artist Andrew Hussie webcomic’s music called Homestuck.

Andrew Hussie himself actually discovered Toby through the young man’s piano covers of webcomic’s music on the MS Paint Adventure forums. 

Aside from doing music…

Toby also dipped his toes in graphic arts.

He did some illustrations for the Hobonichi Mother Project, as well as animations for Chip Tankai’s Hammerhead Shark Song.