What's going on guys (oof clap) Dawko back again, hope you are fantastic today and welcome to the interview with Scott Cawthon. I am ex- so so excited and nervous at the same time, and I'm so frickin nervous for this and but it's gonna be great. I've got a bunch of questions to ask him uhh from all of the games, so Fnaf 1 through til Ultimate Custom Night and the future as well. So I'm going to ask him some future updates what he's planning, and um stuff about himself as well. So it's gonna be a great interview. Please understand as well that that I've got a lot of questions, but I couldn't ask everybody's of course, I got like literally ten thousand questions from you guys. So I had to pick each ones and I gave Scott the questions and we've reviewed them together for the ones he wants to answer. Okay, so yeah, that's all I need to say. Thank you so much for the support. And again, thank you Scott for the opportunity to give you an interview I am incredibly nervous. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm credibly grateful for you guys and Scott as well on this franchise. Happy Anniversary to Fnaf. Four years today. It's insane. Let's go! (Squeals nervously) (Phone-call ringing sound) Hello? Uh, Hello. Hello hello. Um, if you're hearing this, that means that you beat 50/20 mode and I have to do an interview now which I'm kind of uncomfortable with but I'm gonna do any- ah forget it, okay I'm done with the phone guy stick so... (Lewis laughs maniacally) I was gonna try and keep it going for a while. But nah, I think I'll just end it right there. Yeah, that's perfect, that's perfect. How are you doing today Lewis? I am very scared and nervous because you know No no, that's (x3) crazy talk. Yeah, I've been feeling a little anxious about this too because you know, I tend to ramble on with my answers sometimes. But I haven't- I haven't prepared any answers for this. I'm just gonna try to uhh speak from the heart and just uhh talk about some stuff and yeah, it'll be good. Yeah, awesome because today um is the four year anniversary of Five Nights at Freddy's, so... Four years. It's crazy. Yeah, four years. And we'll just get straight into it. So the first game. So four years since Five Nights at Freddy's 1, we're gonna go straight into that. Um... So the first question, I'd love to ask you to kick it off. With how did you think of the original designs of the animatronics? So the original gang? Um, you know. The...the main three characters uh Freddy, Bonnie and Chica. Those designs just kind of umm I didn't really plan ahead like what animals they should be. Those three just kind of 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 separate little stage kind of by himself. Yeah. And I'm trying to remember all the all the options that I'd come that I uhh originally was kind of debating between. I mean, one of them one of the contenders was a fox obviously which ended up winning. Errr the other one was a wolf, and (Alright) and the other one was going to be...a beaver. (Laughs) But then later I decided against that because I could I thought that was too on-the-nose from Chipper so I decided to get that. But yeah, actually if I remember correctly I really think that a beaver character was the front-runner. Until I finally decided against him because of Chipper and then went with fox instead. Yeah. So Freddy was always gonna be the original, like leader instead of um Chipper. Yeah. Yeah. Freddy was always the...Freddy was always gonna be the main character. He was the first character that I made, um... It just came naturally I didn't didn't have to plan him out I just knew that he was gonna be a bear with a top hat holding a microphone. Yeah. You know, he was always...he was always gonna be the leader of the...the leader of the pack. And the next question is, how did you come up with the game mechanics? So sitting alone in an office not being able to move and um...I think someone mentioned about sit and survive. Did that having any inspiration for that any like old games inspire you for this one? Um, well, I don't think it was sit and survive I don't...(Laughs) Sit and survive was just kind of you know, uhh you know all of these games (Cough) Well, this again, I just I guess it was my mindset at the time because my mindset at the time was uhh... To make smaller smaller games. And there would be kind of a shorter experience because for a while I was trying to make these you know big kind of 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 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 you know without committing. You know two years to them. You know while also um... You know, I'm just making it a really robust experience. It's just a shorter game, you know So I think that that played a big part in it, you know Everything, everything is designed to 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 for five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes, an hour, you know You're in the middle of it right away and uhh... Yeah. And did anything change along the course of making Fnaf 1 Um, I don't I don't think ahead I don't think it had any problems lots of the stuff that was in there I don't know. But Five Nights at Freddy's 1, I think this was a result of just all the right ingredients will be there You know, I do a bunch of stuff in there and then You know people were kind of the people who test it would kind of give me um I am 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, you know, and my mother jumped in and said oh I don't think you should have backstory about anybody killed. You know, I don't think the game needs that. You know and then I think I've made a lot of good decisions about what to leave them. You know and what to take out and it just it was all all the right ingredients all the right ingredients were there, you know um... So yeah, I'm really happy with that. Yeah, it really stood out from all of the indie games everybody was playing at that time and um... That's definitely how it like became successful. It just stood out from any of a horror experience as well. Um... So yeah, good job, you know, really good job, um... Speaking about that about it um... Exploding. Did you think it was going to you know? Get a huge reaction on the Internet? No, of course not I mean, but like I said at the time, you know I was I was 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 was making you know slot machine games and just you know, anything would bring in an extra, you know Forty or fifty dollars a month, you know, just trying to accumulate all that stuff So no, I you know, you know whenever I and I mean it don't get me wrong, you know That wasn't just an after-thought of a game and that 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 whenever I released it You know, I didn't get it on Steam or anything. It was website called Desura at the time, which was just more Immediately welcoming of you know, anybody wanted to post games I think there 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 yeah You know, I've got then eventually my wife would come over and she'd be like, let me look at the numbers! Let me look at the numbers! she come over every 10 minutes wanting to see because I was just astonished but at how quickly that number was just going From you know 5,000 downloads 10,000 15,000 20,000. It was just going through the roof just by the minute, you know And and it really at the time I was just kind of enjoying it that evening I was like, well, you know, this is this is great You know that's you know, but it'll be over tomorrow, you know, and that was really my mind. It's like oh wow This is you know, it's a big big spike. Everybody's really enjoying it. I wonder what I'm gonna make tomorrow Yeah, 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, yeah, that's awesome That's really awesome. And Do you you have a favorite memory of five nights at Freddy's one Yeah. Yeah I do and It's the first first jumpscare for me and the first jumpscare for my two kids, you know And and it was all Bonnie which thrills me because Bonnie is kind of the the only one that I think is a scary Designed for me like I've never had a nightmare about any of my own characters except for Bonnie So, yeah I remember where I was when I was developing the game at the time bonnie was a still image and not an animated jump-scare Yeah, I just had an image of Bonnie up in your face for whenever you know It you know, he had reached you. Yeah, and and and and that and then that startled me, you know I was flipping through the panels and stuff and I was and I was intentionally hope I was testing out the AI Yeah, 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 I put down the monitor and there was Bonnie looking at me and it was it was upsetting. You know, it was startling yeah, you know and and that you know now that doesn't really startle anymore but at the time Yeah, it got me and then so then I was letting after it animated. I was letting my two sons play it and I was getting to you know, watch the You know, I had I had a good seat behind to both of them So I was able to get a good view of them playing and what they were playing and everything and I knew what was coming and they had no idea and You know and the younger of the two, he got jump scared by Bonnie and he just launched backward on his chair. Yeah Good good time good time tormenting the children. I Mean you still do you you made them test ultimate custom night as well. 4 years on. No, I'll say I'll say what you know My two sons Ian and Braden, they've been great. They've been they've been great supporters, you know all these years I couldn't have done any of this without those two, you know, they've been just faithful beta testers for me, you know And whenever they were really little, you know, I'd pay them through ice cream and stuff like that But yeah, I made a bit I made a big mistake this last name with Braden, you know, you know, obviously I don't make them do this so I tried to incentivize them and Braden in and you know Braden we've gotten wise to it. He's like, well, you know what? How about if I could beat the BTLD challenges, you know, and I thought I just thought well, you know I don't know I'll give you you know, I'll give you 20 bucks for each of the challenges you'd be thinking He was gonna be 1 or 2 It was like yeah, he'll stance on this, you know, I'll commit 20, you know, 20 40 60 dollars Whatever he sat there and he did like a 12-hour marathon on that game. He was playing non-stop He was raging so hard in there and he completed every single one of those challenges except for like the last one I think yeah that that boy made Bank that day he walked with $300 Worth it Yeah, yeah But it, but it was it was totally worth it because he found he found bugs and glitches. Yeah Yeah, that would have been that would have been really bad. I mean that and that's the whole point Anyway, you know, he found these things that I needed I needed to fix before Before I released the game, so okay. Here's an interesting question about fnaf 1 um Was there any reason why the kitchen camera was disabled like due to gameplay limits on clickteam or anything like that? No, no, I 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 you and I I Did got there with this in later game out of how to make audio play a bigger role in it You know, I got better at that But in the first one that was my attempt to make audio play a bigger part in it. Yeah But yeah, it kind of ended up just being just something different and not really being a major mechanic or anything Yeah, I mean I think it was a good mechanic to let know that Freddy was in the kitchen as well because when Freddy's in the kitchen, he plays his music, right? and That's right. That's right. That's right so it I think it just play a you know a Mechanic because you know that Freddy's in there and usually when Freddy's roaming around you sees eyes, but you just see nothing right there So so when you were making five nights at Freddy's one, were you already planning on making a sequel or any of her ideas? What we're flinging in your head on what to do. Um, I definitely Left a lot of things open-ended, you know is in case I wanted to expand upon them later I mean obviously like I you know I I didn't I did not have the entire story planned out as I know there's much debate about that on the subreddit like Oh, Kind of mad genius but you know seven games plan up in the beginning. No, I didn't You know, but I definitely knew that the story I was telling in the first game was a Was a with 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 this story being told in that game was a smaller part of a whole and if you could go back in time Is there anything you would add change your ads to five nights at Freddy's 1? No, not the first one Um, I can go back and think about all the other games and I wish had done this I wish I'd done that but no the first game was just kind of a perfect storm of the ingredients You know, it's just the right time, you know when you know Everybody was really into indie horror games and I think it was the right look, you know the right field or something you know different than what everybody else was playing and it was you know, kind of a type of horror game or at least The end the antagonists were something that hadn't really been explored in horror games. I didn't feel you know the idea of animatronic creatures so Anyone, everybody really likes phone guy, obviously everybody like the little Easter eggs thrown in and the backstory No it was just a good good mix of ingredient and it's kind of lightning in a bottle and I don't think I was ever able to fully Capture that again and I think I really will be able to and that's okay I mean, like I said that was kind of a it was kind of lightning in a bottle, right? we'll go into five nights at Freddy's 2 next and November 2014 if you didn't make this game I wouldn't be here now basically, honestly, it's a truth and So fnaf 2 is the game that really means a lot to me and I'll be forever grateful for it so Yeah, thank you Just wanted to quickly plug that in Okay, good, I appreciate it about five nights at Freddy's 2 How did you get the idea for you know changing the mechanics up a little bit? So the masks and the vents, you know watching the puppet, you know, there wasn't a really in-depth planning phase for like the overall feel of the games like a lot of these were I just kind of knew what they were supposed to be or just kind of just kind of Felt the way up the stairs should progress like I knew that Part two should be chaotic, you know part should be You know a lot more chaotic than the first one. It should be just crazy. It should Be all overwhelming panic And then I also knew even at that time, but as I was looking apart So I knew that three should be a very personal experience It should be the opposite of what to was, you know part three should be kind of one-on-one And I knew that part four should be Kind of kind of Unique the first setting and things like that and I knew that part five should be kind of high tech and I even kind of Already had color schemes picked out. Like I knew that part five shit can't be purples and blues. Yeah, I knew that three should be kind of green and I knew that two should be kind of Do two should be feel kind of industrial which I think that does. Yeah but but outside of that I saw that I'm not really sure and maybe there was more to it at the time but You know y'all happen too bad, you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and did you have any scrapped? content or anything for the game and because some people mentioned the tox toc- toxicity toxicity meter Right. Yeah, the yeah, the toxic meter III think if I remember correctly, I think of the toxic meter wasn't was an early idea on Just something so that players couldn't put the mask on leave it on for us neon thrown out. Yeah I had I did if you put the mask on this meter starts running out yeah, I don't know that that seemed is that the only thing to fit Mm-hmm, and I just didn't seem to is that make quite as much sense? And so then I that's the way that I solved it was, you know obviously having the need to go and wind the music box every once in while in fact that you know Foxy was immune to the mask, you know if I came up with other ways that felt I Felt a little more natural than just putting on the mask of thing a meter depletes like oh, okay I have no only wear this for five seconds It seemed a little too artificial and it works perfectly anyway So I don't think it was needed anyway, because of what you've just said the things that you've added You're not gonna always keep the mask on forever Anyway, so yeah Was there a reason why you decided to remove toy chica's beak after she left the stage to make- Probably to make her more creepy, right, you know, once again, I'm not entirely sure what my mindset was on that I think it was just kind of a way to distinguish her stay, you know at stage presence chica from Now a monster coming to get you. You know, what? Yeah, she's entered attack mode or something, you know well once again actually, I think maybe part of it is because like you know a classic chica even on stage was still kind of creepy looking but the toy versions just In there in there standing state on stage weren't quite as creepy I mean, I think boy Bonnie still retains some of that but like toy chica isn't really Scary-looking toy chica by herself isn't very scary. I just think and Yeah, so removing the beak was just one thing to just kind of push it into you know Making her look a little more uncomfortable. And so How did you come up with the minigames? Because this was the first game to ever have minigames was this to you know? Show the lore Not on paper if that makes sense So, you know instead of just giving like listen listen II so bla bla bla bla bla bla and the killer killed five kids yada Yada, yeah, but instead you didn't show it on paper you put in into a minigame Right. Um, I think was because I don't know. I already keep the gameplay experience Similar and I but I also wanted to make the game a little bit more Fleshed out than the first one and so that just seems like a kind of natural Way to do that whirring while not interfering with the gameplay, you know putting it in in kind of an unexpected Way, no, no, that would make it interesting but while also not making the player feel like they're forced to sit through cutting things like that and you Have any good memories of Fnaf 2 at all? or bad? um That was that was a really stressful time for me I think because yeah, obviously, you know, my wife was changing a lot at that point, you know, it's a lot of that there was a big frenzy going on with just all aspects of my life and I was really trying to work on that but I mean it there there still there's still good memories Yeah, I just wouldn't want to revisit that you know, it was just it was really chaotic and I was really stressed out Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah all Good memories, but I wouldn't want to revisit it. Okay, you will move on to five nights at Freddy's 3 then So this one this is the this is when I emailed you and for early access I only had Lee I literally had only like I think it was like 6K subs or something like that and I've still got the email. Oh, hey Scott My name's dawko I make Fnaf videos. Um Is there any chance I could get it early when it comes out? Said yeah you for me on your list, which is insane. that Like honestly, I feel I've still got that Let's look at that list on my desktop the same one from from all those years ago and it literally called and it literally called my VIP list No, yeah, he said that in the email I said, I'll put you on the VIP list and I Was so happy. I was screaming when you replied. Oh It's such a good memory. And I don't I don't use that look very often anymore, but he'll keep it, you know Cuz you never know. You don't know what can I come up, you know for future events I always keep that VIP lit not so soon. Am I still on it? Yeah Yeah, I never take anybody off the VIP alert Okay, so I can do I can be bad and then you'll never take me off right? I Was going to test it with Ultimate custom night with this 5020 mode Fiasco Five nights at Freddy's 3 another good memory for me. I have February I after this game came out I I was I was in university studying lore at the time and I quit to carry on with this game franchise for my channel and so yeah, another good memory and If enough free first off, how did you think of Springtrap? I don't know. Um Once they get what once again he was just he was just the character for that game I did not I did not sketch out a whole bunch of characters and write pros and cons list You know, he was he was just the natural It was just the natural villain for that You know
I knew what the villain was supposed to be and I just kind of started Modeling him and he just kind of came together. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and this model was like and a big difference compared to the other ones that you did because you had to go through all the details of the you know being withered and having like body parts and gore and stuff like that Yeah, so he did take longer to model and you know his his purple corpse in that whole body that whole time Yeah, you know even a similar majority of the game. You never see it, you know, yeah a purple guy. He's in there yeah, and well, we got those secret and and Yeah a little bit yeah and the troll was this the first time you did the troll game as well Was this the third this was this is when you forget her, whoa the launcher Yellow the protocol game and it was saying oh, oh, we we were it was like a platformer from one of your old games Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah all game there is no pause button it but that's it. Yes that was the first time we saw and Spring-trap as well because you put spring-trap in the menu and there were some frames where we did have his like em He's masks and stuff going crazy. Like could be not enough and I remember the first teaser you did do if I oh I'm He always comes back and stuff and people originally thought that it was like and fredbear didn't they? instead of air people Gordon Brody. Yeah. Yeah instead of it been like a Rabbit character so I remember those times like I was one of them, by the way, I originally thought it was a golden Freddy this game Was when things went a little bit crazy, we've liked the minigames and stood for the good ending and the bad ending If you can answer this which ending really happens given a lot of thought As to whether or not I should answer this question okay, and I went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and The answer is very interesting Okay, the answer is very interesting. The answer is complex however, I'm not gonna answer it because because it's only gonna cause Strife, I mean you you know, you see the kind of trouble that That he that erupts especially several years ago. The flame wars would go on over mangled gender something as simple as that, you know Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, you know people look with torches and pitchforks, you know, no Yeah, I don't I don't think I'm gonna answer this one. I'm afraid so and the good ending and you know, it was very You know and sad and it seemed like it was like the end of the front choice and It was this meant to be the final game. I think when I was making that game in my mind That was the end of a trilogy yeah, you know, I think I think in my mind the original the story was going to be three games and and in all honesty, I think five nights at Freddy's 3 was where I kind of started letting myself be Driven a little bit more by Criticisms of the game than maybe I had before before it was really really excited You know happy to have all this stuff, but number three came out I was I really was starting to pay attention to criticism, you know, for instance You know, even though I may have you know, and some you know, alternate life may have left of the series alone at three People were not happy with the jump-scare and it's kind of as simple as that people weren't happy with The jump-scare of spring-trap and that rain that really bothered me and so then that Guy in my mind that wouldn't let the series rest in a way because I I wanted I wanted to make it Another entry. That was really really scary again, you know and Yeah, and I think I accomplished that with fire at the first or you know What really focusing on really cool really quick? Unexpected jump scares. I'm Mickey. Jerk So, yeah, so so honestly the Cirie's kind of was nudged forward by me wanting to improve upon The last injury. Okay Orson that's interesting speaking about five nights at Freddy's 4. This was the next one and July while you originally planned it for it to be a Halloween release, right and then you released it in July, right? Well I had things to do You know the way that I the way that I see it is I have something ready to go Just you know, yeah, I mean what what's the point? You know, I'm not a you know, I wasn't the gigantic corporation, you know with you know, you know releasing You know advertised with a big marketing campaign targeting a specific date trying to squeeze it between other releases, you know, I mean I had people who were excited about the game and you were looking forward to and those only people I was thinking about like hey There's a fan base here and they're excited for this. You know, there's you know one I just go ahead and Let them have it. I'll hop the dogs hop into the next project, you know Yeah, and that serves me really well for you know for the majority of the game. Yeah, and Sorry Linda and I was on holiday what's annoying you emailed me about and doing every like first thoughts on the game and I remember you emailing me. Like I think it was like literally the day after side. You know what I'm just gonna release it So I think it I think that made everybody excited about it though Like everyone was like right. We know what it's like now Scott. Please doesn't release it now because and you did so I think like You know, I I played it on holiday and I have a lot of good memories playing through it You know while I'm get screaming when people the next door to me cuz you know on cruise ships Calvings are really close together. So I was full of Screaming in my calves, you know, I was honestly wondering what the next-door neighbors were thinking about. What the hell I was doing Okay, well I'm glad it ended up being a good memory sorry to stretch you out You're not the only person that's I stressed out by the way So don't you know don't feel like you're getting isolated trying to cause you trouble I think If I remember correctly right barely uttered the phrase gross and they now team up and hey this game about the haters game thought that someone - markiplier You know and he emailed me back saying, you know, dude, I can't play this. I just got to this game conference just started It's gonna be going on for four days You know, I stressed him out too because obviously but at the time everybody was testing him, you know to play it immediately And I think that he you know, he was able to you know You know being the good support that he is he still peace still just like you did, you know even even though you're inconvenient still found time to You know Do videos. Yeah, I always try to if you remember with enough world Hello, is it a spell I still played it? Yeah, god I Could I could never miss anything ever? So with five nights at Freddy's 4 Like you said and often you basically answered this question anyway about the game and the mechanics like you said that you wanted to make this more scarier and you know back to like, you know, being anxious all the time and the interesting thing you did with this one is I feel like every game you may you try and implement a new mechanic that you haven't done before and this one was specifically to do with sound but she had to go to the doors and listen closely from previous and I think that impacted the jump-scare like a million times the scary Because you know you you you fall on listening to the game. You have to listen to the game So when you get that jump scare, I don't know where while you're listening waited for them to breathe, you know, I think that really You know made the game stand out. Yeah Well, yeah, a lot of the games were kind of experimental with different ways of initiating yet You know the jump scares see what was really effective And and yeah, I think I think looking into you know This big dark chasm in front of you Not knowing if there's a face You know two inches from your own face looking back at you and you haven't commit to turn on the flashlight and then you're you know, I Yeah, I think I think that one really worked. I think that one really worked. Yeah, it's terrifying and So how were these two model were they you know just as hard as spring-trap, you know, because it seemed like you were Going all out on these and nightmare on electronics the designs. Yeah, the nightmare animatronics were probably the most Elaborate to model. I mean I remember Wish yeah, any time I start a new game that's always the most difficult phases just starting into the modeling phase because I know that it's Going to take a really long time It takes a lot of patience, you know a lot of attention to detail, you know, the five minute phrase One models weren't that bad? I think I'm out Freddie in two days And then I think I took that model and adjusted to make bonnie in another day And then the ones from pyres appraised to we're probably about the same day. Maybe you know You know one or two days per character and that's working all day on them, but still just a day or two per character Yeah, I think spring-trap took maybe four or five days to make him. Yeah in each of the nightmare animatronics I think I spent about a week and a half on each one I I think a couple of even two weeks on each one just because lots of teeth Well, you know a lot lots of Tears and in the fabric, you know, which are not texture mapped on I mean those are actually kind of torn out into the model because I think it looked a lot more convincing than trying, you know texture map them on there, you know, so I'd have to go in there really close and I would have to actually You know cut into that Character, you know, yeah Delete polygons and then straighten them all out to make them look like they're sharp corners rather than you know blocky squares Yes, a lot of a lot of work, but but I'm but I mean totally totally worth it though, you know, yeah. Yeah exactly so about the models and People were wondering about Foxy's tong so foxy Originally had a tong in the teaser. Did you take that out because of complications with the game or anything? No, I took it out because I didn't think it was like it was scary on the teaser you know(198), there's there's something about those, you know(199) those, you know(200), long make like Demonic tongues that yes have they're kind of cool in theory, but they're not really scary in practice Like I don't think I've ever seen a monster in a movie, you know Extend out, you know its long tongue and you know snake it around and then maybe scared by it You know, it's not very scary the others took it out for the game. Yeah, listen about this game it created a bit of a divide between people and specifically the box at the end and then the the TV advertisement with 1993 and then the bite of 87 debate How did you feel about the reactions to that kind of like with fun at the first three where there was something? I was kind of left unsatisfied with. Mm-hmm the reaction to five nights at Freddy's 4 And in the boxes are tied into this, you know, very very closely I don't think that people weren't really happy from a lore standpoint. You know, even I got the jump scares tannerite yeah, and the box really fit into that that lore aspect, you know, I felt that it had all gone kind of - It had strayed too far from an actual story in a way me Just saying that I'm gonna get torn apart for even saying like people are gonna look at what I've ended up with on your blog And you call this a story? But but the buying sign is appraised for it just it got a it just it kind of went a little too broad It castus met too wide for interpretation. I guess that's the best way I said, you know, it went too broad for interpretation and that left people Unsatisfied you know, because whereas the other ones yeah, there were there were mysteries for ended up just too mysterious to the point Where you really couldn't you know, there was no real way to figure out what was going on. Hello people, unsatisfied and and then like I said with you know jumping in three to four I knew that I knew that I had to go in and straighten that house like, you know, people aren't really happy with this You know, I need to make another game I need to kind of ground this again not necessarily in reality, but I need to ground it in kind of storytelling again you know and and and Really lay this down With like well with what's going on, you know, I was yeah, I watch all the game Theory videos, you know And you know me and Matt kind of some had sometimes had an antagonistic relationship back and forth. You know, I Inconvenience him with my games, but sometimes he in convenes of me with his theories, you know, but it's all in good fun You know But but I'll tell you he did a video on that box and he kind of said that he thinks the contents of the box Changed over the years You know and I bet nobody gave that a whole lot of thought but I saw that I was like he's absolutely right He's absolutely right the contents of that box have changed over the years because it's for that very reason. It's because You know what? I was intending the game to be when it happened and then that for the reaction of it I was like, I need to cry need to craft this into something better for the for the people who see this as important and That in and that kind of indirectly does change the contents of the box, you know Because it because it changes the contents of everything that came before Yes, I thought those I saw those an interesting observation on his part. Yeah, and yeah, I think you said having dimension this on I'm one of your Steam posts or something that you You put some things in sister location to ground out the story of enough, all right Yeah, right. So I mentioned about the hospital fiasco. This was when for Nath world it was on the scene and So Why did you decide to change things up to make for Nath Wells? well I do have some reasons for why I made it even though they're not it doesn't mean it was a good idea Just you know Just because I want to go and get that out front just because I had a reason for making it doesn't mean it was a good idea, but even one part of it was just that I mean, you know There's only there's only so much that you can let your mind focus on, you know Murders and tragedy and stuff like that but more you know You kind of start cracking even if it's just stories that you're making up There's only so much there's only so much human suffering that the human mind can sit around and think about at that point You know, I was two years in you know, just fully committed to this Grisly story of murders and I had to I had to make something more lighthearted and in hindsight What I should have done is, you know, I should have used that for a troll game or I should have Yeah, you know made something like, you know foxy fighters, you know, I should have just done something that was Obviously for fun and not tried to somehow tie it in to a cannon game, you know, and that's obvious to me now But like I'm saying, you know, like I was saying I'm not I wasn't I wasn't thinking completely rationally at the time You know and whereas Like I was saying finance the phrase one was the right game at the right time the knife world it that wasn't a good time For it to be made because I was already in the rhythm of making games that were You know coming out not too far apart from each other, you know making them pretty fast And that's what people were one thing expecting That's what I was wanting to do anyone up You know blaming people for one thing that that's what I had created that pattern and I was happy with that I liked making games really fast, you know But that was just a really poor decision of a game to try to make fast You know in hindsight, like now would have probably been a better time to sit back and were like, yeah Yeah, I mean You know like a half after all the kind of effort and kind of stay after I was kind of satisfied up all the cannon games and other other companies that you know kind of taking on some other project then I could sit back and maybe enjoy making an RPG, you know and spend a couple of years on it, you know, just make something a limit at Cal You know that looked like the you know the desolate hope, you know really make some nice 3d models for it Oh and another mistake. I made was fun after all I was designing it for mobile. I don't know Yeah, I can this is a whole separate interview about what went wrong with unnatural. So it was just blew it. Let's just move along Okay, and so, how would you treat the game now as an experience like have you learned anything Making this game. Oh, oh, yeah. Yeah, I learned a lot. Yeah in fact right before word before you call those kind of thinking over that game and I realized that You know, that's probably the the least valuable game I've ever made as far as profit is concerned There's also the single most valuable game Yeah the entire franchise and the reason is because what I learned from phenom world is what is driving every single project going on right now it is it is serving as the gemstone of quality control in my mind and it is solidified exactly what I have to do going forward if if I was treating the movie as I was treating my game series at the time. I'm a fan app world We would be three movies into the to the synapse movies by now Yeah, it would probably probably be terrible you know, if I if I had the mindset that oh, hey, it's appraise people will love it, you know regardless of quality Then we would already have several movies and they would all be terrible. I mean I you know and and the you know ultimate custom night would have come out way too soon and it just served as a really important lesson for me that you should never Taken it taught me to never take for granted yeah how special it is to have a group of people who were eager to play what you make whenever I made the You know all these a desolate. Hope is my example again I saw one one person made a piece of fan art of that on the internet I found on Google so I'm gonna drawn with The characters that was the most special thing to me. Yeah in the world Someone had drawn a picture of one of my characters Like I can't even tell you how important thing that one drawing was. Just you know, I'd have no idea who it was You know, but then you know to have to have a fan base and to have kids that are drawing these pictures and you know some I got I got a letter I Got a letter from the other day addressed to oxy You know And and and and in god bless the post office in my town for knowing me and for sending me these letters Anyway, I kid you not it was it was addressed to foxing only to foxy and I and I think below it might have Might have had some other clue who was it was for but the post office made sure to pass it along to me You know, I mean, how how awesome is that? You know and the letter was written to foxy, you know, it would have talked to you a question Salicin, you know that So there's nothing more priceless than that Yeah, you know and and to have to have a fan base You know of people who care about these characters of the games, you know, that is the only thing that matters, you know And they should never be taken for granted. Yeah, and You know and you know Who cares if something is commercial and who cares or something is going to make a whole bunch of money? you know, you have to make sure that you that whenever those people finally get to see this next thing that It's something that that lifts them up and makes them happy and it's something that it was everything that they wanted to see You know like that. That's all that matters, you know, and I need to write that kid back I'm gonna go get a big envelope and put a bunch of oxy plush toys and I'm gonna write a letter as foxy. I'm Gonna totally do it and I'm gonna even make a little tear in the paper say that it was I'm on my hook. But yeah Yeah, so I assume that's many. Oh so yeah, so yeah That's a long long story, but no fine-ass world taught me to never take for granted Your fan base. Yeah, exactly and the final question Which everybody's? Wanted to ask is well chipper ever returned. Like he said he would Hey chipper chipper is listen, all of these games are haunted spike by different spirits, right? All right, the real spirit haunting this whole franchise is chipper chipper is haunting this whole franchise I mean, I receive you know, I received a box of of merchandise the other day, you know, like Manufacturer sampled and there's a plush toy of chipper little elf chip, you know, yeah Yeah, but III but I held that plush toy and I was looking at El chip I was thinking to myself, you know, you got merch you got merch if You were you were in you were in abysmal failure? But you found your way into this market that goofy grin on your face, you know Ya know the Clippers already back. He's infiltrated the franchise. Yeah Well, I sees so L chipped II was an a reference to cheaper. Oh, yeah. Yeah foot so now this location I feel like this was like the biggest changer in the Franchise because you added voice actors You know, you went beyond the limits of clickteam and to a lot of people where you know You added a sense of free roam in this like huge location Is that maybe why you decided to put voice-acted in and to change things up a little bit? I think I think I think for five nights at Freddy's 1 through 4 I consider that all like one one sitting for me like I sat down I feel like I just had that I made all four Games in one sitting. Yeah, it was only after that that I sat back about. You know, how can I improve upon this? How can I add something new so that's when I was you know? Entertaining new ideas in my mind and yeah voice acting just kind of I don't know exactly what it was but man I'm sure glad that I did, you know, just some incredible talent, you know that got to use obviously, I mean Almost all of them If not, all the voice actors got persist your location have come back to reprise their roles or other roles, you know, yeah, yeah Exactly. That's all moving people. Yeah, they really are. Hello, by the way voice actors if you're watching Hello, Doctor So I Think you've basically answered some of these so I asked like what inspired you to make the game style so different I mean like I think you've answered that throughout the interview. You just wanted to make something different compared to the others So how were these two model and design? Um, I think the I think the sister location? I think the sister location Characters are probably world war my favorite ones to model. I Just I really like the probably like the metallic kind of look I always kind of tend to lean sci-fi which has actually got me in trouble a couple of times with this franchise, you know Any time I tried to lean sci-fi, which is my natural inclination, you know people are like hey well This is a horror story and then I have to somehow try to guide it back, you know And then rightfully so the first games of horror movies not sci-fi. Um, but yeah, I don't know I just I wanted it to be sci-fi want to look really? sleek and polished and I really enjoy the model and all those characters and Yeah, yeah, like I said, I think those are probably some of my favorite Characters of the series. So here's an interesting model, which I Don't know if you can write some or not and so in Night for when we're inside the sea a lot of people wanted to know Who sue is that? I'm afraid I'm not gonna really answer that for you. That's fine That's gonna have to remain a topic of discussion any memories or favorite moments. I really enjoyed making that game I have I have nothing but good memories about that. Yeah, I really enjoyed making that and I really enjoyed working on the trailer I think I think that's my favorite trailer the ones that I made and I loved seeing the reaction there They just everybody seems and honestly I think I think that's what that's what creates the memories for me is just seeing how things are kind of Received in me. Obviously if something has received really well then I know I did my job, right? You know, and I know that you know, I know that I did something right and yeah being able uh, so I think my favorite moment was getting to release that trailer and just Seeing all the excitement from it and I knew that I knew that I was on the right track Austin Yeah, I loved that trailer. Oh, yeah, I think I did too reacts. Yes. I did. I did a reaction I loved it. They're so good and different as well and Compared to your orbit trailers to because I think I'm the favorite trailers from you to me. Um a most likely fan a free and sister location and I love it when you put like in Your own cutscenes in the trailers. I think it's really awesome and I have no idea how you did that. Um, how did you do that if I can ask that? Like, how did you Put the models in cutscenes was that we've clicked team. I don't know anything about This stuff. Oh well before before I was making video games, I mean I was I was an animator, you know, I mean I got my degree in computer animation and I had a Several jobs where I was, you know, none of them actually, none of my jobs that ever involved Making games at all. You know, it's always been about using a 3d studio max Obviously the modeling software that I use and You know and that's a full animation Program, you know, so whenever I want to make the cutscenes I wouldn't use clickteam at all. I would just you know Go back to my old school skills bringing my characters together and animate them, you know a render out, you know movies drop those into My video editing software and there you go. Yeah, that's awesome and I've watched some of your old and Animations by the way, uh achieve they're all out there Scott I know I know man. I know there's no getting away from no they were good. Honestly. I'm not even kidding They were really good Wi-Fi everyone right was and with the cats so the cat under the bridge and the kid was always scared to See the Sun He always used to leave her food and what I didn't know is that she had babies. That's so cute Hey, hey that that that's a true story that was based on the true story my family was we were living in a little apartment complex and There was always this creepy Ratty looking cat that we all started finally calling demon cat, you know(298) And in fact, I took you know(299) and my two sons now who are teenagers, you know(300) They were just three and four at the time. Yeah, but we actually went out searching for demons We made an event of it one night. We all got slashed I went searching around the apartment complexes of the demon cat and I haven't got a photograph of it and man I don't I don't know whatever happened to it But you know(301) We we peered under a car and I took a picture and of course his eyes were glowing green and we found demon cats no, but then but but then but then true the story like I don't know if those a week or two later or whatever, you know, it was a mama cat had little babies So if it wasn't really it wasn't really this big bad cat It was the mama and of course, everybody was taking care of it. Like every single person was setting out food or or so Thank you That's awesome. And actually Thinking about your voice right now. You you did know right? That was right. Oh, yeah, you know that Was me and all the voice roles. I mean we all know all the male roles obviously, but yeah, well, I mean You know these days I'm so fortunate to you know I'm so fortunate to be able to go online and be able to connect with voice talent I not but I I mean I wouldn't have able to afford it back at the time anyway, but you know The internet was brand-new or you're talking we're talking 15 16 17 years ago when you know, I Mean, yeah, the internet was around but you couldn't just go online and connect with the kind of talent that you can today, you know So I was pretty much on my own when I came to avoid packing okay, and moving on to your that I'd say the highlight of your troll nests Five nights at Freddy's six the guy who originally planned to be a pizza simulator and I fit feature simulator and Everyone was like, okay okay, let's listen atomic and And he released the whole game without anybody knowing Anything for a whole year? Like why Just a surprise you'll know that there there actually was reasoning behind it. It wasn't just to be a troll Okay, in the reason the reason was the reason was kind of complicated and it was not a very fun It was not a fun here I mean that was a game that there was a game that was born out of necessity Because I needed to I needed to kind of Bring a conclusion to several several events from the series However, whenever I was and whenever I was in the early stages of it and I think I I think I'd released a very early Idea that I was working on another game But I think it was someone on the someone on Steam that just made a passing comment It was just a passing comment You know, nobody paid me attention to it, you know He'd better not just start teasing a game Like he always has been before, you know producer is not gonna cut it anymore or something like that It was some passive comment. They just made me start thinking it's like this this next game. I Really can't do that. You know, I can't just I can't just do the same thing that did before I can't just start releasing teasers because For some reason at that time. I just knew that if I went through another year of just releasing teasers that would give everybody a lot of fatigue like that without with fatigue people that would wear people out and It was it was gonna rub people the wrong way You know, I can't explain why I felt that way But I just I just really felt that way but at the same time I needed to resolve a lot of issues with the story And so those two factors combined that's the way that I handle it the way that I did I worked on a hole I worked on that game for a year in secret all the while The fan base was you know, getting pretty agitated that you know, I wasn't talking to them and I wasn't working on anything But I but I knew that that was the way that it just had to be it had to be as with this game could Not have a lot of hype behind it Because that wasn't the purpose the purpose of it was not to make a lot of money the purpose of it was not to build A lot of hype who was just resolved some plot points that people wanted to see and so the result of that was me going into the dark for a year and then And then just dropping a game and there you have it and and you know, and even on the Steam stories, you know It's not there. It's not there to draw a bunch of attention to itself. You know, it's using all the really simplest screenshots. So That is truly there for just people who wanted to have kind of a resolution to some of the story it wasn't it was still a big highlight though it like The surprise just I think blew everybody away though. To be honest I mean there it's one of my favorite memories where I'm just you know being Freddie throwing pizzas and then The game glitches and then you sat in a room with scrap, baby Do you know of a like? It was the biggest surprise ever Well good won't be all that exactly what it needed to be just like every game kind of need to be a little bit different Yeah, you know the way that its approach needs to be different, too And the reason why I brought that comment was because it just kind of reminded me like I you know You can't just do you can't just do the same thing that you've been doing You can't just start releasing teasers again randomly and just expect everybody to keep caring, you know So I knew that I had to handle it differently and and yeah, and I think that I was successful with that Yeah, I think it worked out. Well, yeah it did and Specifically as well with changing things up a little bit you I did the M The simulator starts you make your own pizzeria You put your own animatronics and designs in and I think that was a really really cool idea And you know it split it split the game up as well. So you're not just always in an office you have a break from being scared and you know, you can Make your own pizzeria simple as that. Yeah, I'm pretty happy about it turned out awesome Next up is ultimate custom night. So this was the literally released a Month ago, this had been a month already Mm-hmm Wow Maybe maybe a little more even we've ultimate custom night, you know having 50-plus animatronics was this Bigger than you originally wanted it to be So did you originally think right? I'm gonna put 50 animatronics into this game or did you just keep building it up? I mean, I always planned. I always I always knew that it was going to be a Full a full-size game. I mean, you know originally I mean I guess at the very beginning it was gonna be an add-on to pizzaria simulator But it was very it was very soon afterwards. Then I realized you know, this is gonna be just a full Finite difference experience, you know this B just needs to be its own full game And yeah, originally was gonna be you know, 40 characters But then I kind of filled those slots up pretty quick and there were just too many characters left out You know if I had to add an extra row and even then there were too many characters left out So I just kept on adding adding adding and I'd found a lot of really good I've done some really good tricks to really help the program be able to handle it, you know Cuz like my problem my biggest problem with pizzaria simulator, and I'm just kicking myself Was that you know, I just I wasn't utilizing I wasn't utilizing some of the graphic features Properly, you know was especially with the jump scares, you know Because I had these I had these high-resolution jump scares and it would just run out of video memory So if I had to just chop out frames, but you know, but there were just some really neat tricks you know to Render them smaller and then scale them up for the sake of the game and you really can't tell when you're playing it they might Look a little bit fuzzier, but they still look pretty high-quality But you know, it just allowed me to squeeze and all these characters and all these jump scares There's all this content, you know really seamlessly and was there any scrapped ideas at all? For the game, so anything that you wanted in, but you couldn't or you just didn't like how it turned out. No Whereas where it's um, in some of the prior and some of the some of the other games Yeah, there had been some different ways I considered taking it but now ultimately customized there was really only the way that it could go, you know I kept on just kind of Adding on to it. Oh Oh, yeah, but I but I will I will say this is for the record, you know, all your viewers listening I'm going to give you credit where credit is due for for coming up with the idea for being able to Purchase new off of skins because I think that because originally I had had a to where they were just randomly pop up You know whenever I gave you that original test copy to play, you know You had a 1% chance of each of those offices appearing and you made a you made a comment saying hey, it'd be cool If you could unlock those, you know, and then I changed that and out the I think it's a great feature of the game though Awesome. I feel I feel like I've participated in something Yeah, now for the having the offices as reward would be good and I think you put the the the score amounts for each office like perfectly so I think you just said that you were satisfied with the game and But are you satisfied with this possibly being the last game? That you might create the last for enough game. Yeah, I am. I really am starting with paraphrase 3. There was always something That I wasn't completely happy with and that would become a core principle of the next game Yeah was 3 I wasn't completely happy with the jump scares. Why what's on for what for? I wasn't completely happy with The storyline so I made sister location with sister location. I feel like I leaned a little too Sci-fi and left a few plot points. Well, there were a few problems. There was really bothering people So then I made pizzeria simulator, but then they even with pizzeria simulator, even though I was really happy with the game I don't know. I just felt like I needed that I needed a capstone I needed uh You know another but another some other book and just some experience an Ultima custom I'd brought in all of the characters, you know And and it's been any and I think it's I think so I think so far It's been the best reviewed of the games which you know thrills me, of course I'm really happy to see that they seem to really enjoy it People have people that have even welcome to DD into their heart after all this time you know, it took took everyone a little bit of time, but I think I think I think everybody likes DD now so Wow Maybe not no long So everybody just leave a comment in Darko's video No, I like DD and she can just sometimes spawn at awkward times for me and I mean, we're 50:20 mode. There's no stopping em DD so, you know, I wasn't really bothered about I'm just gonna say shocked just shut its shadow deed. Does she have a specific name? She just say shadow DD. Um, I named shadow DD XOR and I'm not sure why But the light would like with most of the other characters in this franchise whenever I'm making them the name immediately comes to mind It doesn't mean anything but that that's the name of shadow DD XOR Okay. Well is that people said that might be sore or was he xor? Xor okay awesome and but yeah EXO I was just with the mechanics of 50:20 mode anyway, so you caught you couldn't be annoyed with XOR because it was part of the Mechanics on what to do to try and beat it speaking about 50:20 mode Have you tried it after the game has like been released, you know, it's possible now. Oh, no, no my squirt my high score is still just 6,800 yeah, make a million custom night the tricky thing about it Actually, I only really had to worry about this here. But you know, I know as mentioned other times anytime I've ever made a custom Custom night. I've always assumed that the most difficult mode was impossible I mean because if that was never the intent of the game when making the game There are always five knives now. I make sure that those nights are beatable and make sure the sixth night is beatable I make sure that nightmare mode is beatable, you know but as far as like, you know finding as far as fitting all the you know, the difficulties all the 20 has never been a goal to make it possible and really one of the main reasons is because If I ever get to a point where I could beat it then everybody else would beat it within the first 12 hours the game being released, you know, I mean I don't me being able to beat something is not a super high are to clear as far as you know someone else being able to come along and beat it with ultimate kustanai was really tricky because Unlike the other games I did there was there was a burden on me to make sure that It could be beaten and this is one of the areas where I think you know, all these years of designing games Really benefited me because even though I could never beat it, and I still can't beat it Everything was designed in such a way to where I was 99.9 percent confident that nothing was going to conflict with something else in a way to where would genuinely make it impossible and Okay. Well, okay with one exception one one oversight might've been the whole issue of coin collection Look because I think I do agree that it might it might have actually been impossible to collect enough coins, you know But but other mechanics provided kind of a backdoor to solve that, you know I mean I'd you know being able to watch to keep something on your camera, and I'm not moving You know that that is that is intentional. I might have been you know used in ways that I hadn't intended You know but it but it was intentional because obviously you don't want to be you want to have a character on screen and Then suddenly pull down your screen and jump scare you that would be teleporting It gives it give you know that it's kind of immersion braking if something is one place, you know So the idea of locking them in place by watching them is is a game mechanic And it was used by everybody in a really clever way to kind of bypass Mechanics that might have otherwise made the experience Unplayable, yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's awesome to know. So the watching the plushies was intentional where they couldn't get you I see clay Yeah. Yeah, I mean Well, I'm healing and like a lefty is there are several characters to pay that we left he is one of them also, as long as you keep came on lefty lefty will never attack you the I mean That's kind of been a feature and I think pretty much all all of the games release many of them. Yeah Yeah, I think I think you could actually get thirty Faz-coins by the way, I don't think I didn't try that though and because what we what we did was we kept Lifting up the monitor which made BB and JJ and help Eastbourne So we just you know, we could get we could get ten fast corns for the death coin in literally ten seconds so I think I think it I think it is possible to get the plushies if you just you know, I think was I think we just like a month ago that someone finally beat Custom night for sister locations before the patch came out You know Yeah with the pilot I know Someone did that so I'm sure that you know The who knows maybe six months nine months a year two years down the road. Someone's gonna take it upon themselves to Beat custom night, you know, no def coin buying all the plushies, you know and just really just really just really torment themselves with that and That'll be that'll be interesting. Yeah, and um, that's not gonna be me slaying. You know that it's not gonna be you. Come on, man Well, I would do in front of a bad, but you know No, no you you've served your time Wow okay, I don't think I would be able to honestly maybe like for a charity stream like Something like that. I could maybe do something with it But yeah ultimate couse tonight and one of my favorite games by the way in the in the series It's in it's on the top four main group. Really really ORS and a nice send-off as well Scott bringing them all together Yeah, you know and I feel like it was a great send-off to the game on it I think it's left a lot of people satisfied as well. That's that's a point. I wanted to make I'm satisfied. Just let you know that and I think a lot of people are satisfied with this cheer like, you know We understand that. It's The last one and yeah Speaking of a it Bennett, but all the matter Olson you mentioned in the during the interview that you've bee you've watched Matt Pat's feverish and stuff and Has there ever been a fee restore somebody you've watched on YouTube and you thought you know what? This is actually quite close or like very accurate to the story I wanted to tell or something like that like if they were right close to being right or something. Yeah Yeah, like but I can't I can't say anything whenever I see that. Yeah, yeah Yeah, you know, but but like I said, I can't jump in and confirm it because then people would stop Stop caring at all then they would just wait for me - yeah, yeah. Yes. I summed one. Yeah Yeah, so I would just have to look at that, but I would just have to look at that comment Nod might look like you you know, you you you you got a right friend, but you can't say anything on yeah No one's gonna ever know. Yeah. It's not being hard to do that to stop yourself from you know trying to reveal stuff because I remember a while ago and in the map hats livestream when we were all involved you were putting things on the website about and Like some little hints and stuff to try and like guide us to the right direction But we still never got it, um Yeah, it has been and the times that I have tried to Step in and say something that have usually been mistakes. Yeah That's part of the fun of it, right, you know people you know that the discussion is just as much fun as Though that's what it's all about. Yeah, people really if people really enjoy that and The times that I have stepped into I don't know I've learned to just I've learned to just focus on making the games yeah, and let the community do the talking and They really enjoy that. Yeah, but sometimes I'll see like I said sometimes I'll see someone say something that was Way out there and I want to jump in and say no no No, that's yeah, like like one of the big things for a while was you know Whenever a sister location first came out there was adult theory, you know And I'm like, oh no you know and it wasn't completely off base like I could see where it was being derived from so it's not like it was someone's just trying to cause trouble for no reason Yeah it was just a theory but I but I was like like I I have to step in like I have to do something to Fix this right away and and and my response to that to fix it Evolved into you know a pretty simple solution. I would just release a new teaser Yeah, that would just kind of steer it in the correct direction, you know And and that is and that was the right way to handle it It's not to directly interact with the community But to just release a new teaser You know that just kind of guides it back and I did that very soon very soon like within a couple of days So yeah, we gained popularity and I kind of guided it back to where it was moving to be Yeah, and then like I said sometimes someone would get a good idea but I can't say anything about that either You know I just have to I've just tried to monitor the community monitor the comments monitor the theories and then when the group as a whole works getting the wrong idea that usually means You know, I you know sometimes it just means I need to do a better job of storytelling and then I try to use that as kind of course correction for the next thing that I do to Destroy the right way, you know, yeah exactly. Have I ever been right on anything Like close to any food at all. I just because lately Rob for four years That's a difficult question to answer because there are really two kinds of people who there are two kinds of serious, you know one one kind is the kind of viewer or a member or whatever who just you take all the known facts and only uses those to put together a Storyline. Yeah, you know which is the kind of channel what you know matpat does Yeah, and then the other kind is taking those few facts and then you just add you know Ad-libbing a lot more taking more creative freedom as to where the story might go Yeah You know Let's do another one type of translator what happened and the other type of the kind of tries to figure out what? Might happen like like after another Six months or after another year after the next game or whatever, you know And then try to figure out so one is much more speculative than the other. I guess. That's what I'm trying to say So it's hard to so You know that being the case is hard to gauge people is how riot or how wrong they were whenever one, you know Wherever a lot of people are, you know, obviously adding a lot more of their own imagination to past you know what I mean? Yeah But I can't I cannot raw outfit if I cannot remember a time never I've watched one of your Theory videos and just rolled my eyes like oh my gosh, you know, okay You know, he lost it, you know Okay, I'll take that I'll take that hips. Yeah cuz I'm I'm like and How I just do videos on just ideas and stuff Like if I have an idea, I just say it and because I like to try and make the community Expand more, you know, I mean not just set their mind on one idea Like, you know, we've air any theory, there's always multiple ideas to something and that's what I tried to do We've all custom night and stuff recently. He's tried to give the community ideas to have their own judgment on the game And I think matt has a lot of pressure to just do one Set plan in because if he tries to go with over ideas and stuff He's audience start to be like well, hold on here. You you go it all over the place You telling us loads of ideas and not just one solid idea Well, well, I mean, yeah, he you know, he's got a lot more pressure on how obviously just because you know the audience Yeah You know that goes with anything else is always gonna be a lot more pressure on him and a lot more scrutiny and a lot more criticism, you know focused on him, you know, I think I think he's managed it really well without yeah, he has yeah, I think he's done really well, you know and yet like like I was saying That's why it's hard to tell you if you've ever been really really wrong because you lean more on the into the speculative crap So you ask your your your theories are much more speculative about what could be going on rather than trying to put together a solid Timeline with stuff like that, you know, yeah. Yeah, okay Next question I'd like to ask is how is the movie going? because I know a lot of people have been wondering about this the movies been going really well, you know the first few years of the franchise Everybody was trying to get a movie out as fast as possible. I could catch the hype waves and stuff But now looking back. I'm really glad that that didn't happen because something I've really started to something. I really started to come to Want over these last years as I want that movie to be able to stand on its own as a good Movie and not ride the coattails of a different part of the franchise You know Because because then you know for instance, you know If you if if you were to make a movie That just had the name five nights at freddys without a whole lot of emphasis on the quality of the movie itself then yeah if it if it happened during the the peak of the Popularity would do really well so if the French as a whole You know had waned a little bit then the movie wouldn't do well either like I want the movie to stand on its own I want the movie to be good on its own right? I want to be a great movie and for that reason I'm really glad it didn't happen in those first few years because I think too much emphasis would have been placed on getting it out as fast as possible and You know one of the challenges one of the diseases with the moving weather reason fighters take them so long It's actually really difficult to it's really difficult to make a script of it I've seen I've had the privilege of working with a couple of Studios now obviously talked to a lot of directors. I've had a lot of scripts come across my desk I've had a lot of ideas pitched and You know one of the biggest challenges oh and I've written three scripts on my own Just and I've struggled honestly with the same problem as well as lots of these other directors Which is just the fact that with eight games What five books including the security log book and the Oils yeah, yeah exactly, you know it was so with the eight games five books, you know just thousands over a thousands of Videos and fan theories and and this Anathem and timelines and all stuff too many You know The people I work with so far have either looked at it all has been completely overwhelmed and decided to do something completely Original just start completely over and obviously that doesn't work and a couple other guys have tried to incorporate everything into some you know master script that includes every, you know every aspect every character every Idea, obviously that doesn't work either because then it's just a you know a dumpster fire It's just too much to squeeze into two hours. You can't do it, you know, you cannot do it and You know originally the script was gonna be based on the books Which eventually I decided was not was not the way to go. You know the books work The books were originally designed for people who just wanted he just wanted extra stories You know, they wanted a little bit more detailed more story, but that wasn't that was never intended to be the definitive story of Iran And people who will guard people who go to see the movie aren't gonna want to see a retelling of the books They're gonna let us see the first game We're gonna want to see a retelling of the story that got them interested in the first place you know, the first game had the right atmosphere the right characters and that's what people are gonna want and Ideally if the first movie does really well, I think it would work great as a trilogy I've had to praise one science, uh, very soon finds the first three Based on the first three games. I'm not gonna go into the first movie with that mentality though I've seen too many. I've seen too many good movies get kind of sidetracked by trying to set up future movies, Emma I'm not gonna fall into that I'm gonna really focus on something a good start with this first one We have I've seen some interesting things and I'm gonna try to be really careful, you know, not not the sound critical of some of the ideas that have that I've seen because like I said, you know There were a lot of challenges to writing a script for this they even even for me because there's just so much information but there are some things that I'm really glad never never made it, you know and one of them being one of the things that I something that I actually heard on I think it was a Matte powder or live stream was musing about bad ideas Bad idea that could potentially happen In a fight as a phrase movie and one of the ones that he just brushed off and laughed about was the idea Plush toys coming to life and I heard that and that's that's another time where I wanted to jump in and say something by do that I couldn't because that's that is something that actually could have happened, you know, it wasn't a full-blown script, but somebody Somebody had that idea and could have implemented it and there wouldn't have been a whole lot that. I could have done at the time so that's that that's a scary thought and that's that kind of the risk, you know of That's kind of the risk of a of not really understanding of franchise Really well and then trying to come up with something that's I don't know that would have been had the holdup in really badly I heard him. I heard him missing that promise on his live stream. I was thinking myself You have no idea but that actually almost happened that specific idea plush toys coming to life and taking over Manhattan that actually almost happened I actually kinda want to see that now though Well, you know, I don't know it Maybe it would work better with a different name. But yeah, I mean the community so and talented in stuff Maybe that could make a little less Cartoon or something like another value to be happening as a joke But they In short though. I have to think that everything's where it where it needs to be right now, you know I'm so what's next and what you got any future projects or anything or anything that you working on? I'm gonna try to take life a little easier I think I did finally get a couple of a Couple of big deals signed with some companies and I'll be able to provide details on that later But there are a few a few of a few big things in the works that are that are happening right now which is the virtual reality game is is going and the Augmented reality game is going I know most people, you know, the only example they can think of for augmented reality would be Pokemon go No, but really augmented reality in game just means you know You hold up the phone and you see kind of overlaid on the screen Yeah, you know it's kind of half and half between what you're really seeing and then something superimposed So you like I you know, I don't think it's not gonna have any kind of you know You're not gonna be running through the bushes in your neighbor's yard trying to catch very fast or anything It's gonna be something I'm thinking it'll be kind of like a, you know a party game Can I do with your friends, you know sweep into the dark? You know creeping through your house and then something's gonna jump out at you. Yeah, you know, but that's that's in the early stages I think it's gonna be really cool So that that's in the works and I'm I'm in talks with the company right now to start porting five nights at freddys to Some major consoles right now and I'm gonna hold off on that because until I have more details on yeah Yeah, you know, I'm really encouraged like that but for the longest time I wasn't willing to sign on with any companies because I was keeping the series to tie it under wraps You know, I really wanted to be protective of the story. I didn't want other companies to come in and add characters in What other companies come in and add storyline? Yeah, and I'm still holding on to that You know, my you know my deals with them are very very specific. You know, they do they don't have free rein to add storylines and characters But I am but I am more open to Getting help now. Yeah, I'm more open to letting other companies Do do what I can't do like I don't know how to make an augmented reality game. I can't do that I don't know how to make a virtual reality. I can't do that on my own. Yeah, so Let's say yeah, I'm working really closely, you know, I've done my best to pick really good people to work with so Yeah, good thing exciting very exciting so we've got these these em, the VR the IR than the movie and Cut my possible console ports. So yeah really excited So I think a lot of people are going to be excited for those definitely if you could get this second I think you just answered this but this is a little bit different if you could get a second chance and to go back to 2013-14 Would you do it all over again in the same way? I don't know I don't think I'd go back and I mean obviously they're little details I want to maybe polish up on but no, I wouldn't I wouldn't change anything. I mean You know in 2014. I think I mentioned this on an online interview interview, but you know, I was considering making another Legacy a flan game which was some series I used to make some of your series of works out of many years ago that like to people know about or love or work on another Or work on the sequel to death. Let hope or make an indie Oregon, you know featuring security cameras, you know And I was a long that was a long decision You know I could have gone Any direction and I chose the indie or game and the same thing with the sequel after I made the first one I almost didn't make a sequel to it. You know, I was considering two or three different game ideas But now, you know it everything turned out for the best I think I wouldn't go back and mess with it Did your family through the course of these years give you any good ideas or like any did they implement? Anything in any way or influence the story? well I will tell you my oldest son my oldest son Ian he contributed an idea for the first game. That has become Iconic to the series in the series could not go on without it Probably and I need to take a moment to give him full credit for that My son Ian where after they had been beta testing I was like, hey, did you guys have any suggestions for anything? Like what do y'all think I should add to this Indian said you could make it for them when you click on Freddy's nose at honk Kind of a fun Easter Egg. Yeah, I added it in and now and now the rest is history like I really like a game can't go by without the Big big shout out the big shout out the Ian rank you into one up up up That's all I said, yeah, you know, but But I mean in all seriousness, I mean, you know, it's just nice to have a support group It's great to have people around you to support. I mean, that's really that's really the most important thing even more important than Directly contributing ideas. It's just, you know people who are people who around you and love you and support you and encourage you to Try one more time, you know, you can't can't find anything more valuable than that. Yeah, you're exactly right there. Yeah, and Do you have any five games? I? Think you said before that you like Mega Man or am I completely wrong here? All right, well, I'm definitely I'm definitely a retro gamer whenever I pick a system to play on I never goes beyond Super Nintendo So I'm stuck in 1993 I have my I have my Nintendo and have my Super Nintendo all the games with a player on those two Indiana and I pick a game of all that I'll try to really, you know, master whatever Yeah, Mega Man 3 was my big accomplishment It places that game Buster on very proud of and and and only recently I know this will be this will be really random but recently I Found a new a new gym that I that defeated me of the kid, which is un squadron on Super Nintendo. It's a side-scrolling airplane game You know youth the use of tear me apart of the kids, you know But it happens really playing that every day and dedicating myself doing that beat it on normal mode now. I'm fighting through on hard mode You know, just whenever I get a chance, I don't have a whole lot of time to play game. I mean a few days ago by the way on the reddit and a lot of people were posting things about your birthday, right a lot of people would like to know when your birthday actually is if you're allowed to say it's just so we you know, we Can say happy birthday? Okay. Okay. Yeah, there's been a lot of a lot of confusion about this yes, because Depending on what a year. You would try to look me up a different birthday would appear on Wikipedia. Yeah and a different picture Yes that yes, we really don't fix. Yeah, yeah I'll just sell it right now. My birthday is February 31st Okay, for some reason I've always thought it was like summer Have some reason so February Orson, okay so That's the wrap for the interview apart from one final thing would you like to say any final thoughts and to the people I think I think I would just like to Make sure everybody out there knows how much I how much I really appreciate This fan base and just how much I appreciate all of the support Whenever back whenever before all this five nights at Freddy's stuff had started and I had just made a desolate Hope I was online and I found one piece of fan art that someone had made of the desolate. Hope characters You know, just random. I have no idea who it was I have no idea what happened that picture but you know that like that that was so special to me seeing that someone out there Had enjoyed that game and drawn one of those characters like that was just incredible to me It made me feel so good made my day made my week made my month You know, and so and so now to be able to you know Go online and just see this, you know, incredible community of people You know with people that are that have ten times the artistic talents as I do You know with all this old, you know with this this fan art You know these fan games You know there's some incredible games out there and and and I don't want to like I'm scared to mention names or anything because I know that I'm gonna leave out important You know what? I mean, you know like like seeing these You know insane games that Nikson comes up with you know, and you know And I've always heard nothing to put good things about like the storylines and pop goes and then, you know the artistic direction of games like Flumpty's, you know and and it this like everybody has these these specialties where they're just were they just flourish and the stuff that they make You know and and like you're going to gamejolt to see these pages of pages of all these really cool and you know and I picked out a few but you know because You know, those are probably the more experienced members of the community, but you know I don't want to overlook people who were up and up and coming game designers who decide to make Fan games as their first game, you know and what an honor that is, you know What an incredible honor that is for someone to want to be a game developer and to have their first couple of games be? About Five Nights at Freddy's Fangame, you know it's just such an honor and and like I said just the incredible artistic community like deviantart and any time I go on reddit just these illustrations of people making you and I've been fortunate enough to Snag a couple of those artists to do official art work for me But you know and and you know in the means are great too It's a very fortunate to see myself featured in memes, you know, not many people get to say that And to see my characters featured in memes so that's always exciting. Yeah But yeah, you know in just the YouTube community just you know amazing I mean, you know you Razzbowski Ryan's, you know, yeah Cory Kenshin You know fusion is about just this whole whole community of great of great youtubers have just been so supportive over the years Yeah, I'm just I'm just blessed. I'm just really blessed. This isn't so much a thank me was just a I'm just I'm just grateful. I'm grateful to be surrounded by just such a incredibly talented community This has been an amazing experience. That really has been yeah and For many years to come by the way Scott like will always be supportive with the community in you always Well, I'm gonna try not to let you guys down but I hope you know, I mean I've I Don't I don't always I don't always get these things just right But I hope everybody in the community believes at least but you know, I'm just like what I said You know how I've been trying to write this script. It doesn't mean it's gonna be It doesn't mean the movie is gonna be perfect. It doesn't mean that these next few games are gonna be perfect But I hope everybody's believe that I'm that My number one goal is to make sure that I don't let anybody out there down You know I know that a lot of people enjoy this enjoy these characters and enjoy these games and that means the world to me I'm just gonna try to try to let anybody down that's always at the forefront of all of my thoughts Just making sure that I do right by everybody So yeah, thank you so much. Thank you so much Scott. I really do really really do appreciate it You know, it's been a long interview and I really do appreciate the fact that you know, you took the time to do this Means a lot to me and everybody watching of course, well, I hope I haven't to hope I haven't missed poke anywhere I hope the fan base will forgive me if I over complicate at some point well
I think I want to do is start up a see a flame where I rest on Reddit after the interview with everybody Taking something that I said So so once let me just make the disclaimer again like no no lore has been hidden in this interview like this This this is all it was all off-the-cuff Nothing was pre-planned, you know, and and and this is just some guy, you know talking about his experiences making the game series So I hope nobody will read, you know too much into that, you know But but yeah this is but this has been a lot of fun lewis I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me Thank you very much. And yeah, and that's what the community's like that they're trying to think about things to watch and So yeah, well I available and i've done it. That's my Curious people and I think that's it guys Thank you so much for watching and let me know your thoughts in the comment section about everything. I really hope you've enjoyed it I really hope that the interview is satisfied you and you know because there's been a lot of hype for this so hopefully like the questions were good and you know Everything was perfect for you guys. So yeah Thanks for watching
I'm glad he ended up doing this interview. It's nice to hear from Scott in person. I wish things had been a bit looser, but I understand Dawko and even Scott was nervous.
Well it was released on Fnaf's birthday so that overshadows it. But I still think that's a good point
Well, you know, people, you know, where looking at the teasers, you know...
you know
Oh yeah, t'was a good interview.