Greg Johnson

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, Kung Fu Panda World (2010), and Doki-Doki Universe (2013).

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. 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").

ToeJam & Earl 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".

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. 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 Starflight 2, "Game of the Year" award from Computer Gaming World magazine. Complex magazine: ToeJam & Earl listed at #55 on "The 100 Best Sega Genesis Games" Mega listed ToeJam & Earl at #13 on its list of the best games of all time.

Game credits

Designer Starflight (1986, Electronic Arts)