Five Nights at Freddy's (game)

Five Nights at Freddy's is an indie point-and-click survival horror video game and the first installment of the series developed by Scott Cawthon. It was first released on IndieDB as a demo on July 24, 2014 before the full game was released on August 8, 2014 (although it was ultimately removed at an unknown date), and released on Steam on August 18, 2014. The goal for the player is to survive five nights at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza while avoiding getting caught and stuffed into a mascot costume, thus getting killed by the animatronic characters; this is done by tracking their movements via the restaurant's security cameras.
Chronologically, the game is the sequel to Five Nights at Freddy's 2 and the prequel to Five Nights at Freddy's 3 which makes it the fourth game of the series.
Due to its universal success upon release, the game spawned a media franchise for a series of games, books, merch, movies, etc.
== History ==
Scott Cawthon had developed several adventure games marketed towards Christians, all of which under-performed commercially. These failures caused Cawthon to suffer a crisis of faith. He lost interest in game development until he regained it following a spiritual experience. The experience left Cawthon less inclined towards making Christian games, and he began production of the secular Five Nights at Freddy's.
After his construction and management game Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. received negative reviews, he decided to make his next game a horror-focused experience. Players commented that characters in the game were unintentionally unsettling and animatronic-like in appearance, reviewer Jim Sterling calling the game "terrifying". Although initially discouraged by this poor reception, he was inspired to make something intentionally scarier.
Cawthon developed the game alone over the course of six months, with his sons and friends serving as beta testers. He coded the game with the Clickteam Fusion 2.5 engine and used Autodesk 3ds Max to model the 3D graphics. The audio was produced with a combination of sound effects that Cawthon created himself and files that he purchased off the internet. Five Nights at Freddy's was first released for Windows via the Desura distribution platform on August 8, 2014. On August 18, it was also released via Steam. A version for Android was launched on August 26, followed by ports to iOS on September 11, and Windows Phone on December 1. Versions for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One were released on November 29, 2019.
== Gameplay ==
Five Nights at Freddy's is an indie point-and-click survival horror game. The player controls Mike Schmidt, the night guard at the fictional Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant. The objective of the game is to survive a whole shift, which lasts from midnight to 6 AM (several minutes in real-time) while avoiding the four animatronics who roam the restaurant after hours. Mike is forced to spend each night in the security office, which serves as a base of operations. The player has a Monitor to their disposal to scroll through the security cameras and see where the animatronics are, although the cameras are grainy and poorly lit, and the camera in the Kitchen only provides an audio feed.
The animatronics each have unique movement patterns and will attempt to get inside the Office through one of two hallways on either side of the room. The player can activate Hall Lights to check if an animatronic is outside and shut either of the two Doors to keep animatronics out. However, the player has limited Power each night, which is displayed via a percentage in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Power will drain over time, although using the Monitor, lights and doors will consume more power, and if the player runs out, all of these features will de-activate for the rest of the night. Freddy himself will then appear in the Office, eventually attacking unless the clock hits 6 AM first. If an animatronic does enter your office, it results in them jumpscaring the player and taking you to the Game Over screen, before we are brought back to the title screen.
The game's main campaign is split into five increasingly difficult levels, or "nights". Finishing Night 5 will complete the story and unlock an extra-challenging Night 6 and clearing that will unlock a customizable Night 7 that allows the player to adjust each animatronics' difficulty.
=== Characters ===
Freddy Fazbear: Freddy Fazbear is one of the four original animatronics of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and the titular antagonist of the Five Nights at Freddy's series. Freddy is an animatronic bear and the mascot of the original Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. He takes the role as lead singer of the band, standing in the center of the stage. Undisclosed to Fazbear Entertainment, Inc. and to the public, Freddy and the other original animatronics are possessed by children murdered by a man named William Afton. Due to this, he and the others are now seeking revenge against their killer by attacking any adults in the pizzeria after-hours in blind rage.
Chica: Chica the Chicken, also known as Chica, is one of the four original animatronics of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and a major antagonist in the Five Nights at Freddy's series. Chica is an animatronic chicken and the backup singer in Freddy's band, positioned at the right side of the stage. Undisclosed to Fazbear Entertainment, Inc. and to the public, Chica and the other original animatronics are possessed by children murdered by a man named William Afton. Due to this, she and the others are now seeking revenge against their killer by attacking any adults in the pizzeria after-hours in blind rage.
Bonnie: Bonnie the Rabbit, also known as Bonnie, is one of the four original animatronics of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and a major antagonist in the Five Nights at Freddy's series. Bonnie is an animatronic rabbit and the guitarist in Freddy's band, positioned at the left side of the stage. Undisclosed to Fazbear Entertainment, Inc. and to the public, Bonnie and the other original animatronics are possessed by children murdered by a man named William Afton. Due to this, he and the others are now seeking revenge against their killer by attacking any adults in the pizzeria after-hours in blind rage.
Foxy: Foxy the Pirate, also known as Foxy, is one of the four original animatronics of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and a major antagonist in the Five Nights at Freddy's series. Foxy is a discontinued animatronic pirate fox entertainer. He resides at his own separate stage in the pizzeria. Undisclosed to Fazbear Entertainment, Inc. and to the public, Foxy and the other original animatronics are possessed by children murdered by a man named William Afton. Due to this, he and the others are now seeking revenge against their killer by attacking any adults in the pizzeria after-hours in blind rage.
Golden Freddy: Golden Freddy, previously known by the filename, Yellowbear, is a mysterious and ghost-like entity who takes on the form of a yellow animatronic bear. He plays a prominent role in the Five Nights at Freddy's series, although his origins are cryptic and unknown.
Endo-01: Endo-01 is an endoskeleton who is designed as an inner robot "skeleton" to use for the inside of the four original animatronics' suits in Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The individual endoskeleton made their first appearance in the first Five Nights at Freddy's game.
Phone Guy: Phone Guy is the deuteragonist of the Five Nights at Freddy's series. He was an employee who worked for the establishment Fazbear Entertainment, Inc. Players dispute whether or not the Phone Guy is actually an ally, as it seems odd that he insists that they stay and downplays the situation instead of telling them to quit or leave immediately. While he may be a forced ally, he is the only one the player has.
Mike Schmidt: Mike Schmidt is the main protagonist of the first Five Nights at Freddy's game. He was a security guard employed by Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, working on a 7-night shift from midnight to 6 AM, until he was eventually fired after tampering with the animatronics. The game is played in the first-person perspective, through his eyes.
== Reception ==
Five Nights at Freddy's received positive reviews from critics. Indie Game Magazine praised Five Nights at Freddy's for its simple take on the horror genre, noting that its artistic direction and gameplay mechanics contributed to a feeling of "brutal tension" only worsened by how a player may be familiar with similar restaurants such as Chuck E. Cheese's, and that "it's an incredibly terrifying experience to try to save yourself from the single jump scare that ends the game."
Five Nights at Freddy's was described as a "fantastic example of how cleverness in design and subtlety can be used to make an experience terrifying." However, the game was criticized for taking too long to load when launched.
Omri Petitte for PC Gamer gave Five Nights at Freddy's a score of 80 out of 100, commenting that the game took a "less-is-more" approach to its design and that while "the AI isn't some masterwork of procedural unpredictability," it would "[still] head straight to you and eat your face off, or it'll play around like an innocent child before closing in for the kill. Your mind will fill in the rest."
The game's overall atmosphere was praised for emphasizing the fear and suspense of an approaching threat rather than the arrival of the threat itself executed frequently in other horror-oriented games. However, the gameplay of Five Nights at Freddy's was criticized for becoming repetitive once a player masters it, as there is "not much more to expect beyond managing battery life and careful timing of slamming doors shut, so those with steely willpower won't find anything else past the atmosphere of it all."
Ryan Bates of Game Revolution gave the game a 4.5 out of 5, comparing its camera-oriented gameplay to the 1992 game Night Trap. He praised the game's minimalistic presentation (with particular emphasis on its audio design and lack of music) for contributing to the terror of the game, along with the fact that the "nervous impulses" of its repetitive gameplay would reach "almost OCD-type levels, adding to the tense environment." In conclusion, he felt that the game was "horror done right," but that it was too short.
Eurogamer's Jeffrey Matulef compared the animatronic animals in the game to Weeping Angels, who are predatory creatures from the universe of Doctor Who, due to their ability to only move when they are not being observed.
Softpedia gave the game 4 out of 5 stars, with reviewer Cosmin Anton noting that it "drifts away from the classic first-person horror survival titles," but that the "inability to move combined with the limited power available will make you feel quite helpless in front of those relentless robots that just want to share a bit of their 'love' with you."
== Trivia ==
* During the game's development, Scott launched a Kickstarter campaign on June 14, 2014. Its goal was to raise $10,000. Although the campaign ended up being canceled on June 17, 2014, it revealed that Freddy Fazbear was originally going to be named "Freddybear". Pledging the game with the appropriate amount of money would have awarded the backers:
** $10-24: A wallpaper pack of five desktop wallpapers. (Delivered in August 2014)
** $25-49: Game's early release copy, and comes with a wallpaper pack. (Delivered in September 2014)
** $50-Over: A role as a beta-tester, and also grants new versions of the game on a weekly basis. (Delivered in October 2014)
* The game itself was inspired by the game Chipper & Sons Lumber Co., also made by Scott Cawthon. Many players of the game criticized it because of the graphics, which, according to them, looked like "animatronics". Scott possibly used that criticism to make Five Nights at Freddy's.
* When Scott released the first gameplay video of Five Nights at Freddy's on his channel, the game seemed to be much more pixelated. On the starting screen, the video also showed a graphic of a man with the number 1 next to it, which shows that at one point in development, the player would have had limited lives.
* Even though there is no specified year in which the game takes place, many have assumed that it takes place around 1993, as the paycheck at the end of the game matches the minimum wage of the time.
* When the game first launched, the newspaper article shown in the intro sequence misspelled "pizzeria" as "pizzaria." which was later fixed patch 1.131.
* The concept of Five Nights at Freddy's is similar to that of the 2006 comedy film, Night at the Museum. In both stories, the attractions act as expected during the day (the animatronics entertaining the guests, and the museum exhibits staying still), come to life during the night, and both protagonists are night guards who work for security at the establishments.
** However, the aforementioned film included an object that brought everything to life at night, whereas the game's animatronics can roam at night regardless.
* Five Nights at Freddy's is the first of two games in the series to have a 16:9 aspect ratio, the other being Sister Location. The rest of the games only have 4:3.
** However, all of the original mobile versions are natively 16:9. This is one of the possible reasons why the offices from the second and third games and the Bedroom in the fourth game look stretched in the older mobile versions.
** As of June 15, 2017, the aspect ratio for Five Nights at Freddy's 2, Five Nights at Freddy's 3, and Five Nights at Freddy's 4 were all changed to 16:9, as Scott most likely wanted the games to share the same aspect ratio.
* It is entirely possible to "pause" the game in the PC version by pressing both "CONTROL" and "P". The same method also goes to the other games.
* There is a cheat code for Five Nights at Freddy's and Five Nights at Freddy's 2 which will automatically skip a night. It can be triggered by holding "C", "D", and "+". In the second game, it requires Toy Freddy's nose to be clicked on the poster in the office and held on before triggering the code. This isn't possible in the mobile or console versions of the game.
* In the anniversary images of the Office, Freddy can be seen outside the office but never used.
** This is likely for when the power goes out.
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