An Interview with Scott Cawthon - The Creator of Five Nights at Freddy’s

What's going on guys? Dawko back again. Hope you are fantastic today!

And Welcome to the Interview with Scott Cawthon

I am so, so so excited and nervous at the same time , um

I'm so fricking nervous for this, um

but it's going to be great

I've got a bunch of questions to ask him um from all of the games

So, from FNAF 1 thru to Ultimate Custom Night and the future as well

So, I'm going to ask him some future updates; what he is planning.

And some stuff about himself as well

It's going to be a great interview!

Please understand, as well, that I got a lot of questions but I couldn't

ask everybody's of course. I got litterally 10,000 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 ok?

So, yeah! That's all that I need to say.

Thank you all 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 life opportunity

I am so incredibly grateful for you guys and Scott as well and this franchise.

Happy anniversary to FNAF; 4 years today! It's insane. So Let's go. (girly squeal)

(phone rings)

Hello?

Scott: Uh, hello, hello hello

Um if you're hearing this than that means 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 it an..

Ah forget it, I'm done with the Phone Guy shtick

I was going to try to keep it up for a while, but naw I think I'll end it right there

Dawko: That was perfect

Scott: How you doing today Lewis?

Dawko: I am very scared and nervous because yknow

Scott: No no no (that's 3x) crazy talk

Yeah, I'm a little anxious about this too because yknow I tend to ramble

with my answers sometimes.

but I haven't prepared any answers for this, I'm just gonna speak from the heart and just

talk about some stuff and yeah it'll be good.

Dawko: Awesome because today is the 4 year anniversary of Five Nights at Freddy's.

So, 4 years is crazy

Scott: Yeah 4 years
Dawko: We'll just get straight into it

So, the first game 4 years since FNAF 1 we're going straight into that.

So, the first question I'd love to ask you let's kick it off with

"How did you think of the original designs of the animatronics of the original gang?"

Scott: Um yknow, the main three characters Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica those designs

just kinda uh I didn't really plan ahead what animals they should be.

Those three just seemed natural to me for some reason. Yknow (Dawko: umhum) the only one I really

struggled with was trying to think of the fourth character.

Yknow who would be on the little stage kinda by himself (Dawko:yeah) and I'm trying to remember

all the options that I originally was kinda debating between. I mean one of the

contenders was a fox obviously, which ended up winning. The other one was a wolf

Another one was going to be a beaver, but later I decided against that cuz I thought

that was too on the nose from Chipper, so I decided against that.

Actually if I remember correctly, I think that a beaver character was the front runner,

until I finally decided against him because of Chipper and then went with the

fox instead.

Dawko: Yeah. So, Freddy was always going to be the original like leader instead of Chipper?

Scott: Yeah Freddy was always going to be the main character.

He was the first character that I made. Um it just came naturally, I didn't have

to plan him out. I just knew that he was going to be a bear with a top hat holding

a microphone.

Dawko: yeah

Yknow he was always going to be the leader of the pack.

Dawko: Um the next question is

How did you come up with the game mechanic? Sitting alone in an office, not able to move.

I think someone mentioned about Sit N' Survive.

Did that have any inspiration for that? Did any like old games inspire you for this one?

Scott: Um I don't think it was Sit N' Survive.

Sit N' Survive was kind of a yknow uh all of these games cough

Then again I guess my mindset at the time was to make smaller games that would be

a shorter experience. For a while I was trying to make these big sweeping edge EPIC games

like The Desolate Hope and stuff and it was too much of a gigantic commitment

that ultimately yknow they just weren't paying off and at the time I was really

struggling yknow to find... yknow somthing to kinda yknow support my family and everything

Five Nights at Freddy's was kinda the result of me switching to this idea of

making shorter experiences that I can make
a bit faster, yknow without commiting yknow

two years to them. Yknow while also
um... yknow making it a really robust

experience. It's just a shorter game yknow?
Dawko: Yeah

Scott: I think that played a big part in it
yknow everything is designed to where you

see everything right away. Yknow, as soon
as you jump in you are in the experience.

Yknow? So it doesn't matter if it lasts
for 5 minutes, 10 minutes,

30 minutes, or an hour yknow you are in the
middle of it right away.

Dawko: Did anything change along the
course of making FNAF 1?

Scott: Um... I don't think I had any
problems. Lots of the stuff that was in

there... I don't know. FNAF 1 I think was
a result of all the right ingredients to

be there. I threw a bunch of stuff in there
and then yknow people who tested it would

give me... and I don't mean my kids, I let
some other people test it as well.

But yknow they would give me some advice
like one person said

"oh I think you should leave out Phone Guy
there's too much exposition"

and then my mother jumps in and says

"oh I don't think you should have backstory
about anybody being killed yknow I don't
think the game needs that"

Yknow I think I made a lot of really good
decisions about what to leave in yknow and

what to take out.

It was just all the right ingredients there
so I'm really happy with that.

Dawko: It really stood out from all the
indie games people were playing to the time.

That's definitely how it became successful.
It just stood out from any other horror
experience aswell so yeah. Good Job!

Speaking about that exploding,
Did you think it was going to get a huge
reaction on the internet?

Scott: No, of course not. I mean... like I said,
at the time yknow I was trying to make

a bunch of little games to help support my
family. At the time I think I was making

slot machine games and just yknow anything
that would bring in an extra yknow 40 or 50

dollars a month. Yknow just trying to
accumulate all that stuff up so no.

Don't get me wrong, yknow that wasn't just
an afterthought of the game, I put in a lot

of time and effort into FNAF obviously
but as far as expecting it to explode?

No, of course not. Yknow I remember when
I released it, I didn't get it on Steam or

anything it was on a site called Desura at
the time, which was more imediately

welcoming of yknow anybody who wanted to
post games.

There are other sites that do that now, but
yknow I was watching the download count on
that

and I was watching it kinda skyrocket and
eventually my wife would come over and

she'd be like "lemme look at the number
lemme look at the number". She'd come over

every 10 minutes wanting to see because she
was just astonished at how quickly that

number was going from yknow 5000 to 10000
to 15000 and 20000. It was just going
through the roof by the minute!

Yknow at the time I was just kinda enjoying
it that evening. I was like

"Well yknow this is great but yknow it'll
be over tomorrow." Yknow that was my mindset.

Like "Oh wow this is a big spike, everybody
is enjoying it. I wonder what I'll make tomorrow."

I had no idea that 4 years later I was still
gonna be in the middle of a bunch of FNAF projects.

Dawko: Yeah, that's awesome. That's really
awesome

Do you have a favorite memory of FNAF 1?

Scott: yeah, yeah ,yeah I do and it's the first jumpscare for me

and the first jumpscare from my two kids you know and

it was all Bonnie which thrilled me because Bonnie is the only one that