Not long ago, game developer Scott Cawthon released Ultimate Custom Night, an upexpected new game in the Five Night’s at Freddy’s franchise. While watching Markiplier play through it as best he could, he mentioned that Scott Cawthon didn’t think anyone would be able to beat 20/20/20/20 mode in the original game, until Twitch streamer BigBugz and Markiplier did so on August 21, 2014. He thought it was humanly impossible. This sparked a thought.

“What if it wasn’t a human playing?”

Excited by this idea, I got to work.

Dubbed the Animatronic, this is a Java-written piece of software that does two things: Analyzes areas on the monitor and assume control over the cursor. Technically speaking, this is all I wanted it to be able to do.

I’ve seen that video where an AI tries to play Super Mario Bros. While it’s cool, it uses the games hexadecimal data to parse out what it’s doing. While that’s quite fascinating, it’s not something a person can do. I wanted the Animatronic to have the same limitations we as the player had. All it can do is look and react. Though it is deaf, I suppose.

When Activated, the Animatronic will “look at” certain sections of the screen. What it sees will determine how it will react. Does it see Bonnie in the doorway? Better close the door. Is there a shadow in the window? Better keep the door closed.

I’m starting with the first Five Nights at Freddy’s game as a proof of concept. And with Bonnie first. While I’d love to try against Ultimate Custom Night, I figure it’s better to crawl before I start breakdancing.

Development will be slow as well. I work a lot, after all.

Next up, Part 2: Chica