Five Nights at Freddy's Creator Pens an Emotional Open Letter to His Haters

[Glaice]

The game is not for me, but if it had more of an Outlast-like exploration and atmosphere and not stuck in one general region, I would be more inclined to play it.

I sincerely hope 4 is the last one because I'm getting tired of seeing the same formula being exploited over and over.

 

[Broderick]

The only problem I really have with Scott is that he released 4 games of the same franchise within less than a year.

May I ask why you think this is a problem? I kind of respect it personally, after all why sit on a completed game until some arbitrary date? Especially in this day and age when some of the best marketing an indie can get is by word of mouth and youtubers playing their game

Over-saturation mostly. When the first one released, it created(or revived) a whole subgenre of games that havent been seen since Night Trap's ilk. I think reviving the market is a good thing, but it created a side effect of people trying to ride on his coat tails by making badly done knockoffs. So whenever another FNAF game was released, so was a slue of others trying to gain their own success. This is by no means Scott's fault in the least, it was just a bad side effect of the fame the game series grabs. I think waiting a bit longer in between games would have been more beneficial in the long run, as the hype train can only go on for so long. I still respect the hell out of him though, especially so reading his post linked in this article.

 

[Luminous_Umbra]

The game is not for me, but if it had more of an Outlast-like exploration and atmosphere and not stuck in one general region, I would be more inclined to play it.

I sincerely hope 4 is the last one because I'm getting tired of seeing the same formula being exploited over and over.

"Exploited"

Yes, because that's totally what's going on. That's also just the right word to use for this. Clearly.

Also, same formula? The only thing the games really share is that there are killer animatronics and you're holding out in a room. Other than that, there are several differences, especially in terms of mechanics and how the game itself works.

That's like being bothered by Paper Mario or Super Mario RPG because tehy involves Mario and (some) platforming.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Bam.

THAT is how you basically say "fuck you" to the dipshit haters. It took me a while to sorta grow into the FNAF-verse, but it really is an exemplar of how simplistic efficiency trumps overblown bling.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I don't like his games. But I would never hate on the guy because he found success making something that I don't like. What kind of asshole does that? Not everything is everybody's cup of tea. For example, I don't like Pewdiepie's either, but I wish him all the best in the world nonetheless.

 

[lacktheknack]

The game is not for me, but if it had more of an Outlast-like exploration and atmosphere and not stuck in one general region, I would be more inclined to play it.

I sincerely hope 4 is the last one because I'm getting tired of seeing the same formula being exploited over and over.

No, you're not. Because if you were remotely "tired" of it, you'd be playing them, and find out that none of them even play the same way.

Can we collectively agree to stop being annoyed by things we don't actually interact with? Please?

 

[Callate]

Well. Sincerity, vulnerability, and a forthright expression of one's feelings.

Certainly this will not provoke a renewed torrent of hostility and contempt!

(I wish I wasn't being sarcastic.)

I haven't played any of the FNAF games; I suspect they're not my cup of tea. But I wish the maker well; I've gotten no suggestion that he was "just phoning it in" or that he somehow didn't deserve his success. To make a living making the games you, personally, want to make is a dream- maybe the dream- for a lot of people; it's a pity that for everyone such a thing inspires, there inevitably seems to be one person it drives nuts, and five who will just try to rip it off.

Better people would be chagrined to find their vitriol had received such a response; I don't know how many such people there are among his persecutors.

 

[balladbird]

. Too much hate towards success nowadays. Just too much hate in general. Come on world!!

Indeed... The rise of indie devs and youtube celebrities seems to have reinvigorated the hate machine. People look at a game like FNAF, or the content produced by LPers and movie reviewers on youtube, and think to themselves "Pfft, I COULD do that, if I really wanted to? Why should this guy get to be special?" Nevermind that they're just lazy complainers enjoying the fact that it's easier to destroy something than it is to create it.

My theory is that because indie devs and youtube producers are more down-to-earth than conventional celebrities, they come across as closer to the audience, which means some lackwits will resent them just because they had the drive to try something.


Still, classy response to criticism, Mr. Cawthorne.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Wait, did some people really think of him as a millionaire after the first success of FNaF???

Either way, I respect him anyway for the huge amount of effort he had put into the game seeing how the game is a success AND he created it all himself! Think the amount of coding, rescording, testing and modelling he did by himself when some AAA companies has testers and programmers for all that.

Also some indie developers out there need to take notes from him aswell (Digital Homicide and Digpex Games come to my) especially when it come to handling negative criticisms.

 

[rdaleric]

The games he has made are not my cup of tea, but I have nothing but admiration and respect for the guy. To be able to make these games himself at speed and keep them interesting is impressive. People need to understand so many developers aren't big faceless entities,but a guy working on a home computer trying to share something with the world.

 

[-Dragmire-]

The only problem I really have with Scott is that he released 4 games of the same franchise within less than a year.

May I ask why you think this is a problem? I kind of respect it personally, after all why sit on a completed game until some arbitrary date? Especially in this day and age when some of the best marketing an indie can get is by word of mouth and youtubers playing their game

Over-saturation mostly. When the first one released, it created(or revived) a whole subgenre of games that havent been seen since Night Trap's ilk. I think reviving the market is a good thing, but it created a side effect of people trying to ride on his coat tails by making badly done knockoffs. So whenever another FNAF game was released, so was a slue of others trying to gain their own success. This is by no means Scott's fault in the least, it was just a bad side effect of the fame the game series grabs. I think waiting a bit longer in between games would have been more beneficial in the long run, as the hype train can only go on for so long. I still respect the hell out of him though, especially so reading his post linked in this article.

Are the badly done knockoffs really an issue? I mean, it can't really be that profitable anymore now that Steam supports a refund policy.

 

[Broderick]

The only problem I really have with Scott is that he released 4 games of the same franchise within less than a year.

May I ask why you think this is a problem? I kind of respect it personally, after all why sit on a completed game until some arbitrary date? Especially in this day and age when some of the best marketing an indie can get is by word of mouth and youtubers playing their game

Over-saturation mostly. When the first one released, it created(or revived) a whole subgenre of games that havent been seen since Night Trap's ilk. I think reviving the market is a good thing, but it created a side effect of people trying to ride on his coat tails by making badly done knockoffs. So whenever another FNAF game was released, so was a slue of others trying to gain their own success. This is by no means Scott's fault in the least, it was just a bad side effect of the fame the game series grabs. I think waiting a bit longer in between games would have been more beneficial in the long run, as the hype train can only go on for so long. I still respect the hell out of him though, especially so reading his post linked in this article.

Are the badly done knockoffs really an issue? I mean, it can't really be that profitable anymore now that Steam supports a refund policy.

I wouldnt say they are anymore. Aside from that though, it is just more annoying seeing hundreds of basically the same game pop up. It is like when Minecraft got popular and there were hundreds of clones of that being made(hell, still being made!). So my issue is fairly minor really.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Well of course he isn't swimming around in pools filled with gold coins. Do you know how hard that is? Coins don't part like water. Cartoons aren't real life. Time to wake up, haters.
.

I wonder if there are any videos of people trying this. I would assume at the very least it would be like sand. Where you could bury yourself under coins. Damn now i feel like getting a substantial amount of canadian dollar coins and trying this myself .

OT: Indie devs take note. This is how you reply to haters.

 

[RJ 17]

Well, shit. Good going, Scott. While you had a perfect and well-written response to your critics, you said the dreaded "G-word" so now you're going to get even more hate than you did before. If I was you, I'd batten down the hatches, because it's going to be so much worse now.

Pretty sure it's a well known fact that Scott is a Christian, I certainly don't think he's ever tried to hide that fact. So seeing him drop a G-bomb in this letter really shouldn't come as a surprised to anyone.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Well, he is a Christian White Male, attacks on him aren't news

For example on http://shutdown8chan.tumblr.com he's lumped into the 'enemies' group and slandered in an impressively bigoted way.

Ha ha ha, you can't seriously think that's real.

 

[VectorSlip]

Wait, there are people who are hating on this guy for the games he made? I was under the impression that the FNAF stuff was universally praised, at least with the section of the fandom I engaged with. The games themselves were never really my cup of tea so i settled in with the lore videos and such ala dark souls lore videos and so I only ever saw people excitedly talking about the game and speculating about its story contents for miles on end. Hell I hardly saw any negativity in the youtube comments sections of these videos so the fact that there are people who vocally hate on this guy enough for him to write this kind of letter is really surprising.

 

[RaikuFA]

Well, shit. Good going, Scott. While you had a perfect and well-written response to your critics, you said the dreaded "G-word" so now you're going to get even more hate than you did before. If I was you, I'd batten down the hatches, because it's going to be so much worse now.

Pretty sure it's a well known fact that Scott is a Christian, I certainly don't think he's ever tried to hide that fact. So seeing him drop a G-bomb in this letter really shouldn't come as a surprised to anyone.

I think people don't think he is because he made a game about murderous animatronics. Not very Christian-y. Hell I'm Catholic and I play Shin Megami Tensei and that has God as the final boss in one of it's games.

 

[RJ 17]

Well, shit. Good going, Scott. While you had a perfect and well-written response to your critics, you said the dreaded "G-word" so now you're going to get even more hate than you did before. If I was you, I'd batten down the hatches, because it's going to be so much worse now.

Pretty sure it's a well known fact that Scott is a Christian, I certainly don't think he's ever tried to hide that fact. So seeing him drop a G-bomb in this letter really shouldn't come as a surprised to anyone.

I think people don't think he is because he made a game about murderous animatronics. Not very Christian-y. Hell I'm Catholic and I play Shin Megami Tensei and that has God as the final boss in one of it's games.

I would have thought that by now people would have looked into his past works. I could be mistaken about this, but I'm pretty sure that the game he made before FNAF was Christian-themed. But people said his characters looked like creepy animatronics, and that's what inspired him to make FNAF.

 

[RaikuFA]

Well, shit. Good going, Scott. While you had a perfect and well-written response to your critics, you said the dreaded "G-word" so now you're going to get even more hate than you did before. If I was you, I'd batten down the hatches, because it's going to be so much worse now.

Pretty sure it's a well known fact that Scott is a Christian, I certainly don't think he's ever tried to hide that fact. So seeing him drop a G-bomb in this letter really shouldn't come as a surprised to anyone.

I think people don't think he is because he made a game about murderous animatronics. Not very Christian-y. Hell I'm Catholic and I play Shin Megami Tensei and that has God as the final boss in one of it's games.

I would have thought that by now people would have looked into his past works. I could be mistaken about this, but I'm pretty sure that the game he made before FNAF was Christian-themed. But people said his characters looked like creepy animatronics, and that's what inspired him to make FNAF.

His last game was about beavers. I think he did some animations for a Christian company.

 

[briankoontz]

There's a productive purpose to calling artists hacks - it helps keep them honest. It's dishonest in itself though - it's only artists who are commonly called hacks - people don't bother calling hacks what they are because they don't see a point.

It's when Scott Cawthon *stops* being called a hack when we really need to worry.