Tommy Refenes is an American video game designer and programmer, best known for his work on the game Super Meat Boy, a platformer he co-created with designer Edmund McMillen.

The Super Meat Boy Tiger handheld app is pretty awful gameplay-wise, but that's kind of the point; for only 99 cents, you, too, can own the most mechanically uninteresting, comically inspired game. Super Meat Boy Handheld - A joke version of Super Meat Boy created for iPhone and iPad. Dec 02, 2010  Super Meat Boy is an extremely difficult game. Make the slightest mistake and you'll have to restart the stage over from the beginning - there are no checkpoints. You might die a hundred times.

Early life[edit]

Refenes began programming at the age of eleven, and has been doing so professionally since the age of 18,^[1] initially contracting for a website whose owner had threatened to sue him over a parody Flash game he had made.^[2] He dropped out of North Carolina State University; he later told gaming blog Brutal Gamer 'if you want to be a programmer, do not go to college.'^[3]

Career[edit]

Refenes started at Seventy - Two DPI in August 2001 where he managed their website and servers. In August 2003 he was hired by Learning Station, where he developed server software and applications in Flash, C++, PHP, and ASP. In July 2005 he decided to shift to the computer game field and went to work for the now defunct Streamline Studios, where he assisted in optimizing and porting the Unreal 2.x engine from the original Xbox to the Xbox 360,^[4] as well as assisting on the WiiWare title HoopWorld.^[5] In May 2006, Refenes and Aubrey Hesselgren, a game designer, founded the company Pillowfort. Their first effort was a game they dubbed Goo!. In 2008 Goo! won the grand prize for Best Threaded Game in the 2008 Intel Game Demo Contest, and took third place for Best Game on Intel Graphics.^[6] The game was canceled and Refenes left the studio in January 2009.

In 2009 he co-founded the company Team Meat with game and graphics designer Edmund McMillen, with Refenes acting as programmer and Co-CEO.^[7]Super Meat Boy is the only game they have published together, and they are not expected to work on more projects together. Though Team Meat does continue work on Super Meat Boy: Forever,^[8] McMillen has resigned from the team and is not expected to make a contribution to the project.^[9]

Apple App Store controversy[edit]

In March 2010 at the Game Developers Conference 2010, Refenes criticized Apple's App Store, calling it 'awful' and 'horrible' and likened its games to the crude Tiger Electronics games that were popular in the 1980s and '90s.^[10] Seven days after this speech was given, Apple pulled the game Zits & Giggles from the market.^[10] Refenes had developed the game and sold it through the App Store in order to satirize what he considered to be the nonsensical nature of the App Store. In response to its removal he and McMillen launched the Super Meat Boy Handheld on the App Store. The game adopted the art style and gameplay of the Tiger handheld series of games. As Refenes described it, 'Super Meat Boy Handheld is all the branding of Super Meat Boy, without the actual gameplay or art from Super Meat Boy...and all for ONLY A DOLLAR.'^[11]

Ludography[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abtimw (2008-04-21). 'The Weblog - Interview: Tommy Refenes (Goo!)'. indiegames.com. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
2. ^'Anonymous asked: What was the first programming job/contract you had? I've read you started professionally at 18'. Yzc2NjQ1MzQyNDU2MjMyMz. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
3. ^'Grillin' Super Meat Boy « Brutal Gamer'. brutalgamer.com. 2010-10-31. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
4. ^'Tommy Refenes'. LinkedIn. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
5. ^ ^ab'HoopWorld : BasketBrawl! - Credits'. Streamline Studios. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
6. ^'Spotlight on the 2008 Intel Game Demo Contest Winners - Intel Software Network'. Intel Corporation. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
7. ^'What is Team Meat?'. Team Meat. 2010-11-30. Archived from the original on 2010-12-23. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
8. ^Devore, Jordan (2017-08-30). 'Super Meat Boy Forever is a 'true sequel' due out in 2018'. Destructoid. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
9. ^Phillips, Tom (26 September 2017). 'Super Meat Boy Forever and the return of Team Meat'. Eurogamer. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
10. ^ ^abcTolito, Stephen (2010-03-19). 'Apple Bans Game, Days After Developer Publicly Trashes App Store'. Kotaku. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
11. ^Rose, Mike (2010-04-04). 'Developer plays a joke on Apple with Super Meat Boy Handheld | Super Meat Boy Handheld news'. Pocket Gamer. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
12. ^ ^abcd'Tommy Refenes on Newgrounds'.
13. ^'TIGSource: Owl Country'.
14. ^'Gamespot - Beat! Music Memory Match'.
15. ^ ^ab'Development of 'Super Meat Boy' on iOS Officially Halted, 'Mew-Genics' Release Now Priority'.
16. ^'Anonymous asked: Is Mew-genics still a thing? I mean, a game about cats! Can't lose, right?'. Yzc2NjQ1MzQyNDU2MjMyMz. Retrieved 11 March 2017.

External links[edit]

• Tommy's user page at Newgrounds

Super Meat Boy is a tough as nails platformer where you play as an animated cube of meat who's trying to save his girlfriend (who happens to be made of bandages) from an evil fetus in a jar wearing a tux.
Our meaty hero will leap from walls, over seas of buzz saws, through crumbling caves and pools of old needles. Sacrificing his own well being to save his damsel in distress. Super Meat Boy brings the old school difficulty of classic titles and stream lines them down to the essential no BS straight forward twitch reflex platforming.
Ramping up in difficulty from hard to soul crushing SMB will drag Meat boy though haunted hospitals, salt factories and even hell itself. And if 300+ single player levels weren't enough SMB also throws in epic boss fights, tons of unlockable secrets, warp zones and hidden characters.
And now coming first to Nintendo Switch™ is a brand new way to play Super Meat Boy with your friends. Introducing 'RACE MODE'! In this 2 player split screen race, friends (or enemies) can compete against each other through individual chapters, randomized levels, or the entire game! Choose light world, dark world, or both and have at it. Side effects may include: elevated heartbeat, severe anxiety, hubris, and schadenfreude.

TV mode

Tabletop mode

Handheld mode

Play online, access classic Super NES™ games, and more with a Nintendo Switch Online membership.

© TEAM MEAT, 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED