Behind the Stage of Freddy Fazbears' Pizza (Kylie Liefer)

## Introduction

*"Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. A magical place for kids and grown-ups alike, where fantasy and fun come to life.”*

### Old vs New Media

Old media in the form of books takes readers by the hand and leads them through a story. These storylines are usually linear and, for the most part, will not have any underlying messages that are not easily interpreted by the reader. For example, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, there are a couple of messages hidden within, but they are meant to be understood by the reader after the book is complete. The story is also pretty straightforward: a scientist named Victor Frankenstein creates a creature that he thinks is awful. The creature then feels abandoned and starts killing members of Victor’s family, which we know from the creature’s interactions with Victor. But what would happen if Shelley did not reveal anything about the creature at all, including his creation? It would be up to the readers to determine who kills Victor’s family members and why. This could lead to many different interpretations that could be different from what Shelley intended with this work. With video games, this form of storytelling can work well. Shelley could create a game about a Scientist named Victor Frankenstein, who at the beginning of the game is recovering from an illness, as he receives word that a family member has died. The start of this game could show Victor in his home, and on tables or stuck on the wall could be notes for the creation he has been working on. The game could follow Victor as his other family members get attacked, while in the background at different points throughout the game, players could see a shadowy figure that is the monster. This may not be a very fun game, but this shows that video game creators have more liberty to tell an underlining story than what is allowed in a novel, because of the ability to hide things in the background.

This is what is done in the Five Nights at Freddy's games. In the first game of this series, the player plays as a night guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. The struggle of the game is to manage the allowed power of the pizzeria as the player tries to keep out the animatronics of the restaurant. The reason this is difficult is that the animatronics are sentient beings that think the night guard is an exoskeleton that has escaped his suit, so they want to escape from their performance stages to return him to where he belongs. The player must survive five nights working at the pizzeria in order to win. This game seems pretty straightforward, but as the player goes along, he or she may notice messages on the wall that say “it’s me,” or clippings that tell a dark story. When put together, players can find a deeper meaning to the game.

### Online Communities

This is where fanbases become useful. The secret messages, mini-games, and endings throughout the series are too rare and hard to find all by oneself. Online forums allow fans to share their findings with each other so that they can figure out the true story that lies underneath the gameplay. If a player finds a new mini-game, he or she can simply comment on or create a forum on the internet where everyone can reflect on its relevance. This is something that the creator of the series uses to his advantage, planting things specifically so fans will have to work together. Occasionally, he offers his opinion by commenting on the different theories that fans make. Other times, he will simply update the current game with a small addition that will steer fans in the direction he is intending. This kind of storytelling and authorial interaction could not exist in the early days of literature, but now can be used to make stories more exciting and engaging to fans.

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## Authorial Intention

### Scott Cawthon

Scott Cawthon is the sole developer and creator of the *Five Nights at Freddy's* Franchise. Despite having made many different games, he was not a well-known developer until he finally got his break with this series. Cawthon grew in popularity as many youtube gamers played in terror through the first *Five Nights at Freddy’s*. Some fans of these YouTubers became fans of the game as well and ended up buying the game for themselves. Shortly after, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 went into creation. Since then, he has done many different things to encourage fans of the game and interact with them.

### Easter Eggs

Cawthon has implemented many easter eggs, hidden features or messages, throughout the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise; from messages on the wall to unlockable mini-games. There are far too many easter eggs to talk about all of them, but here are some of the ones that he has used to encourage the lore of *Five Nights At Freddy's* Franchise.

#### *Five Nights At Freddy's*

   One of the easter eggs Cawthon includes in the first game is found in the east hall. While the player is checking the cameras for different animatronics, clippings can be seen on the wall in the east wing. When put together, they tell a story of children being murdered and stuffed inside the suits of the animatronics trying to capture the night guard. This story is what initially started the interest in this series, as people would wonder if the children were the reason the suits were alive.

Another easter egg is a game ending that will occur randomly throughout playing. There is a game ending in which the character Golden Freddy will appear hunched over in night guard's office, then jumpscare the player before crashing the game. Someone could play through the entire game without seeing Golden Freddy, which made fans curious about his character.

#### *Five Nights At Freddy's 2*

The second installment of the series' easter eggs mainly consists of four mini-games that occur after the player dies. The first of these games being the "Save Them" mini-game. In this mini-game, the player plays as Freddy Fazbear, one of the animatronics at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. A puppet appears that leads them through the pizzeria, but it is the player's choice to follow it or not. As the player wanders, he or she can hear a voice spelling out the words, "Save them." After a certain amount of time, the mini-game will end, and the player will return to the main menu. Sometimes, a purple man will appear and chase the player. Once he reaches the player, a blue screen appears with the words "you can't," and the game crashes. This makes players think that the puppet is speaking to Freddy, telling him to save the children, but the killer will not allow it.

The others are the "Give Gifts, Give Life" mini-game, the "Foxy" mini-game, and the 'Bring Cake to the Children" mini-game. The next several games also have mini games that bring players to different endings.

#### Source Codes

Before the release of some games, Cawthon has teased upcoming games and lore through images on his website and source codes. These were used to excite fans and make them theorize how these reveal what will happen in the upcoming game. Fans would also wonder how the next game would affect the lore. In March through May of 2017, the source codes of Cawthon's website and Five Nights at Freddy's World's website got into an argument. First noticed on March 31 on *ScottGames.com* it says "You are crowding us." To which *FNaFWorld.com* responded on the same day "Be quiet." The next day *ScottGames.com* says “'You' can't tell us what to do anymore." and another response from *FNaFWorld.com.* The conversation finally ends on May 14th, when *ScottGames.com* says "We found a way to eject you."  These types easter eggs show that Cawthon really cares about what he is doing and in getting his fans involved since he goes as far to make sure he changes the source codes of both websites.

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## Knowledge Communities

Because of all the small elements that Cawthon implements in his games, the *Five Nights at Freddy's* fanbase works together to figure out the meaning of everything Scott Cawthon puts into his games. This group is lead by Matthew Patrick, a youtube creator that is the owner of the channel “TheGameTheorists”, in which he picks apart video games and theorizes about them using in-game clues as well as science. For his *Five Nights at Freddy's*, Patrick will do a lot of research after each game’s release: playing the game multiple times on his own, analysing Cawthon’s posts on Steam and Reddit, looking at the trailers for the games as well as their websites, and looking at others’ theories that they have posted online. This is why, for the most part, fans will accept Patrick’s theory to be the most accurate of all the theories, because of the research he does in the games and online on others’ theories. There are times when fans will notice that a theory Patrick has made is wrong. Fans, and sometimes even Cawthon himself, will then point out his mistake.

         In these theory videos, Patrick usually presents a timeline that has been developed from the different games that have been released, fixing the timeline based off of what was learned in the newest installment. This timeline is developed through his own findings in the game, as well as what he has learned from others’ findings online. In the video to the right, Patrick discusses the fanbase and how quickly theories were beginning. He shows a theory that was made on March 4, 2015, only two days after the game’s release. This theory contains a lot of the same ideas that Patrick presents in his video. Perhaps this is where Patrick received help in coming to his conclusion for his theory on the third game. Without the online communities posting theories, Patrick may have come to a different conclusion on his meaning of the games. Likewise, without Patrick's videos, the other theorists for this franchise may not have the same ideas or evidence for their theories. The franchise also may not have as large of a following, because there is no leader keeping everyone together as they theorize.

     Not only do online communities help to figure out the lore of the game, but they also help to find the things in the game that provide hints to the lore of the franchise. In the aforementioned video, Patrick also says that the fans online were able to help him figure out where to enter a code given in the game. This code leads players to a mini-game that has to be played to get the “good ending” of the third installment of the game. There are multiple different mini games throughout this game that, when all are played, allow players to get this ending. All of these mini-games are found by clicking on specific things on each of the five nights. Players cannot do everything on one night, and can only access certain mini-games in specific ways. For example, to get into the first two mini-games on night one, the player must click on a Balloon boy poster in the hallway to access the balloon boy mini-game, and the puppet poster in a different hallway to access the puppet mini-game. These two mini-games have to be played on the same night, and if they are not the player will not get the good ending. With so many different requirements, this clearly was meant to be a team effort. People would get onto forums (mainly on Reddit or Steam) to share their findings.

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## Disputes

### Question of Intention

One of the more popular questions of the *Five Nights at Freddy’s* fanbase is as to whether or not Scott initially intended for the games to have as much story as there is now. Because of the sudden popularity of the first game, some of the fanbase believes that Scott wanted to dwell in his new relevance and expand on the universe that was introduced in this game. Others disagree, saying that Scott has known where the franchise is going from the very beginning. Some assume this because even in the first game he had easter eggs that explained the lore of the game, such as the story of the missing children and Golden Freddy because both became important in the story later on.

 Some fans think that Cawthon does not have a story in mind at all, just little pieces of backstory that the fans read very deeply into and to create the story for him. After seeing the different theories that fans came up with, he chooses his favorite and makes the next game to go in the direction of that theory.

### Annoyance with Fans

It seems to some that Cawthon is aggravated with the franchise's fans. When created *Five Nights at Freddy’s World*, a game that is also considered to be outside the game franchise canon, he added an ending that shows some annoyance with his fans. To get this ending, the player must play through the game in hard mode. After the player has beaten the game, they are confronted with Animdude, the online representation of Scott Cawthon. This character scolds the player for playing the game. “So it’s your fault for my misery,” Animdude says. “It’s never enough for you people. Don’t you get it? I can’t do this anymore! I won’t…” After defeating Animdude, the game is over, and Animdude confronts the player once again. “...Was this the ending you wanted? Coming all the way here just to kill me? Was I really the villain you had in mind…”

The question fans have is as to whether or not this ending is a joke, to tell the fans to relax between installments in a teasing way, or if it is serious ridiculing of the fans. After finishing the ending live on "TheGameTheorists" channel, Matthew Patrick asks this very question, but there is no real thought or discussion about it after the fact. Other fans still discuss it, wondering what this ending means.

The game was removed from Steam on January 25, 2016, a mere four days after it’s release. Scott claimed it was because of its bad reviews, but players cannot help but wonder if this outburst is what caused the game's termination.

### Theories

Another large question of the community is what the lore behind these games really is. People can agree on some things, such as the murdered children are haunting the animatronic suits, but from there the lore can be confusing and lead people to different conclusions, especially after the release of a *Five Nights at Freddy's* book series, which Cawthon has announced to be apart of a separate canon. Since the books are considered a separate canon, fans will look to the books to help explain the lore, but things have gotten more confusing since the use of one of the book character's names in *Five Nights At Freddy’s: Sister Location.* Fans can get into heated discussions as they try to relate the games together while using the books as a reference.

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## References

1. ↑ Cawthon, Scott. *Five Nights at Freddy's*. Scott Games, 2014.
2. ↑ Kizzycocoa. “FNAF 1 Newspapers and Clippings.” FNaFLore.com, fnaflore.com/resources/newspapers-and-clippings/fnaf1/.
3. ↑ the daimond minecart jr. Golden Freddy Jumpscare FNAF 1. YouTube, YouTube, 17 Jan. 2015, youtu.be/G\_jzw09Vxik.
4. ↑ Khin. “Guide :: FNAF 2 Easter Eggs.” *Steam Community*, 12 Dec. 2014, steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=357483270.
5. ↑ Cawthon, Scott. ScottGames.com, 31 Mar. 2017, www.scottgames.com/. Found in the source code of the website.
6. ↑ Cawthon, Scott. FNaFWorld.com, 31 Mar. 2017, www.fnafworld.com/. Found in the source code of the website.
7. ↑ Patrick, Matthew and The Game Theorists. Game Theory: Why FNAF Will Never End. YouTube, YouTube, 1 Sept. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9FrNYjr3L4.
8. ↑ Patrick, Matthew and The Game Theorists, directors. Game Theory: FNAF Mysteries SOLVED Pt. 1. YouTube, YouTube, 26 Apr. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPugMe4ePEw&t=84s.
9. ↑ RabidRetrospectGames, director. FNAF World Scott Cawthon Final Boss Fight and Ending Hard Mode. YouTube, YouTube, 22 Jan. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=48JDYso8wlk.
10. ↑ Comment Section of “FNAF World - ALL the ENDINGS! (Part 4).” YouTube, YouTube, 6 Feb. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XHHLg2aZ0A.