After 37 years in the gaming industry, Dan Forden is retiring. One of the handful of developers who worked on the original Mortal Kombat way back in 1992, he stuck with the series through thick and thin, working on every mainline entry in the series, as well as spin-offs and related games like Injustice 2, The Grid, and NFL Blitz.
He announced his retirement in an Instagram post. When asked why in the comments, he responded, "I figured I'd been around long enough. Want to reclaim that time for my own interests."
It's impossible to overstate how important Dan Forden is to the legacy of the series. His music and sound design was integral to the development of gaming enthusiasts of a certain age, and even non-gamers know about the legendary "Toasty!" Easter Egg, which has been imitated many times over the years, with each being a tip of the cap to Forden's iconic appearance in the original game.
In addition to his work in video games (and pinball machines), Forden has a music career outside of the industry, most recently releasing an EP on Bandcamp in 2022. If you're a fan of the Mortal Kombat soundscape and want to dive deeper into the work of its creator, that's a good place to start. Forden will also be featured in The Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection, which compiles many of the games from the first decade or so of Mortal Kombat's legacy into a single collection... Hence the title, I suppose.
Copyright The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved