Greg Johnson (game designer)

Last updated

Greg Johnson
Born1960 (age 63–64)
Passaic, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Colorado College
University of California, San Diego
OccupationGame designer
Notable work Starflight , Starflight 2 , ToeJam & Earl series
SpouseSirena Johnson
Children2
Website http://humanaturestudios.com

Greg Johnson (born 1960) is an American video game designer known for the ToeJam & Earl and Starflight games. He has worked for Binary Systems and Electronic Arts and co-founded ToeJam & Earl Productions with Mark Voorsange. In 2006, he founded HumaNature Studios. His game credits include Orly's Draw-A-Story (1997), Kung Fu Panda World (2010), and Doki-Doki Universe (2013).

Contents

Early life

Johnson was born in Passaic, New Jersey to an African-American father and a Jewish mother whose family had escaped Russia during World War II. [1] He is one of five children, three of whom are step-siblings. His mother was an administrator for a special education school, and his father was a professor of philosophy and musicology. When Johnson was three, his parents separated and his mother moved the family to Los Angeles, where, when Johnson was 12, his mother married a child psychologist who became Johnson's stepfather. Johnson attended Alexander Hamilton High School, and then Colorado College, where he learned his first programming language, Fortran. There, he designed a simple sword fight simulator (which he later called "boring as hell"). [2] After Colorado College, he went on to the University of California, San Diego, studying biolinguistics. [2] [3] It was while at university that he first played the influential dungeon crawler video game Rogue , which influenced many of his later works. [2]

Electronic Arts

Johnson made ends meet by providing graphics for software such as Deluxe Paint, and was also hired by Binary Systems, though with minimal pay. He was living off money loaned to him by a friend, to whom he promised a cut of royalties from his first game. The game's development was never assured and it was almost cancelled several times, but eventually, with the help of Electronic Arts producer Joe Ybarra, the game Starflight was released in 1986 to positive reviews, and sales which continued to climb for the next year (and Johnson's friend got quadruple his money back). Johnson then continued to work for Electronic Arts, at the time a small company with about 30 employees, contributing graphics to titles such as Adventure Construction Set and F/A 18 Interceptor. [2] In 1988, following a suggestion by EA's Bing Gordon, Johnson designed the quirky four-player game Caveman Ughlympics .

In 1989, Johnson was introduced to programmer Mark Voorsanger, and they began working on two games, Starflight 2 , and an even quirkier title than Caveman, ToeJam & Earl . Starflight 2 was published by Electronic Arts, and won the "Game of the Year" award from Computer Gaming World magazine. [4]

ToeJam & Earl Productions

Company logo for ToeJam and Earl Productions (also called JVP Productions) ToeJam & Earl Productions companyLogo.jpg
Company logo for ToeJam and Earl Productions (also called JVP Productions)

Following the success of the Starflight games, Johnson and Voorsanger formed a new company, Johnson Voorsanger Productions (JVP), to focus on ToeJam & Earl , which they pitched as a 2-player game to Sega of America. ToeJam borrowed the randomization ideas of Rogue and followed the adventures of two aliens who crashlanded on a zany planet, where they were chased by quirky adversaries such as a "nerd herd" and "killer ice cream truck". [2] [4] The game was published in 1991 to positive reviews, but sales were sluggish and the game was branded a flop. It turned into a sleeper hit though, sales continued to climb, and it developed a cult following. It eventually became known as one of the classics of the Sega line, and as of 2015, was routinely voted as the Sega title that fans would most like to see return.

JVP's next game was a sequel to ToeJam, also published through Sega. The first design was scrapped by Sega because of concerns on how to market the game, so ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron was eventually released in 1993, as a 2D side-scroller. It received positive reviews, but there was a backlash from fans who did not like the new side-scrolling format.

Johnson & Voorsanger then renamed their company as "ToeJam & Earl Productions", and worked on other projects, such as an educational game for Broderbund Software. In 1998, Johnson became Creative Director for the software company ePlanet, Inc., [5] and also for Ububu, a San Francisco-based startup. None of their products were ever released, though some got fairly far along in the design process, such as ePlanet's Freeblenux, a game where a virtual alien character could interact with the player through a camera on top of the monitor.

In 2002, Johnson & Voorsanger again worked with Sega to release a third version of the ToeJam series, ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth . It went back to the original perspective format, added a third character Latisha, and was published as a 3D game on Xbox, receiving generally favorable reviews, though sales did not meet expectations, and Voorsanger and Johnson then parted ways. Voorsanger went back to Electronic Arts as a producer for a period of time, leaving for Leapfrog as a producer for a while longer, but then left the game industry around 2005 to become a business consultant; staying in the same office as TJ&E Productions, under a new company called "Wayward Consulting". Johnson continued as a solo designer, initially as a consultant for multiple game companies, such as working with Will Wright on The Sims 2 , giving advice on how to make the characters more believable, and how to link the different sections of Spore into something coherent. He also wrote a series of white papers for the Leapfrog company, and worked briefly with Jonathan Sari at a startup called Multiversal Entertainment in 2005, trying to design interactive movie-like stories.

HumaNature Studios

In 2006, Johnson founded his own studio, HumaNature Studios, and built a team to work on the game What's Your Type for Konami, a project he had been working on since 2004. Intended for the Nintendo DS, the game was fully completed but Konami chose to never publish it, and the rights eventually reverted to Johnson. In the meantime, he continued as an independent designer, such as with a group in Oregon that was researching dinosaur movement, Kalbridge Games, and worked with them to release the game Save the Dinos in 2007. He then re-focused his studio on a game to complement the hit movie Kung Fu Panda , working with DreamWorks Animation to build Kung Fu Panda World , released in 2010. Then, based on the design for the earlier unreleased Konami game, Johnson released two Facebook apps in 2012, Deko-Deko Mail and Deko Deko-Quiz, followed by Doki-Doki Universe in 2013, a first-party title with Sony for the PlayStation console. [3] [6]

In February 2015, Johnson announced a new title, ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove , which was being developed independently from Sega and instead being funded by Kickstarter. The game revisits the format of the original game, featuring 2D character models on 3D worlds with overhead perspective, and is planned to support online multiplayer. The game sought a funding target of US$400,000 by March 27, 2015. [7] As of March 25, 2015, they had reached their target and were funded to finish development of Back in the Groove, which was released in 2019.

Awards

Game credits

Designer

Graphics

Johnson provided graphics for:

Writing

Related Research Articles

<i>Starflight</i> 1986 video game

Starflight is a space exploration, combat, and trading role-playing video game created by Binary Systems and published by Electronic Arts in 1986. Originally developed for IBM PC compatibles, it was later ported to the Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh, and Commodore 64. A fully revamped version of the game was released for the Sega Genesis in 1991.

A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with video games, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport, whilst others emphasize strategy and sport management. Some, such as Need for Speed, Arch Rivals and Punch-Out!!, satirize the sport for comic effect. This genre has been popular throughout the history of video games and is competitive, just like real-world sports. A number of game series feature the names and characteristics of real teams and players, and are updated annually to reflect real-world changes. The sports genre is one of the oldest genres in gaming history.

<i>Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula</i> 1989 video game

Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula is a 1989 science fiction video game developed by Binary Systems and published by Electronic Arts as the sequel to the successful Starflight. It features a combination of space exploration, role-playing and strategy within a futuristic setting. The player commands a spaceship capable of traveling to the game world's 150 solar systems, communicating with or attacking other spaceships, and landing on planetary surfaces which may be explored with a crewed rover for plot clues, minerals and alien lifeforms. Game mechanics and the overall look and feel closely resemble the earlier Starflight game, but many new features are introduced including an interstellar trade-based economy, new sentient alien races, and new spacecraft accessories and artifacts. The player is tasked with discovering the ultimate source of the advanced spacecraft technology and unlimited fuel supply which provide a military advantage to the Spemin, a hostile alien race threatening to annihilate or enslave humanity. A major part of the game consists of earning enough money to pay for spaceship upgrades and crew training by engaging in interstellar trade and barter with various alien cultures at their planetary trading posts.

<i>Batman Returns</i> (video games) 1992 video game

Batman Returns is the name of several video games for various platforms based on the 1992 film of the same name.

<i>Kung-Fu Master</i> (video game) 1984 video game

Kung-Fu Master, known as Spartan X in Japan, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game developed by Irem as an arcade game in 1984, and distributed by Data East in North America. Designed by Takashi Nishiyama, the game was based on Hong Kong martial arts films. It is a loose adaptation of the Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao film Wheels on Meals (1984), called Spartan X in Japan, with the protagonist Thomas named after Jackie Chan's character in the film. The game is also heavily inspired by the Bruce Lee film Game of Death (1972), which was the basis for the game's concept. Nishiyama, who had previously designed the side-scrolling shooter Moon Patrol (1982), combined fighting elements with a shoot 'em up gameplay rhythm. Irem and Data East exported the game to the West without the Spartan X license.

<i>Lethal Enforcers</i> 1992 video game

Lethal Enforcers is a 1992 light gun shooter released as an arcade video game by Konami. The graphics consist entirely of digitized photographs and digitized sprites. Home versions were released for the Super NES, Genesis and Sega CD during the following year and include a revolver-shaped light gun known as The Justifier.

<i>ToeJam & Earl</i> 1991 video game

ToeJam & Earl is an action game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions and published by Sega for the Genesis console. Released in 1991, it centers on ToeJam and Earl—alien rappers who have crash-landed on Earth. As they attempt to escape the planet, players assume the role of either character and collect pieces of their wrecked spacecraft. It references and parodies 1980s and early 90s urban culture and is set to a funk soundtrack. ToeJam & Earl's design was heavily influenced by the role-playing video game Rogue (1980) and derived various features from the game, such as the random generation of levels and items. As such, ToeJam & Earl is often considered to be an example of a roguelike game.

<i>Yie Ar Kung-Fu</i> 1984 video game

Yie Ar Kung-Fu is an arcade fighting game developed and published by Konami. It first had a limited Japanese release in October 1984, before having a wide release nationwide in January 1985 and then internationally in March. Along with Karate Champ (1984), which influenced Yie-Ar Kung Fu, it is one of the games that established the basis for modern fighting games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menacer</span> Video game accessory

The Menacer is a light gun peripheral released by Sega in 1992 for its Sega Genesis and Sega CD video game consoles. It was created in response to Nintendo's Super Scope and as Sega's successor to the Master System Light Phaser. The gun is built from three detachable parts, and communicates with the television via an infrared sensor. The Menacer was announced at the May 1992 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago and was released later that year. The gun was bundled with a pack-in six-game cartridge of mostly shooting gallery games. Sega also released a Menacer bundle with Terminator 2: The Arcade Game.

<i>Kung Fu Panda</i> (film) 2008 DreamWorks Animation film

Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American animated martial arts comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The first installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, it was directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne in their feature directorial debuts, and written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger from a story by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris. The film stars the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Dan Fogler, Michael Clarke Duncan and Jackie Chan. The film, set in a version of ancient China populated by anthropomorphic animals, centers on a bumbling panda named Po (Black), a kung-fu enthusiast. When a notorious snow-leopard named Tai Lung (McShane) is foretold to escape at Chorh-Gom Prison, Po is unwittingly named the "Dragon Warrior", a prophesied hero worthy of reading a scroll that has been intended to grant its reader limitless power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ToeJam & Earl Productions</span> American video game developer

ToeJam & Earl Productions, Inc. (1989–2003) was an American video game company founded by Electronic Arts developers Mark Voorsanger and Greg Johnson. Their best-known titles were Orly's Draw-A-Story, and three games in the ToeJam & Earl series.

<i>Art Alive!</i> 1992 video game

Art Alive! is a paint program released by Sega for the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Genesis in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erin Hoffman</span> American game developer, blogger and fantasy writer

Erin Hoffman is an American game developer, blogger, and fantasy writer. She has published three fantasy novels, and been the lead designer on multiple games such as Kung Fu Panda World, GoPets: Vacation Island, and Frontierville. Her anonymous post as a disgruntled "EA Spouse" in 2004, based on the working conditions of her husband who was an Electronic Arts developer, led to industry-wide awareness of the frequent use of "crunch time" overtime work to complete games in the video game industry.

<i>ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron</i> 1993 video game

ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron is a platform video game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions and published by Sega in 1993 for the Sega Genesis. The game is the sequel to cult video game ToeJam & Earl, released in 1991. The game concerns two alien protagonists, ToeJam and Earl, both of whom have escaped from Earth, where they had crash landed. After returning to their home planet of Funkotron, the duo discover a number of antagonistic Earthlings have stowed away on the spacecraft and are wreaking havoc across the planet. The player must hunt down these Earthlings and imprison them in jars before sending them back to Earth.

<i>ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth</i> 2002 video game

ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth is an action video game released for the Xbox on October 22, 2002. Developed by ToeJam & Earl Productions and Visual Concepts, and published by Sega, it is the third installment in the ToeJam & Earl series. Players assume the role of one of three extraterrestrial protagonists: ToeJam and Earl, who starred in the series' first two games, and Latisha, a new character. While using power-ups to combat enemies, players seek to collect the twelve "Sacred Albums of Funk" and defeat the antagonistic "Anti-Funk."

<i>Supreme Warrior</i> 1994 video game

Supreme Warrior is a full-motion video (FMV) beat 'em up game developed by Digital Pictures. It was released for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and Sega CD in November 1994 in North America and in early 1995 in Europe, with subsequent releases in 1995 for the 32X, Macintosh, and Windows. The game is themed as a kung fu film where the player has to fight off opponents to protect half of a magical mask.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M2 (game developer)</span> Video game developer

M2 Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher, best known for handling emulation of re-released games, such as some Sega Ages titles, Virtual Console titles for Nintendo systems, the 3D Classics series for the Nintendo 3DS and their ShotTriggers range of classic STG games. M2 has also created entirely new titles such as WiiWare games for Konami under the ReBirth moniker and more recently a new GG Aleste game. In addition, M2 currently holds the rights of Aleste series and all NEC Avenue and NEC Interchannel games on TurboGrafx-16 and variants, previously owned by Lightweight.

<i>ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove</i> 2019 video game

ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove is the fourth entry in the ToeJam & Earl series of video games. The game was developed by HumaNature Studios, founded by series creator Greg Johnson, and published by the studio on March 1, 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evan Wells</span> American video game designer

Evan Wells is an American video game designer and programmer and co-president of Naughty Dog. Wells' first video game was at Sega, where he worked on ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, before moving to Crystal Dynamics in 1995 to work on Gex and Gex: Enter the Gecko. He was employed at Naughty Dog in 1998, working on several Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter titles before becoming co-president of the company alongside Stephen White in 2005; White was replaced the following year by Christophe Balestra, who retired in 2017. The two oversaw the release of the Uncharted series, and The Last of Us. Wells remained the sole president, overseeing the release of The Last of Us Part II, until Neil Druckmann's promotion to co-president in 2020. Wells announced his retirement in 2023.

References

  1. ↑ "A conversation with ToeJam & Earl co-creator Greg Johnson". March 3, 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Wallis, Alistair (November 16, 2006). "Playing Catch Up: ToeJam & Earl's Greg Johnson". Gamasutra . Retrieved November 18, 2012.
  3. 1 2 Cork, Jeff (March 17, 2015). "Getting to know the man behind Toejam & Earl". Game Informer . Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 Jackson, Rhett Beauregard (September 1990). "The Rumor Bag" (PDF). Computer Gaming World . No. 74. p. 14.
  5. ↑ "About Us". ToeJam & Earl Productions. Archived from the original on March 5, 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Yin-Poole, Wesley (April 19, 2012). "Toejam and Earl designer making a PlayStation game". Eurogamer . Retrieved November 18, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove".
  8. ↑ GamesRadar Staff (August 24, 2014). "Best Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games of all time". GamesRadar . Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  9. ↑ Concepcion, Miguel (March 29, 2012). "The 100 Best Sega Genesis Games". Complex . Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  10. ↑ Stuart Campbell, "Mega All-Time Top 100", Mega , July 1992
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.