Scott Cawthon

**Scott Cawthon is** a former American independent video game designer, developer, animator, and writer, best known as the creator of the *Five Nights at Freddy's* game franchise. Cawthon has also created other games, such as *Chipper & Son's Lumber Co.*, *The Desolate Hope*, and *There is No Pause Button!,* as well as Christian-based animations such as *A Christmas Journey* and *The Pilgrim's Progress*. He used Autodesk 3ds Max and Clickteam Fusion to develop *Five Nights at Freddy's* and most of his other games.

## Biography

Scott Cawthon was born and raised in the United States. He lives in Salado, Texas,
 with his wife and two sons. He is of Christian faith, previously being
part of Hope Animation, an organization creating animated films based on
 Christian beliefs and values.

## Career

It is unknown when Cawthon began his career in game design and
animating, although it can be dated back to somewhere in the 1990s. Cawthon revealed his first ever game (titled "Doofas") during a livestream by YouTube personality Lewis Dawkins,
 which he made when he was a child. His first official games began to sprout in the early 2000s, one of the earliest known being *RPG Max*, released in 2002. He later joined Hope Animation, where he created animations for children based on Christian values.

On March 19, 2007, Cawthon uploaded the first part of an 8-part series named *The Pilgrim's Progress* to his YouTube channel. The animation is a retelling of John Bunyan's novel of the same name. After releasing *The Pilgrim's Progress*, Cawthon developed several games, including *Sit N' Survive*, *Chipper and Sons Lumber Co.*, and *The Desolate Hope*. Some of these were submitted to Steam Greenlight. While *The Desolate Hope* made it through the process, some games, most notably *Chipper and Sons Lumber Co.*,
 were heavily criticized by prominent reviewers for having characters
that moved and interacted with each other like animatronic machines.
While initially discouraged, almost to the point of stopping game
development completely, Cawthon eventually decided to use the
animatronic-like characters to his advantage, sparking the development
of *Five Nights at Freddy's*.

On July 23, 2014, Cawthon submitted *Five Nights at Freddy's* to IndieDB, where it gained massive popularity. He then submitted it to Desura
 on August 13, 2014, and also submitted it to Steam Greenlight on June
13, 2014, where it was accepted August 18, 2014. A trailer was shortly
released on June 14, 2014, with a demo following on July 24, 2014. On
August 8, the game was released for $4.99 on Steam. The game was well-received by critics, became the subject of a number of popular Let's Play videos on YouTube. Scott Cawthon then went on to develop multiple follow-up games.

Soon after the release of *Five Nights at Freddy's 2*,
 Cawthon removed all information from his official site and replaced it with an image of the word "offline". The website soon began to show
teasers of *Five Nights at Freddy's 3*, which was released on March 2, 2015. In July 2015, Cawthon released the fourth game of the *Five Nights at Freddy's* horror series, along with an additional "Halloween" update that was released on October 31, 2015.

Warner Bros. Pictures announced in April 2015 that it had acquired the rights to adapt the series to film. Roy Lee, David Katzenberg, and Seth Grahame-Smith
 were set to produce. Grahame-Smith stated that they would collaborate with Cawthon "to make an insane, terrifying and weirdly adorable movie". In July 2015, Gil Kenan signed to direct the adaptation and co-write it with Tyler Burton Smith.

In December, 2015, Scott Cawthon released teasers for his first novel, *Five Nights at Freddy's: The Untold Story*, soon to be renamed *Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes*. The book was released on December 17, 2015 as an e-book for Amazon Kindle;
 a paperback edition is also available for ordering. According to Cawthon, the book was released earlier than its planned release date due
 to a mistake on Amazon's part.

On June 24, 2016, Cawthon announced that he had made a 3-book deal with Scholastic and that the first book (*The Silver Eyes*) would be re-printed on paperback in October that year, with the second and third being released in 2017 and 2018.

On September 15, 2015, Cawthon announced the development of a new role-playing video game (RPG), titled *FNaF World*. The game is not a horror game; rather, a stylized RPG. It was released on January 21, 2016. Four days later, Cawthon pulled it from the store, not satisfied with the results, and released an improved version on Gamejolt for free on February 8.

On May 21, 2016, Cawthon released a teaser trailer for *Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location*, featuring a clown-like animatronic, a dancer animatronic, and variations of Foxy and Freddy from the series.
 The game was released on October 7, 2016, and was generally well
received. Cawthon then released a free custom night update on December 2, with "Golden Freddy mode" being added to the update soon after.

In January 2017, Cawthon stated that partially due to "problems
within the movie industry as a whole", the film "was met with several
delays and roadblocks" and it was "back at square one", but he promised
"to be involved with the movie from day one this time, and that's
something extremely important to me. I want this movie to be something that I'm excited for the fanbase to see." In March 2017, Cawthon tweeted a picture at Blumhouse Productions, suggesting the film had a new production company.[16][17] In May 2017, producer Jason Blum confirmed the news, claiming he was excited and working closely with Cawthon on the adaptation.[18] In June 2017, Gil Kenan said he was no longer directing the *Five Nights at Freddy's* film after Warner Bros. Pictures' turnaround.

On June 27, 2017, Scott Cawthon's second novel, *Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones* was released. It was the sequel to *The Silver Eyes*,
 and its story follows the main character, Charlie, who is "drawn back
into the world of her father's frightening creations" when she tried to
get over the events of *The Silver Eyes*. On August 29, 2017, Cawthon released the first official guidebook of *Five Nights at Freddy's*, entitled *The Freddy Files*. It contains character profiles, easter eggs, tips on playing the games, and theories sprouted from the franchise.

On July 3, 2017, Cawthon announced the cancellation of a sixth main installment to *Five Nights at Freddy's*,
 after previously stating a month earlier that a sixth game was in the
works. He reasoned that it was because he had been neglecting other
important things in his life, but said that he wasn't planning to
abandon the series and may release a *FnaF World*-styled spin-off game in the future. However, with the release of *Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator* on December 4, 2017, this was confirmed to be a troll.

On December 26, 2017, Cawthon released the second guidebook for *Five Nights at Freddy's* called *Survival Logbook*. Unlike previous book releases, *Survival Logbook*
 has no listed Amazon Kindle editions, implying that it will have pages
designed for physical writing as opposed to simply reading from a
device.

On February 13, 2018, it was revealed by Blumhouse Productions on Twitter that Chris Columbus would be working on the film as a director, alongside producing it with Blum and Cawthon.

Around early 2018, the third novel in the *Five Nights at Freddy's* book series, *Five Nights at Freddy's: The Fourth Closet*, was revealed on Amazon.com and was released on June 26th, 2018. 2 months before the books release, on April 26th, 2018, many of the books pages were accidentally revealed on Amazon.com before being taken down.

On June 28th, 2018, the presumed send-off to the series, *Ultimate Custom Night* was released on Steam for free. It features 50+ characters from the franchise.

Scott has also made a number of troll games. The first was a reskin of There Is No Pause Button, one of his earlier games. Scott had claimed he was hacked and FNaF 3 was leaked, but upon downloading the leak, it was just TiNPB. The second was another supposed leak, this time for FNaF World, but this time the troll was a reskin of "Fighter Mage Bard". The third troll game was the "Mature Edition" of Sister Location, which was delayed for being too dark. However, the mature edition was just a reskin of "Sit and Survive" and the real game was released shortly after. The most recent troll by Scott was a supposed demo of Ultimate Custom Night. However, this "demo" was a reskin of his first game, Doofas.

## Clickteam Interview (November 4 2014)

**Hello Scott! Thanks for accepting this interview. Can you tell us how long you have been creating games? At what age did you start? What was your first machine?**

*My mom bought me a copy of Klik & Play when I was 13 or 14. I was using a 60mhz Acer computer that had 8 megs of ram. Hey that was blazing fast back in the day!*

**What was your very first game? Are you still proud of it today? Did you distribute it? Is there a place where we can see it?**

*My VERY first game involved a blue blob moving around the deck of a pirate ship collecting red gems while menacing pirates ran around on the laziest path movements you can imagine. ALL library graphics of course; except the blob… I drew the blob.*
I’d say my first “official” game was…. well, Legacy of Flan! It was my first stab at an rpg, some of you may remember it from The Daily Click. And yeah I’m still proud of it.

**When did you take the decision to actually publish your first game? What was the platform you used at the time?**

*My first try at a professional game was Iffermoon. This was before Steam though and I wasn’t very internet savvy so I just asked for donations through my site. I think I eventually got about $1,000, but it for a charity goal anyway.*

**Are you a gamer? If yes, console or PC, what kind of games?**

*My gamer days are behind me, I’m afraid. When you spend your days making games and then spend your evening with your kids after school, something’s gotta give! Sometimes I do still play a little before bed but it’s only the classics like Ocarina of Time and Super Metroid.*

**I have read that you have worked for 6 months on Five Nights at Freddy’s
before publication. Did you work on it alone, or with the help others? No it was just me. Were you using your friends and family as testers?**

*My two sons have always been my beta testers! I have one son who is obsessed with finding secrets and the other is a pro at finding exploits, so it’s a good combination! I also have two close friends who always faithfully beta test for me!*

**The sound ambiance is a great part of the scaring effect of Five Nights. I personally played it (following my son’s advice) at night in the dark with a head-set. The initial scene with the tongue-in-cheek instructions in the loudspeaker is really scary and fun. Was it you who made the sound track? Where did you get your samples from?**

*I have a few websites that I purchase most of the sound effects and music from and then make the rest myself! It’s only been in the last year that I’ve discovered how powerful using the sound channel conditions in Fusion can be. Turning sound channels on and off and raising and lowering the volume of certain sounds can be a huge part of a game experience!*

**Can you tell us a little about your own development process?
\* Do you write a game-design document, or do you jump into creation?
\* Was all the principle of Five Night correct from the start, or did it follow a lot of changes in the course of the 6 months?**

*Nothing is ever written (aside from the scripts for “phone guy”.) I usually just get an idea for a game and then toss and turn in bed about it until finally I just start working. From there the game makes itself and it seldom turns out how I’d originally planned it.*

**Do you make a working mockup with blank graphics first, or do you need the real graphics to work?**

*No I use the real graphics right away, otherwise I can’t get motivated for the project. If I’m not proud of the very first piece of work for a game then I quit or start over weeks later. Every element has to be a finished piece.*

**Do you actually plan the development ahead (make a list of all animations and graphics initially, and then only go into product mode), or make them as development goes?**

*Sometimes I do make a list of things that I need to make, not to help me remember, but because it helps me feel like I’m making progress. Feeling like your moving helps you to KEEP moving!*

**During your studies, did you learn the process of creating a game at university, or did you self-taught everything?**

*I went to college for computer animation WAY back in 1996 (I’m old, folks). So that’s where I learned how to create the graphics for my games. As far as game creation itself, it’s self taught.*

**Do you have heroes in game creation?**

*Honestly, DTownTony really kind of inspired me with his success with Pocket Ninjas. He made a great article on the forums about how to do IAP’s and told his story about his game. It really made me take game-creation in Fusion more seriously and made me think of it as something that I could do for a living.*

**What are the tools you use to create the graphics and animations?***I use 3ds Max for the graphics. It’s a great program but it’s expensive. I’ve been using it now for over fifteen years.*

**Five Nights was programmed using Clickteam Fusion. What directed you to use this tool? Have you created other games with the tool?**

*It’s the only tool I’ve ever used to make games. I started going back to college a few years ago to learn Unity but realized it would takes me years to catch up to my current skill level in Fusion. I made a call to stick with what I knew, and I’m glad I did. Unity is still a good program but at the heart of any good game is a good idea, regardless of the tool you use.*

**What other game-creation engines do you use (or have used)?**

*As I mentioned above, I tried Unity and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a good fit for me at the time. I also learned Torque 3D a little bit but frame rate was always an issue.*

**Did you face technical difficulties (induced by the tool) in the creation process? Have you found help on the user’s forums?**

*Sure there are always issues here and there. I had a hard time porting it to iOS because of a bug with layers (I think it’s being worked on), but I was able to find a work-around and posted it in the forums to help others having the same problem. I also can’t seem to export a working version for Windows Phone but I blame Microsoft for that.
The forums at Clickteam have always been a great help; someone usually responds with something helpful within a few hours.*

**The game was published in summer 2014. When did you actually realize that it was going to be a hit?**

*As soon as Let’s Play videos started popping up faster than I could watch them, I knew I had something special.*

**Did you feel inside you when the game was over just before publishing, that it was different from the other horror games? Did you make some test (at night in a silent room with your friends and family? Did you expect this massive success?**

*I didn’t expect the game to be this successful but I knew it was going to do well from the first time I tested it and the game scared me. I had just finished programming Bonnie the rabbit to move around and had a still image of him up in your face for when he got into the room (it wasn’t animated yet). Well I wasn’t expecting him to be there and I lowered my camera and there he was! I jumped! It was a cool feeling. I’ve jumped even more from the sequel- Foxy is going to scare the crap out of people in the new game!*

**Did you receive negative comments, hate mails from offended people?**

*Not much hate from the first game but I’ve gotten a lot of hate mail about the teaser images for the second game, and I’m totally ok with it! All they see are the teaser images, they have no idea how it all fits in. Strong opinions and heated debate aren’t a bad thing at all, anything that keeps the fire burning is a good thing!*

**Have you got an explanation about its massive success? Chance? Talent?**

*It was kind of an untapped idea- using animatronics in a horror game. Plus, I wasn’t using Unity. Unity is used for 99% of indie horror games, so because I used Fusion and pre-rendered images, it gave my game a unique look, and I think it made the game scarier because of it. I think it’s the combination of talent, a good idea, and the right timing.*

**All the games you currently publish have a very low price point ($5).
Why sell your games so cheap?**

*When dealing with app stores and any market that it flooded with games, there is something more important to consider than your asking price- staying at the top of the list! If you don’t stay on a visible list, your game will get buried. Having a low price keeps you on the sales charts. If you drop off that list you’re game is finished.*

**Are you going to raise the price of Five Night 2?**

*The sequel will probably be $10. It’s going to be a bigger game!*

**You released an Android version and an iOS version very quickly after the initial PC release. Is there a lot of change in the Fusion code between these versions? What was the success of these versions compared to the PC version?**

*The iOS market is the most profitable, with Steam close behind. Android is surprisingly in last place. The code for the game stayed the same with the exception of sound channels. Unfortunately changing sound channel volumes only works with PC so I had to eliminate that from all ports.*

**Five Nights 2 will be out on Christmas. Was such a short development possible by the use of Clickteam Fusion?**

*I know Fusion like the back of my hand, which is wonderful. When you know the tools then you can concentrate on game creation!*

**Did you involve more people in the creation of Five Nights 2? A more structured development team?**

*Nope, just me!*

**A Question many people may ask : are you actually rich with Freddy’s?
Also, out of curiosity, how do you find the payment schedule from Steam Sales?**

*I make enough to keep the lights on!*Steam has the same delay as iOS and Android- you get paid at the end of the next month. So at the end of October you’ll get paid for September’s sales, etc.

**What distribution platform would you recommend to other Indie authors?**

*iOS is the most crowded, BUT if you can crack it then it’s the most profitable. A PC release on Steam has the best return overall but you have to convince people to greenlight your game first. Before Five Nights I had zero success in the mobile market; it’s a tough nut to crack. My best advice is to make games that can easily be ported to all platforms for the widest chance of success.*

**Do you make a living from creating games as an Independent author?**

*Now I do, yes. Before this I’ve always had to balance a job at the same time.*

**Have you become a local hero in your town in Texas?**

*Heck no. No one even knows I’m here. Mom is proud, lol.*

## Geeks Under Grace Interview (October 25 2014)

**Is game development your day job or a passion you pursue on the side? How long have you been developing games?**

*My mom bought me a program called Klik & Play when I was 13 and I’ve been making games ever since. During my adult life I’ve worked at a variety of places but game design was always my passion.*

**What sort of struggles do you face as an independent game developer?**

*I would recommend a career in game design to anyone BUT I would advise getting a degree and getting a job at an actual game company. Having a solid job and gaining work experience is much more stable than trying to make it as an independent developer.*

**How has God helped you through those?**

*My relationship with God through the years has been absolutely essential, and only now can I look back and see what He has done. For about twelve years I dedicated my free time to creating Christian movies and later Christian video games. It didn’t go well, but I had faith that God wanted me to create those things anyway.*

*Despite good reviews, my Christian projects were all financial failures. I came to a point where I was very disillusioned and frustrated with God…actually it was more like a broken heart. I felt like I’d squandered so many years of my life, years that could have been spent going back to college but were instead spent working on Christian projects that went nowhere. I came to the conclusion that I could not have failed so miserably unless God himself had been holding me down. Either God didn’t exist, or God hated me. I didn’t know which was worse.*

*I decided to change careers, at times pursuing web design, then computer programming, even truck driving, but I always felt drawn back to games.*

*A pivotal moment came for me when my life insurance policy was cancelled. The insurance company had caught wind that I’d mentioned suicidal thoughts to my doctor. It was at that point I realized that not only did my life have no value but now even my death had no value. I went before God again, and it was the first time that I truly went before him with nothing. I had nothing to offer him. I told him to use me somehow. Although at that moment I had no idea what he could possibly use me for.*

*I felt drawn back to games again, but not Christian games anymore. It’s not that I wanted to leave the Christian market, I just didn’t feel “led” to make another Christian game. Instead, the events of my life led me to a great idea for a horror game- Five Nights at Freddy’s.*

*I don’t regret a single moment that I spent working on those Christian projects. I feel like God had commissioned me to make them, and I had an absolute duty to make them, even at the cost of my job and a comfortable life (which it cost me).*

*Success comes on God’s terms, in His time, and in His way. God only allowed me to have success after I’d been broken, after I’d stopped seeking success for myself, and after I’d come to terms with the idea that my labors for God might not ever bring me a penny. It was only after I’d lost everything that God was able to get my heart right to the point where He could trust me with success.*

*I guess the point of all of that would be this: Don’t strive for success and money. Doing that just means God is going to have to work even harder to break you. Focus on Him and do what’s right. If you get your heart right and live an honest life, God will grant you success, though it will come in different forms and in different ways. If you humble yourself before Him, He will take care of you. Don’t be like me and force Him to spend twenty years trying to get your heart right first.*

**How does your faith affect your approach to game development?**

*At first I took a very strict approach, thinking that being a Christian gamemaker means you have to make only Christian games. I think God granted me some wisdom in realizing that it’s not your work but you yourself that makes the difference. That being said though, you have to still make sure your work doesn’t go against His purpose. There are a lot of games out there that are full of hate and gruesome imagery. If you feel drawn to make or play that sort of thing then you need to spend some time getting your heart right with God.*

**How has your faith helped you, whether directly developing a game or regarding post-development?**

*It has given me a sense of purpose. Without that I would have given up years ago. If money is what drives you then you’ll most likely fail, and even if you succeed it will be for nothing.*

**Do you do everything for your games solo, art and sound design included?**

*Yes I work alone, although I purchase rights to music and sounds from 3rd party companies.*

**Your most recent game, *Five Nights at Freddy’s*, has garnished quite a bit of attention but it’s not your only game. What would you say to folks regarding your other work?**

*I’d say go check out the other games on my site too. The Pilgrim’s Progress is a classic Christian novel that not many people know about anymore. I tried to keep the game as faithful to it as I could.*

*The Desolate Hope has only recently been getting more attention because of the popularity of Five Nights at Freddy’s, but has come under fire for having a pro-life message. The game itself was not designed with abortion specifically in mind (the word is never mentioned.) However, the game’s story focuses on the protagonist’s quest to save a human fetus that was intended as a scientific specimen. The game places a very high value on human life, even at it’s smallest, and that draws a lot of anger from some people.*

**What is your favorite bible verse?**

*Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”*

**What inspired you to create a horror-themed game?**

*I had made a family friendly game about a beaver before this but it was criticized online; people said the main character looked like a scary animatronic. I went into a pretty deep depression and was ready to give up game-making. Then something in me snapped and I thought to myself that I bet I could make something a lot scarier than that!*

**Were you scared of animatronic animals as a child? What was your inspiration for making *Five Nights at Freddy’s?***

*My inspiration for the game was the fact that EVERY kid was scared of those things! There were a few brave ones, sure, but nearly everyone my age looks back and realizes that those things were terrifying.*

**How did your Christianity translate into Five Nights At Freddy’s? Are there any hidden Christian messages? For example, do the animals represent a vice or struggle?**

*No, Five Nights at Freddy’s is just a simple horror game, although I did try to keep it relatively clean with no blood or guts.*

**What’s the story behind Golden Freddy?**

*Sometimes things just “happen” during the game making process. I can’t explain Golden Freddy.*

## Youtube Interview (August 8 2018)

**How did you think of the original designs of the animatronics?**

Um you know, the main three characters Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica those designs just kinda uh I didn't really plan ahead what animals they should be. Those three just seemed natural to me for some reason. You know the only one I really struggled with was trying to think of the fourth character. You know who would be on the little stage kinda by himself and I'm trying to remember all the options that I originally was kinda debating between. I mean one of the contenders was a fox obviously, which ended up winning. The other one was a wolf, Another one was going to be a beaver.

**How did you come up with the game mechanics? So, sitting alone in an office, not being able to move. I think someone mentioned about ‘Sit and Survive’. Did that have any inspiration for that? Any, like, old games inspire you for this one?**

 Um… Well I don’t think it was ‘Sit and Survive’. ‘Sit and Survive’ was just kind of a, you know… You know, all of these games… but then again I guess it was my mindset at the time. Because my mindset at the time was to make smaller games and there would be kind of a shorter experience. Because for a while I was trying to make these, you know, big, sweeping epic games like ‘The Desolate Hope’ and stuff. And, you know, it was just too much of a gigantic commitment, that ultimately, you know, that they just weren’t paying off. And at the time I was really struggling, you know, to find, you know, something to kind of, you know, support my family and everything and Five Nights at Freddy’s was kind of the result of me switching to this idea of making these shorter experiences that I can make a bit faster, without committing, you know, two years to them, you know, while also, you know, just making it a really robust experience. It’s just a shorter game, you know. So I think that played a big part in it. You know, everything is designed where you see everything right away, you know. As soon as you jump in, you’re in the experience, you know. And so it doesn’t matter if it lasts five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes, an hour, you know, you’re in the middle of it right away.

**Did anything change along the course of making FNaF 1?**

Um, I don’t think I had any problems. Lots of the stuff that was in there, I don’t know. But Five Nights at Freddy’s one, I think was just a result of all the right ingredients being there. You know, I’d do a bunch of stuff in there, and then, you know, the people who test it (and not my kids, I let other people test it as well), but you know, they would give me some advice. Like one person said “Oh, I think you should leave out Phone Guy, I think that’s too much exposition”. And then my mother jumped in and said “Oh, I don’t think you should have backstory about anybody getting killed”, you know, “I don’t think the game needs that”. You know, and I think I made a lot of good decisions about what to leave in, you know, and what to take out and all the right ingredients were there, you know. So I’m really happy with how it turned out.

D**id you think it was going to get a huge reaction on the internet?**

 No, of course not. Like I said, at the time I was just trying to, you know, make a bunch of little games to kind of, you know, help support my family. At the time I think I was making, you know, slot machine games, and just, you know, anything that would bring in an extra, you know, 40 of 50 dollars a month, you know, and just trying to accumulate all that stuff up. And don’t get me wrong, you know, that wasn’t just an afterthought of a game, I put a lot of, you know, time and effort into Five Nights at Freddy’s, obviously. But as far as, you know, expecting it to explode, no of course not. You know, I remember when I released it, you know, I didn’t get it on Steam or anything. It was a website called Desaura at the time, which was more immediately welcoming of, you know, anybody who wanted to post games. I think there are other sites that do that now. But, you know, I was watching the download count on that, and I was watching it just kind of skyrocket and eventually my wife would come over, and she’d be like, “let me look at the number, let me look at the number!” She’d come over every ten minutes wanting to see, because she was just astonished at how quickly that number was going, you know, from 5,000 downloads, to 10,000, 15,000, 20,000. It was just going through the roof by the minute, you know. And really at the time, I was just enjoying it that evening, I was like, ‘well, you know, this is great, but it will be over tomorrow’. You know, that was really my mindset. ‘Oh wow, this is a big spike, everybody’s really enjoying it, I wonder what I’m going to make tomorrow’. I had no idea that four years later I was still gonna be in the middle of a bunch of, you know, Five Nights at Freddy’s projects.

**Do you have a favorite memory of Five Night’s at Freddy’s one?**

 Um… Yeah. Yeah, I do. It’s the first jumpscare for me, and the first jumpscare for my two kids. You know, it was all Bonnie, which thrilled me, because Bonnie is the only one that I think is a scary design for me. I’ve never had a nightmare about any of my own characters, except for Bonnie! But yeah, I remember when I was developing the game – at the time Bonnie was just a still image and not an animated jumpscare – I just had an image of Bonnie up in your face for whenever, you know, it, you know, he had reached you and that startled me, you know. I was supposed to the do the panels and stuff, and I was testing out the AI. You know, I think I even had a little map showing me that there was a little red dot moving through the building. But even though I was expecting it, when I put down the monitor and there was Bonnie looking at me, it was upsetting, you know, it was startling. You know, and now that doesn’t really startle anybody anymore, but at the time, it got me. And so then, after I’d animated it, I was letting my two sons play it, and I was getting to, you know, watch. I had a good seat behind the both of them so I’d be able to get a good view of them playing, and what they were playing and everything, so I knew what was coming and they had no idea. You know, and the younger of the two, he got jumpscared by Bonnie and he just launched backward in his chair, you know. Ah, good times. Good times tormenting the children.

**Was there any reason why the kitchen camera was disabled, like due to gameplay limits on Clickteam or anything like that?**

No, I just thought it would be interesting. I mean, you know, that mechanic ended up not really playing a big role in anything, I think originally, you know, I had wanted – and I got better at this with later games, how to make audio play a bigger role in it, you know, I got better at that. But in the first one, that was just my attempt to make audio play a bigger part in it. But yeah, it kind of ended up just being something different, and not really being a major mechanic or anything.

**So when you were making Five Nights at Freddy’s one, were you already planning on making a sequel? Or any other ideas what were flinging in your head on what to do?**

Um, I definitely left a lot of things open ended, you know, in case I wanted to expand upon them later. I mean obviously, like I did not have the entire story planned out, because I know there’s much debate about that on the subreddit. Like “Oh, you know, he’s some kind of mad genius that had, you know, seven games planned out from the beginning.” No I didn’t. You know, but I definitely knew that the story I was telling in the first game was a small snippet of a larger story. Even if I didn’t have all the details of that story fleshed out yet, you know, I knew that the story being told in that game was a smaller part of a whole.

## Filmography

* *College Wheels (1995)*
* *Birdvillage* (2001)
* *Birdvillage Beak's Vacation* (2001)
* *Birdvilage Beak's Snowball Fight* (2001)
* *Birdvillage Secound Nest* (2002)
* *A Mushsnail Tale* (2003)
* *Return To Mushsnail: The Legend of The Snowmill* (2003)
* *Return To Mushsnail: The Legend of The Snowmill Bloopers* (2003)
* *Noah's Ark: Story of The Biblical Flood* (2004)
* *A Christmas Journey: About the Blessings God Gives* (2006)
* *Christmas Symbols (2006)*
* *The Pilgrim's Progress* (2007)
* *Bible Plays series* (2010)
* *Rock 'N learn* (2010)
* *The Jesus Kids' Club series* (2010)
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: The Movie* (2023)

## Games

* Doofas (1985)
* *RPG Max (2002)*
* *Legacy of Flan (2003)*
* *Lost Island (2003)*
* *Elemage (2003)*
* *Mega Knight (2003)*
* *Dank Knight (2003)*
* *Dino Stria (2003)*
* *Phantom Core (2003)*
* *War (2003)*
* *Gunball (2003)*
* *Stellar Gun (2003)*
* *Ships of Chaos (2003)*
* *Legacy of Flan 2: Flans Online (2003)*
* *Legacy of Flan 3: Storm of Hades (2003)*
* *RPG Max 2 (2003)*
* *Flanville (2004)*
* *Junkyard Apocalypse (2004)*
* *Moon Minions (2004)*
* *Flanville 2 (2005)*
* *Metroid: Ripped Worlds (2005)*
* *Legend of White Whale (2005)*
* *Chup's Quest (2005)*
* *The Misadventures of Sigfreid The Dark Elf (2006)*
* *Bogart (2006)*
* *Bogart 2: Return of Bogart (2006)*
* *Weird Colony (2007)*
* *M.O.O.N. (2007)*
* *Legacy of Flan 4: Flan Rising (2007)*
* *The Desolate Room (2007)*
* *Iffermoon (2008)*
* *The Powermon Adventure! (2011)*
* *Doomsday Picnic (2011)*
* *Slumberfish! (2011)*
* *Slumberfish!: Catching Z's (2011)*
* *Cropple (2013)*
* *Forever Quester (2013)*
* *Golden Galaxy (2013)*
* *20 Useless Apps (2013)*
* *Slumberfish! (2013)*
* *Aquatic Critters Slots (2013)*
* *Bad Waiter Tip Calculator (2013)*
* *Mafia! Slot Machine (2013)*
* *Pimp My Dungeon (2013)*
* *Platinum Slots Collection (2013)*
* *Scott's Fantasy Slots (2013)*
* *Spooky Scan (2013)*
* *Vegas Fantasy Jackpot (2013)*
* *Vegas Fantasy Slots (2013)*
* *Vegas Wild Slots (2013)*
* *Fart Hotel (2014)*
* *Pogoduck (2014)*
* *Gemsa (2014)*
* *8-Bit RPG Creator (2014)*
* *Shell Shatter (2014)*
* *Chubby Hurdles (2014)*
* *Sit 'N Survive (2014)*
* *Kitty in the Crowd (2014)*
* *Bible Story Slots (2014)*
* *Dark Prisms (2014)*
* *Hawaiian Jackpots (2014)*
* *Jumbo Slots Collection (2014)*
* *Magnum Slots Collection (2014)*
* *V.I.P. Woodland Casino (2014)*
* *Fighter Mage Bard (2014)*
* *Use Holy Water! (2014)*
* *There Is No Pause Button! (2014)*
* *Rage Quit (2014)*
* *Chipper and Sons Lumber Co. (2014)*
* *The Desolate Hope (2014)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's (2014)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's 2 (2014)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's 3 (2015)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's 3 (2015)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's 4 (2015)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: World: Halloween Edition (2015)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: World (2016)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's 5: Sister Location: Mature Audiences (2016)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's 5: Sister Location (2016)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's 6: Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator (2017)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's 7: Ultimate Custom Night: Demo (2018)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's 7: Ultimate Custom Night (2018)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's VR: Help Wanted (2019)*

## Books

* *Five Nights At Freddy's: The Silver Eyes (2015)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: The Twisted Ones (2017)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: The Freddy Files (2017)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: Survival Logbook (2017)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: The Fourth Closet (2018)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: The Freddy Files: Updated Edition (2019)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: Fazbear Frights #1: Into the Pit (2019)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: Fazbear Frights #2: Fetch (2020)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: Fazbear Frights #3: 1:35AM(2020)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: Fazbear Frights #4: Step Closer (2020)*
* *Five Nights At Freddy's: Fazbear Frights #5: Bunny Call(2020)*
* *I Survived Five Nights At Freddy's (TBA)*