Five Nights at Freddy’s spawned a fan game scene shaded by controversy

Five Nights at Freddy’s fan games have existed for almost as long as the series itself. Endorsed by FNAF creator Scott Cawthon, thousands have sprung up on Game Jolt and Itch.io since Cawthon’s first game was released in 2014. As unofficial content was constantly posted, these projects catalyzed fanbases and kept them engaged in between major releases. They grew in their own communities over time and helped the fandom weather many changes as well as controversies.

FNAF is a series of horror games that take place in a fictional pizzeria. The animatronic characters live at night. The series gained a large fan base through the surprisingly rich lore and its jump-scares as well as hidden story fragments in voice recordings and minigames. Cawthon created the first few FNAF game almost entirely by himself and released them in short time spans of 2014 and 2015. The number of games and spinoffs in FNAF today is nearly double.

Image: Scott Cawthon

That’s nothing compared to the number of fan games. FNAF has a “wild level of accessibility” for fan developers, said Seven Dane Asmund, who created the fan game You can clear your name. Asmund claimed that Bitsy was first released in 2018 and is played almost daily. “I think that was something really inspiring for the fan game creators,” Asmund said. “Just being like, this is something that one person can do. I’m one person, and I’m just figuring stuff out, and I can do that.”

YouTubers and streamers also helped FNAF fan gaming grow in popularity. The official entries in the horror series made for an excellent spectator experience, and it became a staple among Let’s Play broadcasters, whose reactions to the animatronics — and especially the jump-scares — made for a fantastic spectator sport. After the YouTubers had played the official games many people turned to the fan games for the same entertainment. The mutual benefit was that it brought these fan creations before a larger audience, and cemented their status in the community.

Cawthon authorized many fan games to be included in the FNAF experience. He announced in 2020 the Fazbear Fanverse Initiative that would publish and fund selected fan games. In an announcement on Reddit, Cawthon explained that he would be financing some of these games directly, while “stay[ing] OUT of the development side of things so that these creators can do their thing.” The initiative would also allow creators to sell their fan games and to have them ported to consoles. Cawthon expressed his desire to grow the initiative and selected five prominent creators for the initial round.

Kane Carter

Kane Carter (director of POPGOES) was among those who were selected. He originally started work with volunteers sourced from Reddit, and now works with a “professional team of experienced adults.” He said that Cawthon approached him in early 2020, asking whether he would be interested in Clickteam, the company that ported FNAF to console and mobile platforms (and also ported POPGOES). The series would become “official but fan-made spin-offs.”

“I was of course thrilled with the concept, since prior to this there was no reasonable way to put FNAF fan games on other platforms, and especially no way to make any money from them,” Carter said. “The idea of potentially turning this hobby into somewhat of a job was a dream come true.”

Felipe Moraga, also known as Phil Morg, told the group that Cawthon approached him about the project rather than the reverse. Five Nights at Freddy’s Plus. The Fanverse’s official announcement post describes it as a “remake/re-imagining” of the original game, essentially starting as a recreation of Cawthon’s work. Morg stated that his main motivation for creating fan games was to learn new engines.

Cawthon wanted originally to bring down Five Nights at Freddy’s Plus, but Morg approached him to point out that he’d also been adding new visuals and had changed some game mechanics. Morg also discussed changes he wanted to make in the FNAF formula. Cawthon eventually invited Morg to join the Initiative.

Kane Carter

“With financial support, a longer development time, and the freedom to work with the IP in whatever ways I think would be best, I’ve been able to create things that I would have never been able to before,” said Morg. “If you told my young teenage self about the Initiative back when he was still obsessed with the first game in 2014, he would probably laugh it off and think no company or creator would ever be crazy enough to support fans as directly as Scott has done.”

Though Morg and Carter describe primarily positive experiences, the Fanverse Initiative hasn’t been without its problems. Both Morg and Carter describe Cawthon’s hands-off approach. “A lot of people might think that Scott is in constant communication with us, [providing]We need to get a lot more feedback so that our games are successful. [but]This could not be further from the truth. In reality, making a game under the Fazbear Fanverse Initiative is much like creating your standard fan game,” Morg said.

Morg said that while this has allowed developers to be creative, it also means they don’t get the right support or questions for their specific projects. “You are often not able to get the necessary tools or information that would allow you to do parts of your job properly,” Morg said. For example, he isn’t sure how much Five Nights at Freddy’s Plus will cost when it’s released, something which he states in his FAQ will be “decided by the publisher.”

“Like anything as new and untested as this, the Initiative has had some bumps in the road,” said Carter. “It has been a surprising honor to have Scott put time into fan projects at all, but it’s obviously not easy, especially when the man himself is retired from game development at this point. So there have been some issues with communication.”

Cawthon stated that he will be leaving game development after a series of criticisms about his political donations. These were mostly in favor of Republican politicians including Senator Mitch McConnell from Kentucky and ex-president Donald Trump. The retirement announcement, posted to Cawthon’s now-defunct website, acknowledged “possibly the most creative and talented fanbase on the planet,” but stated that he wanted to return to “things [he] got to focus on before FNAF became such a success,” like making games just for fun. Cawthon only acknowledged the criticism obliquely, by stating that he had “been shown tremendous love and support over this last week, a lot of which has come from the LGBTQ community.”

After Cawthon’s donations were publicized on Twitter, many people in the fandom were upset. Many felt their donations had contributed directly to the funding of harmful causes through their purchase of FNAF merchandise and games. Many spoke out on social media about the betrayal they felt, and they met backlash under the Twitter hashtag “#IstandwithScott.” Moderators of the FNAF subreddit contained all discussion to one mega-thread, where many users expressed that they were waiting for a response from Cawthon.

Cawthon posted a Reddit response a few days later. Cawthon said that not addressing the matter of his donations wasn’t an option because of “so many people from the LGBT community in the fanbase that I love.” He explained that the candidates he supported, both Republican and Democrat, were ones he felt would make the best overall impact. Of Trump he wrote: “I felt he was the best man to fuel a strong economy and stand up to America’s enemies abroad.” Cawthon emphasized his donations to Democrats like Tulsi Gabbard and Kimberly Klacik, but he did not mention the same politicians had backed legislation to support transphobic policies, nor did he acknowledge Gabbard’s homophobic statements.

Image: Scott Cawthon

Asmund, a queer man, pointed out that this answer was not satisfactory to many LGBTQ+ lovers. “He never once [acknowledged] that the people he was supporting in every single case were anti-queer,” Asmund said. “You have to decide where your lines are. I think that for a lot of people it was really easy to be like, ‘screw this guy, I’m leaving.’ […] People needed him to realize that he was doing something directly damaging to us with the money that we had given him, and he never recognized that.” Cawthon did not respond to an interview request about the circumstances surrounding his retirement, nor his support for fan games.

A new kind of protest was also witnessed in May 2021 when a FNAF fan noticed that the WAX blockchain advertised upcoming FNAF tokens. NFTs are well-known to many, and this led to a subreddit explanation that addressed environmental and theft concerns. Cawthon himself commented, asking if he was “missing something” about why people were reacting so negatively. Users responded with explanations and complaints, and Cawthon stated that WAX NFTs are “carbon neutral,” but the fanbase continued to push back. The NFTs were canceled the following day, with Cawthon writing that it was “not worth it” to upset the community.

Fan games were created for those who wanted to keep the FNAF fandom alive. The fan community, which has flourished for several years, is often only slightly connected to the mainline series. “Many people [in the fandom] don’t even play the actual games!” said Morg. Morg said that FNAF also has a social media life, especially with viral quotes, particularly on TikTok.

Yet, fans continue to be hungry for more FNAF stories. Asmund, for example, hadn’t expected many people to see their first-ever game, You can clear your name. The video was later picked up and shared by YouTubers. “Hundreds of people saw it. And then thousands,” Asmund said. “That just kind of happens because that’s the community, and they want to see what fans have done.” Asmund’s fan game even got its own fan game, Clearing Your Name 3D Remastered, made by a young developer called Emil Joes.

The first Fanverse Initiative video game was launched in October 2021. Five Nights at Flumpty’s 3Jonochrome created the name. A TwitLonger was published shortly after the launch of the game. The anonymous poster stated they had witnessed, via “group Dm’s,” Jonochrome (then in his 20s) being in a “relationship” with a girl who was “13-14 at the time.” Jonochrome and the woman, now an adult who wishedTo remain anonymous, both posts on Twitter are made with explanationsFrom each one of their perspectives. Jonochrome stated that there was “nothing sexual about our conversations,” and that he “was wrong for pursuing a relationship with her.” He then posted a second message stating that he was leaving the internet “for a long time.”

In reporting this story, Polygon contacted Jonochrome for further comment, and he provided this statement: “It was devastating to learn how my poor judgement has hurt people I care about and respect, and I truly don’t want that to happen again. I’ve been getting therapy as promised, and so far, it’s helped me identify how events in my past influenced my choice to self-isolate for years, and how that lifestyle has been harmful to my habits and way of thinking. It’s only a start, but I’m looking into more active help resources now, and I’m prepared to make serious changes.” (The woman involved could not be reached for comment.)

Morg was founded in December. wrote on Twitter that these incidents and others had been “mounting issues” that led to him being “done with” the official FNAF series. The final push was the mainline series’ most recent release, Security breachMorg was not happy with the direction the series took, and he decided to continue working on the series. Morg will keep working. Five Nights at Freddy’s PlusHe stated that he would continue streaming other fan games, as per his Twitter posting.

Steel Wool Studios/ScottGames

“Disconnecting from FNAF in general has actually made the process of working on Plus a much easier and rewarding experience,” he said, since he’s now able to let go of what he dislikes and bring in things he feels are missing. “My motivation to work on these kinds of fan projects continues to be the same: a burning desire to share my own vision on what I think is a unique, fun, and creative franchise.”

Independent creators are optimistic about their place in the FNAF community. Asmund indicated that the Fanverse Initiative will be releasing future games to benefit LGBTQ+ fandom members. “I really would like to imagine a near future where this continues and [Cawthon] supports any of the probably very many queer creators who have been inspired by his games,” they said. Fans can still enjoy the universe of FNAF on their own terms through fan games.

Carter is a fan developer who hopes to see more projects from fans in the gaming industry. “I only hope that the general zeitgeist of the gaming community also catches on and sees how important and innovative something like this can be,” Carter said, “and how it might be able to affect other franchises.”

The thousands upon thousands of fan developers within the FNAF Community show no signs of slowing their creative process. And alongside YouTube Let’s Plays, TikToks, and fan art, these unofficial games invite new people into the fold all the time. By embracing them and starting the Fazbear Fanverse Initiative, Cawthon legitimized a fandom’s ability to create. At the same time, his actions caused many to leave that fandom, or at least complicated their relationship with it — like Morg separating himself from the formal franchise entirely. The future of these Initiative games is still in development. Only time will tell how they fit into the complicated web that makes up the FNAF fandom.