Tom Fulp

Last updated

Tom Fulp
Tom Fulp (cropped).jpg
Fulp in 2024
Born (1978-04-30) April 30, 1978 (age 46)
Alma mater Drexel University
OccupationProgrammer
Known for
Spouse
April Fulp
(m. 2007)
Children2

Thomas Charles Fulp (born April 30, 1978) is an American programmer known for creating the website Newgrounds and co-founding the video game company The Behemoth. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Fulp has been credited with "changing the landscape of the Internet forever" by kickstarting the browser game scene in the late 1990s, both with the releases of his own advanced Flash games and the launch of the Newgrounds Portal, one of the first sites that allowed creators to easily share their creations with a large online audience. [4] [5] [6] [3] Fulp is also notable for his browser game preservation work. [7]

Biography

Fulp (left) with the Behemoth in 2007 The Behemoth (2007).jpg
Fulp (left) with the Behemoth in 2007

Fulp was born and raised in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, on April 30, 1978. In 1991, Fulp launched a Neo Geo fanzine called New Ground and sent issues to approximately 100 members of a club originating on the online service Prodigy. [8] Using a hosting service, he launched a website called New Ground Remix in 1995, which increased in popularity during the summer of 1996 after Fulp created the BBS games Club a Seal and Assassin, after graduating from Pennridge High School. Eventually, this site turned into Newgrounds.com. [9] [10]

In 1999, Fulp created the game Pico's School in Macromedia Flash 3, before the launch of the scripting language ActionScript that subsequent Flash game developers would use. The game "exhibited a complexity of design and polish in presentation that was virtually unseen in amateur Flash game development" until then and has been credited both with helping kickstarting the Flash games scene and launching Newgrounds as a "public force". [11] [12]

Fulp co-created the Flash game Alien Hominid , which he later developed for consoles under The Behemoth, and the console game Castle Crashers . [13] [14]

Fulp received the Pioneer award at the 2021 Game Developers Choice Awards for the creation of Newgrounds and for being a trailblazer of the Macromedia Flash games that helped define a generation of indie developers. [5] [6]

Games

YearTitle
1999 Pico's School
2002 Alien Hominid
2008 Castle Crashers
2010 The Room Tribute
2013 BattleBlock Theater
2018 Pit People

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Flash</span> Discontinued multimedia platform used to add animation and interactivity to websites

Adobe Flash is a discontinued multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich internet applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Browser game</span> Video game played in a web browser

A browser game is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Alternative names for the browser game genre reference their software platform used, with common examples being Flash games, and HTML5 games.

Newgrounds is an American company and entertainment website founded by Tom Fulp in 1995. The site hosts user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork. Fulp produces in-house content at the headquarters and offices in Glenside, Pennsylvania.

SWF is a defunct Adobe Flash file format that was used for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Shockwave</span> Multimedia platform

Adobe Shockwave is a discontinued multimedia platform for building interactive multimedia applications and video games. Developers originate content using Adobe Director and publish it on the Internet. Such content could be viewed in a web browser on any computer with the Shockwave Player plug-in installed. MacroMind originated the technology; Macromedia acquired MacroMind and developed it further, releasing Shockwave Player in 1995. Adobe then acquired Shockwave with Macromedia in 2005. Shockwave supports raster graphics, basic vector graphics, 3D graphics, audio, and an embedded scripting language called Lingo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stick figure</span> Simplistic drawing of a person

A stick figure is a very simple drawing of a human or other animal, in which the limbs and torso are represented using straight lines. The head is most often represented by a circle, which can be filled or unfilled. Details such as hands, feet, and a neck may be present or absent, and the head is sometimes embellished with details such as facial features or hair. Simpler stick figures often display disproportionate physical features and ambiguous emotion.

<i>Alien Hominid</i> 2004 video game

Alien Hominid is a run and gun video game developed by The Behemoth and first released as a Flash game on the multimedia website Newgrounds on August 7, 2002. It was originally developed in Adobe Flash by programmer and Newgrounds founder, Tom Fulp, and animator and artist, Dan Paladin. It has since been re-released in several expanded and enhanced iterations for home consoles and computers.

The Behemoth is an American video game development company that was founded in 2003 by John Baez, artist Dan Paladin, and programmers Tom Fulp, Brandon LaCava, and Nick Dryburgh. Dryburgh and LaCava later left the company. The Behemoth development studio is located in San Diego, California. The company is known for producing simple games with Paladin's signature 2D style. Its games are also known for their heavy arcade inspirations, especially among their early games, emulating genres common on the Neo Geo in particular.

Adobe Flash Player is a discontinued computer program for viewing multimedia content, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video content created on the Adobe Flash platform. It can run from a web browser as a browser plug-in or independently on supported devices. Originally created by FutureWave under the name FutureSplash Player, it was renamed to Macromedia Flash Player after Macromedia acquired FutureWave in 1996. After Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, it was developed and distributed by Adobe as Adobe Flash Player. It is currently developed and distributed by Zhongcheng for users in China, and by Harman International for enterprise users outside of China, in collaboration with Adobe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Director</span> Deprecated multimedia application authoring platform

Adobe Director was a multimedia application authoring platform created by Macromedia and managed by Adobe Systems until its discontinuation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Paladin</span> American video game developer (born 1979)

Daniel Joseph Paladin, also known as Synj, is an American video game artist, designer, and co-founder of the video game company The Behemoth.

Fancy Pants is a series of free side-scrolling Flash games created by American developer Brad Borne. Four worlds have been released so far. World 1 was released on March 14, 2006 and World 2 was released on January 9, 2008. After the 2009 Comic-Con, Borne announced he would officially start working on World 3. It was released on April 5, 2012. A console version developed by Borne and Over the Top Games was released by EA 2D for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade on April 19 and April 20, 2011, respectively. An iOS version developed by Chillingo, Over the Top Games and Borne Games was released on the Apple App Store on March 4, 2012, with an Android version released on May 22, 2017. In 2017, Brad Borne made a fourth entry, Super Fancy Pants Adventure, which was later ported to Adobe Flash in 2020 as World 4.

<i>Flash Element TD</i> 2007 video game

Flash Element TD is a Flash-based tower defense browser game created by American developer David Scott and launched in January 2007. The game had been played over 140 million times as of March 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Shockwave Player</span> Software plug-in for viewing multimedia and video games

Adobe Shockwave Player was a freeware software plug-in for viewing multimedia and video games created on the Adobe Shockwave platform in web pages. Content was developed with Adobe Director and published on the Internet. Such content could be viewed in a web browser on any computer with the Shockwave Player plug-in installed. It was first developed by Macromedia and released in 1995; it was later acquired by Adobe Systems in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thoughts on Flash</span> Open letter published by Steve Jobs

"Thoughts on Flash" is an open letter published by Steve Jobs, co-founder and then-chief executive officer of Apple Inc., on April 29, 2010. The letter criticizes Adobe Systems' Flash platform and outlines reasons why the technology would not be allowed on Apple's iOS hardware products. The letter drew accusations of falsehood, hypocrisy, and ulterior motive. In retrospect many publications came to agree with Jobs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SFB Games</span> British video game developer

SFB Games Limited is a British video game developer based in London. The studio was established in 2002 by brothers Tom and Adam Vian, who, as "The Super Flash Bros.", produced browser games and animations in Adobe Flash for websites such as Newgrounds and Armor Games. At SFB Games, Tom acts as technical director, while Adam occupies the role of creative director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruffle (software)</span> Open source emulator for Adobe Flash

Ruffle is a free and open source emulator for playing Adobe Flash (SWF) animation files.

The 21st Game Developers Choice Awards was an annual awards ceremony by Game Developers Choice Awards for outstanding game developers and video games held on July 21, 2021. The awards ceremony was held alongside the Independent Games Festival awards, with both events presented through virtual streaming video due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Hades was named as Game of the Year.

<i>Picos School</i> 1999 Flash game

Pico's School is a 1999 Flash game developed by Tom Fulp for his website Newgrounds. At the time of its release, it was "one of the most sophisticated" browser games, exhibiting "a complexity of design and polish in presentation that [was] virtually unseen in amateur Flash game development". It has been widely credited with kickstarting the Flash games scene and helping launch Newgrounds "as a public force".

<i>Nightmare Cops</i> Upcoming video game developed by Newgrounds

Nightmare Cops is an upcoming 2D platforming brawler video game developed by Tom Fulp and Jeff "JohnnyUtah" Bandelin under Newgrounds. The game takes place in a town overseen by a police force tasked with entering and combating the inhabitants' nightmares. The game has seen an over 10 year long development cycle and has no tentative release date currently set, however as of 2024, development is more than halfway to completion according to the development team.

References

  1. Torres, Nichole L. (July 1, 2008). "Get in the Game". The Washington Post . Retrieved March 25, 2009.
  2. Wolf, Mark J. P. (2008). The Video Game Explosion: A History from Pong to PlayStation and Beyond. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 197. ISBN   978-0-313-33868-7.
  3. 1 2 Asarch, Steven (April 6, 2020). "20 years ago today, Newgrounds changed the internet forever with the Portal". Newsweek.
  4. Moss, Richard C. (July 7, 2020). "The rise and fall of Adobe Flash". Ars Technica. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Tom Fulp and Laralyn McWilliams to be honored at 2021 Game Developers Choice Awards". Game Developers Conference. July 1, 2021.
  6. 1 2 Partis, Danielle (July 22, 2021). "Hades and Ghost of Tsushima triumph at GDC Awards 2021". GamesIndustry.biz.
  7. Elker, Jhaan (April 8, 2021). "Newgrounds founder Tom Fulp on Flash and the challenges of preserving two decades of content". The Washington Post . Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  8. "1991: The Zine". Newgrounds. Archived from the original on March 31, 2021. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  9. "#105 At World's End - Reply All by Gimlet Media". gimletmedia.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2017. Retrieved September 25, 2017.
  10. Fulp, Tom. "NEWGROUNDS WIKI: TomFulp". Newgrounds . Retrieved April 30, 2011.
  11. Williams, Andrew (2017). History of Digital Games: Developments in Art, Design and Interaction. The objective of Pico's school was to survive a school shooting perpetuated by ninjas and aliens disguised as Goth teenagers. Despite the game's theme, which pushed the limits of black humor and political correctness (like much of the content on Newgrounds), it exhibited a complexity of design and polish in presentation that was virtually unseen in amateur Flash game development.
  12. Staff, Ars (July 7, 2020). "The rise and fall of Adobe Flash". Ars Technica. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  13. Remo, Chris (July 30, 2007). "Comic-Con 07: Castle Crashers Preview and Interview with The Behemoth's Tom Fulp". Shacknews . Retrieved March 25, 2009.
  14. Remo, Chris; Sheffield, Brandon (December 12, 2008). "Taunting The Behemoth: Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin Cry Out". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on August 23, 2021. Retrieved July 21, 2021.