presents. In the game's cooperative mode, if one player character opens a present in the vicinity of the other, its contents affect both characters. As players open more presents, the chances of accidentally opening the Randomizer are increased, which prevents the game from becoming easier as more presents are identified. Development ToeJam & Earl creator Greg Johnson became a fan of Rogue as a university student. After he left university, he worked on games for Electronic Arts, including Starflight (1986). After the completion of Starflight 2, Johnson conceived ToeJam & Earl—first the characters, then the plot—while on a beach in Hawaii. The idea was a combination of Rogue'''s gameplay concepts and a lighter version of Starflight's science-fiction themes. Johnson met programmer Mark Voorsanger through a mutual friend, while walking on Mount Tam in 1989. He related the concept of ToeJam & Earl to Voorsanger, and the two resolved to make the game together. They formed Johnson Voorsanger Productions, and serious work on the game began soon after. Their status as commercial game designers allowed them to meet with Sega of America, and they used cards covered in landscape drawings to demonstrate their idea of randomly generated levels. Sega marketing manager Hugh Bowen was immediately interested in the concept, and he enlisted the aid of producer Scott Berfield to sell the game to management; Sega wanted innovative games and new mascots to compete with Nintendo. The game's small development team was composed of Johnson's previous colleagues, and its music was composed by John Baker. The team's goal was to make a humorous game that was "original, easy to understand and offered an immediate response to the player's actions". The designers wanted to include a two-player mode so that they could play together, and they considered ToeJam & Earl "a two player game with a one player option." While Sega believed that hardware issues would prevent the feature from working, Voorsanger successfully implemented it. In a 1992 interview with Sega Visions, Johnson stated that the characters ToeJam and Earl evolved as reflections of his and Voorsanger's personalities. Voorsanger disagreed and called the characters "two different aspects of Greg's personality". Steve Purcell has stated that he contributed character designs to the game. ReceptionToeJam & Earl received positive reviews, which Bill Paris of UGO described as "almost unanimous critical acclaim". However, Sega deemed it a commercial failure due to low initial sales. The game