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How I Found Five Nights At Freddy’s

I have been an avid indie gamer for some time now. Being a poor college student, I didn’t have gaming consoles and my computer was nothing short of obsolete.

The only games I could run on my PC were indie titles. I would wait for sales and bundles and stock up on as many cheap games as I could. Though I did this out of financial necessity, I grew to love indie games the same way I love indie comics and music.

Now that I am older and a have a bit more income, I still find myself playing mostly indie games. My favorite indie games are The Binding of Isaac, Spelunky, Hotline Miami, and of course Five Nights At Freddy’s.

Like most people, I first heard of Five Nights At Freddy’s through Markiplier’s YouTube channel. As an avid lover of horror, I was immediately taken by the game’s grim atmosphere. I had played many point and click games in the past, but I had never seen anything like this.

About Five Nights at Freddy’s and Scott Cawthon

Five Nights at Freddy’s is an indie game series created by Scott Cawthon. The series is based around a Chuck E Cheese-style pizzeria (called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza) complete with arcade games, balloons…and those scary animatronic creatures that spooked us as children of the 80s and 90s.

The basic gameplay involves you as a security guard. You must watch the security cameras carefully. The animatronics roam around at night, and will attack you if you let them near you.

A game about a pizza place isn’t all that scary. However, a story unravels as the game progresses. This story involves a serial killer, haunted robots, and the families destroyed by the actions of this company.

While the main plot of the game is mostly understood, the underlying story is incredibly cryptic and mysterious.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is now more than just indie computer games. The series now consists of novels, activity books, a VR game, a mobile game, and console ports. I can’t believe that a game about animatronic animals has become so popular, but I am really glad that it has.

Scott Cawthon created Five Nights At Freddy’s after multiple failed attempts to break into the gaming industry. This is a story that a lot of us indie creators know personally. Making art that we love is very important. However, turning our art into a career is a different story.

Cawthon had a handful of games under his belt (such as Desolate Hope) before Five Nights at Freddy’s. He also has made many Christian video games and animations, such as The Pilgrim’s Progress.

His last game, Chipper and Sons Lumber Co. received horrible reviews. People thought that the game’s animations looked like those creepy animatronics from Chuck E Cheese. After this happened, Cawthon was debating giving up game development entirely.

However, the story doesn’t end there. The negative feedback sparked what might have been Cawthon’s best artistic idea of his life.

He turned the reviewer’s hate into a positive one. He decided to make a game about those creepy pizzeria animatronics. The rest was history.

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Why Scott Cawthon Is My Hero

His Story Is Our Story

As indie creators, we all work jobs that we hate to support the art we love. We all know the feeling of pouring our time, energy, and soul into our work just to have it torn apart by others. We persist because there is nothing like the joy of creation.

While Scott may attribute the success of FNAF to luck, he was able to accomplish what we all want to accomplish. He was able to make a living from his art. Cawthon found a way to support himself and his family by doing what he does best, creating videogames.

It is success stories like this that help keep us motivated and inspired. I love the fact that this insane franchise came from a normal person like you and me. A few years ago, Five Nights at Freddy’s was just a small indie game. Nowadays it is hard to find a store that does not carry FNAF merchandise.

He Is Dedicated to His Fans

Despite Five Nights at Freddy’s insane popularity, Scott Cawthon still does everything he can for his fanbase. This franchise has brought in millions and millions of dollars at this point. Many creators would have been tempted to sell out or take the money and run.

That’s not Scott’s style. To this day, he makes sure that he sustains the integrity of his game series. More importantly, he gives back to his fans and takes their opinion to heart.

My favorite example of this was the release of the gameFNAF World. This was the first game to really deviate from the Five Nights at Freddy’s series. Instead of atmospheric body horror, fans were treated to a silly and manically happy role-playing game.

However, the game’s release did not go as well as planned. The game had a myriad of problems that were labeled as sloppy and unfinished. Scott quickly apologized for the game, pulled it from the store, and refunded the customers’ money. He then later released an even more expansive version of the title, which is now a fan-favorite.

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He Works Incredibly Hard

We all have our favorite game series. Usually, we are lucky to get one game every few years. Some of the bigger companies and franchises release one game every year. Not Scott Cawthon.

It may be hard to believe, but Five Nights at Freddy’s is only six years old. During that time, Scott has released ten games and half a dozen books. This doesn’t even include ports to other systems, merchandise, and the upcoming Blumhouse motion picture.

Cawthon could have stopped after the first few games and retired. He could have sold the franchise to a bigger company and sat back and raked in the money.

Instead, he shows up every day for his fans and community. He makes sure that we get news, teasers, games, and other fun activities on a regular basis. He does this so often that a lot of the fan base gets anxious if there are just a few weeks of silence. Can you imagine if fans reacted that way to Activision or even Bethesda?

Scott was able to take the personal touch that we love in independent art, and scale it to mainstream sizes. I have never seen another creator pull this off in the same fashion.

He Gives Back to the Community

Like I said before, Scott could have just taken the money from FNAF, retire, and fade out of the spotlight. Not only does he continue to work hard, he also donates a lot of his money to charity.

Scott recently released a game called Freddy in Space 2. This game was specifically made for a charity live-stream hosted by Game Theory (Matthew and Stephanie Patrick), Dawko, and Markiplier. Not only did Scott make this game specifically for the stream, but he also donated $500,000 dollars to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

He Takes A Multimedia Approach to Storytelling

Outside of everything else, the sheer creativity of Scott Cawthon maybe my favorite part about him. As many people know, the story of Five Nights at Freddy’s is very cryptic. These games are not narrated in the way typical games are. The story must be put together through a series of hints and clues.

However, these Easter eggs are not solely contained in the game. In order to get the full scope of FNAF information, players must:

Manipulate teaser images from Scott’s websites

Search through the coding of Scott’s websites

Read and interpret cryptic messages from Scott on social media

Decompile and search through the game files

Manipulate audio from the games

This isn’t your average mysterious game series. FNAF is a full-fledge multimedia treasure hunt that has kept the fan base on the edge of their seats for years. You never know when a new clue might pop up. You most definitely don’t know WHERE a new clue might pop up.

In my opinion, Scott’s approach to storytelling is nothing short of mind-blowing. Most indie creators, including myself, struggle to put together a well-crafted story or project. Scott is over here making us dig through HTML coding to find a few numbers that match. While there are a few other indie games that do this, Scott takes it to a whole new level.

He Has Inspired Many People to Learn Art

As many of you know, Reddit is my favorite social media and informational platform. I am a huge fan of the Five Nights at Freddy’s subreddit. My favorite part of the subreddit is getting to discuss the lore, clues, and theories with other people.

However, in order to find these theory posts, you must wade through a sea of fan art, stories, comics, fan games, and CGI renders. It is so heartwarming to see all these people learning how to make different forms of art all because they are inspired by Cawthon’s work.

I don’t think it is hyperbole to say that Scott Cawthon inspired an entire generation of artists.

Thank You for Everything, Scott

When it comes to independent art, Scott Cawthon is one of my heroes. He found a way to take indie games into the mainstream without compromise. He has stayed humble during this process, and it is evident in the treatment of his fans.

Indie creator Scott Cawthon is everything that I want out of an independent artist, and something that I strive to be daily. His work, and work ethic, has surely made me a better person. While I am obsessed with the story of Five Nights at Freddy’s it is Scott’s story that has had the biggest impact on me.

Scott, if you ever get the chance to read this, thank you for everything you have done.

Thank you for giving us entertainment. Thank you for helping sick children. Thank you for loving your fans regardless of your financial and cultural status. Thank you for supporting and inspiring indie creators.

Most importantly, thank you for being an excellent role model for indie creators everywhere.

Where To Find Scott Cawthon

Scott’s Official Website

FNAF World Website

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Where To Find Five Night’s At Freddy’s

FNAF on Steam

FNAF AR: Special Delivery on Android

Five Nights At Freddy’s Subreddit

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