On January 21, Scott Cawthon’s Five Nights at Freddy’s World (FNaF World), the surprisingly light-hearted role-playing followup to the popular horror series, was released on Steam, ahead of its announced February 19th release date. User reception was generally positive, but the drastic shift in style and tone left some fans confused, leading to an 87 percent user review rating. Not satisfied with an aggregated score of “very positive”, Cawthon pulled the game from Steam, promising to update it with new features and release it for free on Game Jolt once it was ready.

In a post on Steam, Cawthon explained that his own excitement led him to release the game too early. “I got too eager to show the things that were finished,” wrote Cawthon. “to a community that I’ve enjoyed and respected for over a year and a half now- I’m sorry.” It’s a remarkably apologetic measure to take such drastic steps in response to what is still a high rating, like a straight A student begging for forgiveness after bringing home a B+. But it says something about both how highly Cawthon regards the opinions of his players, and what that’s meant for his career and his personal life.

Worlds Builder Published: May 28th, 2020 HTML5 A great strategy game where you will be combining many different elements and thus shaping the world around you. With 40 playable characters, multiple endings, multiple difficulties, and a great soundtrack from artist Leon Riskin, FNaF World hits the ground running and doesn't stop. Take control of Freddy and the gang as they set out on a quest in the world beneath worlds, a world that reflects the actions and deeds of the 'flipside', where things have.

This is something that Cawthon talks about in a 2014 interview with Christian nerd culture website Geeks Under Grace.Turnsoutthis recent commotion with FNaF World is only the latest in a history of Cawthon drastically altering his work to appease his fans. While some game creators get by with ignoring or outright antagonizing fan reception, to Cawthon, his relationship with his audience seems to be the most important part of his work.

The interview was conducted shortly after the release of the first Five Nights At Freddy’s (2014), the inspiration of which Cawthon explained came from criticism of his previous game, Chipper and Sons Lumber Co(2013). “I had made a family friendly game about a beaver before this, but it was criticized online; people said the main character looked like a scary animatronic,” explained Cawthon. “I went into a pretty deep depression…Then something in me snapped and I thought to myself that I bet I could make something a lot scarier than that!”

In this instance, Scott’s tendency to listen to criticism lead him to mainstream acclaim. However, before the release of Five Nights at Freddy’s, this same strong reaction to how his games were received also had him questioning his career path and faith. A devout Christian, Cawthon had gotten his start in game development making Christian adventure games. Among these was Pilgrim’s Progress (2012), an adaptation of the 1678 religious allegory of the same name. Perhaps more notable is The Desolate Hope (2012), a more original game that combined sidescrolling elements with top-down Zelda-style dungeons and Final Fantasy-esque boss battles.

The game’s world featured a dark, brooding, and twisted industrial landscape with small clusters of life being suppressed under robotic outgrowths that sprung from the ground like tumors, almost like a prototypical version of the horror on display in Five Nights at Freddy’s, in which uncanny animatronics stuff unlucky players into mechanical suits that snuff out their lives and humanity all at once. It was provocative stuff. And when taken alongside the game’s plot, which focused on rescuing a fetus being used as a scientific specimen, it drew ire from some players, who interpreted it as condemnation of abortion. “The game places a very high value on human life, even at its smallest,” said Scott. However, he also clarified that “The game itself was not designed with abortion specifically in mind.” Still, even with TheDesolate Hope’s ambitions, it failed to meet Cawthon’s goals.

“Despite good reviews, my Christian projects were all financial failures,” he explained. “I came to a point where I was very disillusioned and frustrated with God…actually it was more like a broken heart. I felt like I’d squandered so many years of my life.” Elaborating on this crisis of faith, he added “Either God didn’t exist, or God hated me. I didn’t know which was worse…I decided to change careers, at times pursuing web design, then computer programming, even truck driving.”

After having his life insurance policy cancelled when his insurance provider caught wind of suicidal thoughts he had shared with his doctor, Scott decided to go before God and ask for him to channel his power through him, to use his earthly body. Drawn back to game development as a result of this, surprisingly enough with a secular project this time around, Scott began work on Five Nights at Freddy’s. “I felt drawn back to games again, but not Christian games anymore,” he explained. “It’s not that I wanted to leave the Christian market, I just didn’t feel ‘led’ to make another Christian game.”

This brings us up-to-date to the Scott Cawthon that most people have come to know through his Five Nights At Freddy’s series. And so, as much as FNaF World seemed like a departure for the man known for those popular horror games, it was actually more of a return to Cawthon’s previously ambitious nature, hitting similar adventure tones to and matching the art style of The Desolate Hope and Chipper and Sons. It reads like Cawthon attempting to not only go back to his roots, but redeem them, finally showing critics that a game in this style could work.

Which is why it’s so disheartening to see him dismiss it as a failure. If FNAF World was Scott’s attempt to vindicate himself as an artist, then seeing it flop is akin to seeing Chipper and Sons torn apart. If a success, FNAF World might have allowed Cawthon to put his old demons to bed and feel more comfortable showing us more of his dream projects. Ideas that might not have appealed to everybody, but would have shown us more of the man behind the game. As it stands, it is yet another entry in a cycle of criticism-and-redemption that seems to leave Cawthon attempting to please others more than himself. This self-flagellation is a remarkably Christian take on game development, and while it has motivated him a number of times, it’s clear that it has taken its toll.

Read the full interview over at Geeks Under Grace.

FNAF World is a cute RPG spinoff of the original horror series. This time instead of fending off killer Animatronics, you play as them in a bright and colorful world! (Though they are still very murderous and should not be trusted! Or, perhaps there's something out there that is pulling the strings...)

The game used to be available for purchase on Steam like the other entries, but it was later re-released as freeware on GameJolt after the creator stated he released it too early and wasn't satisfied with the reception it got despite the positive ratings. Regardless of the issues at launch and the strange shift in tone, it's still a very fun game in its own right.

• 2Unused Graphics
• 7Revisional Differences

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Unused Graphics

Demo Leftovers

Like with the other games, there are unused graphics that are only seen in the demo. It's a little strange that the demo of the game is still available despite the full game being released as freeware after the disastrous Steam launch.

Text Graphics

An older version text still exists in recent updates.

This graphic was present in older versions of FNaF World, but since Update 2 introduced more characters and took up the entire screen, it was taken out.

This text is a reference to one of the hidden minigames in FNaF 3. It was seen out of frame in the 'Drowning' ending.

Brow Boy

An unused version of Brow Boy can be found in the game's files. Apparently, Brow Boy was originally going to be a regular enemy, just like Ball Boy.

Unused Stars

Three strange looking stars that has been present ever since the original game, though these do look the same. Each of them become visible upon getting the 3 endings, Normal mode, Hard mode and the Chipper's Revenge ending, but they are offscreen, thus never have been seen.

Opened Box

A strange opened box from Five Nights at Freddy's 4 is seen out of frame in the subtunnel sections. There's no actual coding for the object, so it may have been thrown in as an Easter Egg for decompilers. Scott stated the box contains 'the pieces put together' and it was supposed to be opened in the Halloween Update, but no one figured out the story to the fourth game before that happened, so he put that 'some things are best left forgotten, forever'.

Turtle

A turtle that was recycled from Slumberfish, another game by Scott Cawthon. It was meant to be used in the fishing minigame, but it never appeared.

Cupcake

An alternate version of the Cupcakes in the game. The one used in the game is bigger, has different lighting, and it moves to the left and right, rather than up and down. This animation is grouped with the Cupcake object in the game, and it is programmed to stop the animation after it bobs down once.

Unused Attack

An unused attack called Toxic Song that has no coding for it is also in the game's files.

Unused Status

These are meant to be played when your foes get inflicted with the poison status, but was never used, probably because in the final game the enemies are individually poisoned, and are not all affected at once unlike all the other stat decreasers.

Unused Chip

An unused chip called Haunting is also present in the game's files, which summons Ghost Freddy to freeze a foe. This chip cannot be hacked into the game as it was never coded in to begin with, only this graphic when you find it exists.

Cut-off Track

This victory theme plays for about 40 seconds after winning a fight, but it normally plays for about ten seconds before the game boots you back to the overworld. The longest that you can hear the track play is when you beat Security on Hard Mode which had the most experience and payout, but you still don’t hear the last half of it unless you utilize a glitch. If you manage to run at the same time as winning a fight, you can hear the full song until the music changes.

Unused Sounds

In Update 2, the game introduces voice acting. This quote said by JJ (in which she swears!) in Foxy Fighters was never used in the game. This could have played after Nightmare Chica’s plane gets shot down, but only Toy Chica responds to it in the final.

'Now I’m going to kick your ass! Wait what? I- I can’t say that in the game…'

Unused Text

In all the endings, this text is hidden in the code. This could explain the cold, unfulfilling and somewhat strange endings in the game.

In all the endings, this bold text is present offscreen. This suggests that the game would once reveal which ending is which.

This dialogue is the last thing Fredbear says in the first time he tells the player to find the clock, however due to an error in the programming, the game instead automatically brings the player to the loading screen when it appears since it is the last string of text instead of adding an additional null string, making it unseen altogether.

Obscured Graphics

This graphic is seen when you get a game over and it flickers rapidly, but it's very subtle and easy to miss. Upon closer inspection in the animation, there's a texture of a partly obscured sillouette of the text. This is what that texture looks like.

Revisional Differences

v2.021

Adds a warning for flashing and disorienting effects when the game starts up, as well as attack descriptions during battle.

v2.022

Adds a map feature accessible by holding down the TAB key. Even with Update 1 revamping the graphics, the map retained the original 8-bit look from the early versions.

v2.023

Unknown fixes.

v2.024

Adds Chip descriptions on the menu and Byte descriptions in Lolbit’s shop.

v1.10 (Update 1)

Replaces the 8-bit overworld with 3D graphics (excluding the Glitch Worlds and Clock minigames). The party creation screen is redone so you can see the characters' stats by hovering over them. In addition, the customization is tweaked so you can rearrange your party by just selecting the desired character, instead of clicking the marker on the left side of the screen and selecting any character. The update also introduces a strange character dubbed 'Desk Man'. After this update, the game became freeware, as Scott admitted he rushed it (hence the slew of really quick updates) and offered refunds to everyone who bought the original on Steam as an apology.

v1.24 (Update 2)

Fnaf World Reception Ideas

Adds post-game content that can be unlocked by entering one of the houses in Fazbear Hills after beating the game just once regardless of which ending. It adds two new areas, some minigames, voice acting, and new characters. It introduced some minor changes and fixes, such as Nightmare Fredbear having Freddles as its attack instead of Bad Pizza, RXQFSFASXC's name is corrected in the party creation screen, added the ability to be able to walk diagonally on the overworld and oddly increases the time for DeeDee to reappear after catching something in the fishing minigame. Later revisions fixed the ability to unlock Animdude and Mr. Chipper through their respective boss fights instead of unlocking them through the new minigames, fixed a glitch for the Fan disappearing despite getting all 40 characters in the original and removed the curse word from the final boss of the update after defeating it (which was recycled from the Chica's Magic Rainbow minigame). Desk Man's dialogue is now completely changed and adds a new ending.

Fnaf World Reception Desk