ToeJam & Earl Productions, Inc. (1989–2003) was an American

video game company The video game industry is the tertiary and quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the development, marketing, distribution, monetization, and consumer feedback of video games. The industry encompasses dozens ...

founded by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

developers Mark Voorsanger and Greg Johnson. Their best-known titles were '' Orly's Draw-A-Story'' (1996, Broderbund), and three games in the ''

ToeJam & Earl ''ToeJam & Earl'' is a 1991 action video game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions and published by Sega for the Genesis console. It centers on ToeJam and Earl— alien rappers who have crash-landed on Earth—as they attempt to escape th ...

'' series (1991–2003, Sega).

History

Initially the company was known simply as Johnson Voorsanger Productions, or just "JVP" as they were credited in the original ''

'' and in its sequel '' Panic on Funkotron''. After the success of the ToeJam & Earl games, the company was renamed to ToeJam & Earl Productions, Inc.. JVP introduced the ''ToeJam & Earl'' series with the original ''ToeJam & Earl'', followed by '' Ready-Aim-Tomatoes'' (a mini-game for Sega's light-gun The Menacer), and the platformer-sequel ''ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron''. Each was developed exclusively for the

Mega Drive/Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

and published by

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

. The third title in the series was '' ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth'' (2003), co-developed by

Visual Concepts Visual Concepts Entertainment is an American video game developer based in Novato, California. Founded in May 1988, the company is best known for developing Sports video game, sports games in the ''2K'' franchise, most recently ''NBA 2K'' and ' ...

for the original

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

. ToeJam & Earl Productions also created '' Orly's Draw-A-Story'', a CD-ROM for kids ages five to ten. ''Orly's Draw-A-Story'' was designed for PCs and Macs, and was published by

Broderbund Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits '' Choplifter'', '' Lode Runner'', '' Karateka'', and ...

Disbandment

After poor sales of '' ToeJam & Earl III'', the company disbanded in 2003. Mark Voorsanger went on to produce other Electronic Arts games for a few years, and then left the game industry to run a coaching business, Skyward Coaching, out of the same building where ToeJam & Earl Productions was located. Greg Johnson continued as an independent game design consultant, then started his own video game development studio called HumaNature Studios, and currently owns the ''ToeJam & Earl'' intellectual property rights. His studio has developed and published multiple games, such as 2014's '' Doki-Doki Universe'', which resembles some elements from the ''ToeJam & Earl'' series. In February 2015, Johnson announced a new title from HumaNature Studios, '' ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove'', which was developed independently from Sega and

crowd-funded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

via

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

. The game revisits the format of the original game, featuring 2D character models on 3D worlds with overhead perspective, and supports both online and local multiplayer. The game exceeded its funding target of US$400,000 in March 2015, and later attracted additional funding from

Adult Swim Games Adult Swim Games (stylized as adult swim games; formerly Williams Street Games) is the video game publishing division of Adult Swim, a brand of The Cartoon Network, Inc. While Adult Swim had been publishing games since 2005, primarily based on t ...

. It was released on March 1, 2019, for all major current platforms.

References

External links

* Video game companies established in 1989 Video game companies disestablished in 2003 Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game development companies {{US-videogame-company-stub