http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys

"As always, remember to smile; you are the face of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

The trailer for the first game "During the day, it's a place of joy. But you aren't here during the day. You have the night watch."

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Five Nights at Freddy's is a series of Survival Horror indie games created by Scott Cawthon. The first game, released on August 8, 2014, centers around the infamous Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria and its main attraction: the restaurant's four animatronic mascots, Freddy Fazbear and his friends Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken, and Foxy the Pirate Fox. Kid-friendly place during the day, its tone changes drastically whenever the restaurant is closed for the night... because this is when the animatronics start wandering around the whole place. You play the role of the night guard, who must sit in the security office and make sure the animatronics don't get in — or else they'll kill you. (Management doesn't like that.)

The game's surprise success led to five sequels: Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (November 11, 2014), Five Nights at Freddy's 3 (March 2, 2015), Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (July 23, 2015), Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location (October 7, 2016), and Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulatornote which is actually Five Nights at Freddy's 6 disguised as a spin-off (December 4, 2017).

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The first four games follows the same basic gameplay template, but each one has its own specific twist. In each game, you have to deal with a number of animatronics that will kill you if they get their hands on you. You're given something to defend yourself (security doors; a mask and flashlight; a sound file and vent doors; and ordinary doors, respectively), you're handicapped by something that prevents you from abusing your defense (a power meter; animatronics too smart to fool and poor battery life; computer errors; and multiple areas of entrance, respectively), and you have to face a threat that doesn't appear in the trailer (Foxy; The Marionette; The Phantoms; Nightmare Fredbear and Nightmare; Ennard and Minireena; and all of the animatronics, respectively).

Sister Location, though, mixes things up a lot. Each night does different things for your shift. Night 2, for instance, needs you to hold a door shut as a Bidybab tries to pull it open, then play a sound-based game of Red Light Green Light with Ballora, and then you have to worry about Funtime Freddy, who is right beside you while balancing restarting systems (which pisses it off), and playing a sound file (which calms it down).

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Another shake-up occurs in the sixth game, Pizzeria Simulator and is somewhat a compromise between the previous ones. All nights share the same core gameplay; however, instead of statically biding your time until 6 AM while preventing the animatronics from reaching you, you need to do tasks through a monitor until you're given the option to leave, which means that the nights might go on forever if your focus is only to fend off the animatronics. A new addition is a tycoon minigame, which plays out before each night. Here, you'll play as the manager responsible for decorating your own Freddy Fazbear's Pizza location. While you can skip this, your actions  including how many ads you accept, how you manage your funds, how you settle lawsuits, and how many old animatronics you salvage  influence the playthrough. Pizzeria Simulator was supposed to receive a Custom Night DLC that would include nearly every character in the series. However, Scott decided that the DLC was too big and instead released it as a separate game simply titled Ultimate Custom Night.

The year 2019 saw the release of two entries in different genres and created in collaboration with other companies. The first, Five Nights At Freddys VR Help Wanted, is a Virtual Reality game developed by Steel Wool Studios and released on May 28, 2019. It recreates elements from the main series while adding some of its own. It received several DLC, notably Curse of Dreadbear, released to commemorate Halloween 2019. The second, Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery, is an Augmented Reality game developed by Illumix and released on November 25, 2019. Steel Wool later collaborated with Scott again to create Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, which, in addition to PlayStation 4 and PC, will be released for the upcoming PlayStation 5, making it the first FNaF game to be released for a ninth-generation console.

Scott released the series' first spin-off, Five Nights at Freddy's World, in January 2016. It is, on its face, a Lighter and Softer RPG where you can choose to play as any of the animatronics and go on a fun adventure through a fantasy world. It reveals a slightly less "lighter and softer" side as it goes on, and several updates have only helped in that regard. A followup to a side-scrolling Shoot 'em Up minigame in this spin-off, Freddy in Space 2, was released on December 3, 2019.

A film adaptation of the series has been in development since April 2015, when Warner Bros. first picked up the rights. However, the film is currently stuck in a perpetual Development Hell. By 2017, Warner Bros. had declared a turnaround, with rights to produce the film switching to Blumhouse Productions. Scott has said that he is still committed to make the film, despite the continuous setbacks.

Shortly after the Halloween update to Freddy's 4, Scott Cawthon vanished from the internet. He returned two months later to announce Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes, a spin-off novel co-written by Kira-Breed Wrisley and taking place in an alternate universe; the book was released on December 17, 2015. Two sequels followed in the next three years: The Twisted Ones on June 27, 2017 and The Fourth Closet on June 26, 2018. The three have been confirmed to be adapted as graphic novels, as well, with the first two books being released on December 26, 2019 and February 2, 2021, respectively.

Other than those, there are also other books released or upcoming, including two companion books directly authored by Scott (Five Nights at Freddy's: The Freddy Files and Five Nights at Freddy's: Survival Logbook) and two adult coloring books (Art with Edge, Five Nights at Freddy's and The Official Five Nights at Freddy's Coloring Book). A YA novel anthology series, Fazbear Frights, was announced in May 2019 and co-written by Elley Cooper, Andrea Waggener, Carly Anne West, and Kelly Para. At least nine books will be released sequentially from 2019 to 2021, five of which have been released.

On the 9th of May, 2016, Scott Cawthon confirmed via the Steam forums that the original main series games will be remade for consoles . The first four main games were released for the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on November 29, 2019.

There is an interactive Haunted House attraction by Fright Dome based on the games that first opened in Las Vegas in October 2016.

In August of 2020, Scott announced the "Fazbear Fanverse Initiative", a program in which he would sponsor various fangame creators, encouraging them to make new games (and remake or update old ones) in exchange for being allowed to create merchandise of their games, as well as release ports on consoles and mobile devices. For information on those games, see the Fan Works page.

Games

Entries in the main series:

Five Nights at Freddy's World

Freddy in Space 2

Other media:

Upcoming Projects

Untitled film project note Has been stuck in development hell since it was first announced in 2015. Scott confirmed in June 2020 that production is still moving, but declined to give more details. (ETA: Unknown)

(ETA: Unknown) Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach note A collaboration with Steel Wool, the same company responsible for Help Wanted. Promo materials have implied it will be the ninth main series game in the franchise. (ETA: 2020)

(ETA: 2020) Untitled AAA game note Was originally in collaboration with "Universal", but Scott has since provided an update saying that the game is "CANCELLED (but not really)"; apparently there has been an undisclosed snag and Scott is taking the game in a new direction, with plans to begin work on it in late 2020. (ETA: Unknown)

(ETA: Unknown) Five Nights at Freddy's: Fazbear Frights note A series of short story collections set in the FNAF universe; each volume will contain three stories with an overarching theme. #6: Blackbird (ETA: December 29, 2020) #7: The Cliffs (ETA: March 2, 2021) #8 (ETA: May 4, 2021) #9 (ETA: July 6, 2021)

Five Nights at Freddy's: Into Madness note A minigame collection similar to FNAF World Update 2. Originally put on hold as Scott worked on Freddy in Space 2, but this may have changed. (ETA: Unknown)

(ETA: Unknown) The Official Five Nights at Freddy's Coloring Book (ETA: January 2021)

Examples found in the entire franchise of FNAF:

"These characters will live on. In the hearts of kids, these characters will live on."