Thomas Charles Fulp (born April 30, 1978) is an American programmer and flash animator. He created the website Newgrounds and co-founded the video game company The Behemoth.
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. Fulp is also known for his browser game preservation work.
Biography
Fulp was born and raised in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, on April 30, 1978. In 1991, at age 13, 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. 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.
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".
Fulp co-created the Flash game Alien Hominid, which he later developed for consoles under The Behemoth, and the console game Castle Crashers.
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.
Games Year Title1997Club A Seal1998Telebubby Fun Land1999Beat up Backstreet Boys!1999Nene Interactive Suicide 1999 Pico's School1999Samurai Asshole1999UFA1999Pico vs Bear2000Pico vs. Überkids2001Disorderly 2002 Alien Hominid2002Chainsaw The Children2005Dad 'n Me2006Resident Pico 2008 Castle Crashers 2010 The Room Tribute 2013 BattleBlock Theater 2018 Pit People 2021 Drop Cannon 2023 Alien Hominid Invasion
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