John Tobias

John Tobias (born August 24, 1969 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American comic book artist, graphic designer and video game designer. Along with Ed Boon he is one of the creators of the Mortal Kombat fighting game series.

Tobias was an artist for The Real Ghostbusters comic book series before joining Midway Games. He worked on the original arcade version of Smash TV prior to the success of Mortal Kombat in 1992. Tobias developed the early Mortal Kombat series' storyline and designed the majority of the character roster from the early games in the series up until Mortal Kombat 4.

By the end of the 1990s, however, the MK series hit a low ebb. Tobias, along with other prominent Midway staff members, including Dave Michicich and Josh Tsui, left Midway in 2000 and formed Studio Gigante later that year. Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus, published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2003, was the first game Studio Gigante created, followed by WWE WrestleMania 21. Studio Gigante ceased operations in 2005 and Tobias now works as a consultant in the games industry. As of September 2012, he is employed by the social games studio Zynga.

Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat is a video game franchise originally developed by Midway Games' Chicago studio in 1992. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the Mortal Kombat development team was acquired by Warner Bros. and turned into NetherRealm Studios. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment currently owns the rights of the franchise and rebooted it in 2011.

The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but as that idea fell through, a fantasy-themed fighting game titled Mortal Kombat was created instead. The original game has spawned many sequels and has been spun off into several action-adventure games, films (animated and live-action with its own sequel), and television series (animated and live-action). Other spin-offs include comic book series, a card game and a live-action tour. Along with Capcom's Street Fighter and Bandai Namco's Tekken, Mortal Kombat has become one of the most successful fighting franchises in the history of video games.

Ed Boon

Edward J. "Ed" Boon (born February 22, 1964) is an American video game programmer and director who had been employed for over 15 years at Midway Games and since 2011 works for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in its subsidiary company NetherRealm Studios. Boon is best known for the widely popular Mortal Kombat series, which he created with John Tobias. He has a 4.8 average passenger rating on Uber.

Life and career

Boon was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and graduated high school at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

After graduation he was employed by Williams Entertainment in their pinball department, working on approximately 20 pinball games over the next two years.

He is the co-creator of the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, along with John Tobias, and served as the series' lead programmer, with Tobias the lead designer, until their partnership dissolved with Tobias' departure from Midway in 2000. Boon named series characters Sonya Blade and Tanya after his sisters Sonya and Tania, while another character, Noob Saibot, was named after Boon and Tobias' reversed surnames.

John

John is a common English name and surname:

John may also refer to:

People with the given name

Religious figures

Tobias

Tobias (Τοβίας) is a Greek version of the Hebrew biblical name "Toviyah" (טוביה), meaning "The goodness of God". It is a popular male given name in Germany, Scandinavia, the United States and amongst Jewish people. In English-speaking countries it is often shortened to Toby. In German, this name appears as Tobias or Tobi; in French (where it is mostly found among Protestants) as Tobie; and in Swedish as Tobbe. Tobias has also been a surname.

Biblical

Several people are called Tobias in The Bible:

Fiction, movies, and television