Scott Cawthon

 ( 1978 Births ) 

Cawthon's more notable religious projects included Pilgrim's Progress (2011) and The Desolate Hope (2012). Based on the religious allegory, Pilgrim's Progress is a JRPG-like game with enemies such as Beelzebub, Abaddon, Shame, and Giant Despair. The Desolate Hope is a hybrid role-playing game with active time battles, platforming, and top-down sections. Set in a "dark, brooding, and twisted industrial landscape", the story follows a robotic coffee pot who must rescue a fetus being used as a scientific specimen. Rock Paper Shotgun praised the game's art style, describing it as akin to a "glorious artifact from the nineties, hand-crafted and bizarre". Kill Screen later wrote that the themes of adventure and the unique art style of Cawthon's early works would reappear in some of his later projects such as FNaF World (2016). After the release of Five Nights at Freddy's (2014), The Desolate Hope received both attention and criticism for its plot's perceived pro-life message, although Cawthon later clarified that the game "was not designed with abortion specifically in mind."

Cawthon's Christian games were generally well received but were not financially successful enough to support his wife and two children. He reluctantly stopped making religious games and instead produced cheap computer games and free-to-play mobile titles which could provide him with a steady source of income. Calum Marsh, in his profile of Cawthon for The New York Times, wrote that these games "might bring in $40 or $50 each month". He also took on programming and retail work.

In 2013, Cawthon submitted the family-friendly game Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. to Steam Greenlight. It was a resource management title featuring Anthropomorphism animals; the player character was a beaver. However, players and reviewers such as James Stephanie Sterling ridiculed the game because they thought the characters were unintentionally "creepy" and resembled "scary" animatronics. One writer later described it as an example of the uncanny valley.

Cawthon's financial situation and Chipper & Sons' overwhelming criticism led to him becoming depressed. He thought that he had squandered his life by becoming a game developer and attempted to pursue other professions. Cawthon underwent a crisis of faith: "Either God didn't exist, or God hated me." When his life insurance policy got cancelled after the company found out that he had expressed suicidal ideation to his doctor, he realized that "now even my death had no value" and asked God to "use me somehow". With his faith restored, Cawthon took inspiration from Chipper & Sons' reception and decided to make something intentionally scarier. This was the impetus for Five Nights at Freddy's.

Five Nights at Freddy's 4 was released in 2015, with a free Halloween update following. The development of a new game, titled FNaF World, was announced, ditching the formula of the other games and instead being a role-playing video game. It was released on January 21, 2016. FNaF World received mixed reviews due to and other issues, and Cawthon pulled it from Steam four days later. An altered version was released on Game Jolt for free on February 8.

On May 21, 2016, Cawthon released a teaser trailer for , featuring two new animatronics as well as circus-themed variations of the Foxy and Freddy characters from the series. The game was released on October 7, 2016, and was generally well received. Cawthon released the update "Custom Night" on December 1, with "Golden Freddy Mode" being added to the update soon after.

On July 3, 2017, Cawthon announced the cancellation of a sixth main installment to Five Nights at Freddy's, after previously stating a month earlier that a sixth game was in development. He opined that he had been neglecting other aspects of his life but said that he was not planning to abandon the series and was considering developing a FNaF World-styled spin-off game in the future. However, with the release of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator on December 4, 2017, this was confirmed to be a joke.

On June 28, 2018, the seventh main installment to the series, Ultimate Custom Night, was released on Steam for free. It features over 50 characters from the franchise. In Cawthon's Upcoming Projects post on Steam, he noted that deals for console ports have been signed, as well as announcing virtual reality and augmented reality games.

In September 2019, a teaser and announcement trailers were posted to Illumix's YouTube channel regarding the augmented reality game. The title was revealed to be . It was released for free on November 25, 2019, to iOS and Android.

On August 8, 2019, during the first game's fifth anniversary, Cawthon posted a new image on his website, teasing the tenth installment of the series. It shows a modernized shopping mall containing a laser tag arena, an arcade, a large cinema, and a Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant; in the main square, '80s-style versions of Freddy Fazbear, Chica, and two new animatronics can be seen playing for an excited crowd. On September 29, 2019, Cawthon's website was updated with a new teaser featuring the character Glamrock Freddy and was followed by an updated teaser featuring the character Vanny from Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted as a shadow. On March 24, 2020, another teaser featuring a brand new alligator-like character was posted, later revealed to be called Montgomery Gator. On April 21, 2020, the characters' names were leaked from Funko's list of upcoming products, and the title was revealed as Five Nights at Freddy's: PizzaPlex. A few hours later, on April 22, 2020, Scott Cawthon confirmed the leaks via Reddit, and revealed that the title was not official and that the title was only for Funko. Cawthon announced that the game was scheduled to release in late 2020. On June 12, 2020, another teaser was released, featuring the game's antagonist, an unnamed female security guard. On August 7, 2020, a teaser of Vanny was released. One day later, Cawthon revealed the characters Glamrock Chica and Roxanne Wolf through Reddit.

On August 21, 2020, Cawthon announced his plan to help fund and publish Five Nights at Freddy's games developed by fans, bundled with previous installments in their respective series. He would not be involved in any of the creative elements but would help with marketing and publishing support as well as appropriate licensing. The games that were announced to be included were One Night at Flumpty's series, the Five Nights at Candy's series, The Joy of Creation: Ignited Collection (consisting of the original The Joy of Creation, The Joy of Creation: Reborn, and The Joy of Creation: Story Mode), Popgoes Evergreen (including the prologue game Popgoes Arcade), and Five Nights at Freddy's Plus, a reimagining of the original game. Cawthon stated that these games would likely come to mobile and consoles, and may even have merchandise created for them. The first game to be released under this initiative was a port of One Night at Flumpty's for Android and iOS on October 31 and November 18, 2020, respectively. The second game to be released was a port of its sequel One Night at Flumpty's 2 on January 20, 2021, again for Android and iOS. The next game to be released was One Night at Flumpty's 3 on October 31, 2021, for PC and mobile devices, and for consoles at a later date.

On September 16, 2020, during a PlayStation 5 Showcase, it was revealed that would come to PlayStation 5 featuring real-time ray tracing and Open world gameplay. Its initial release was on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC, with other platforms coming three months later. In December 2020, Cawthon posted that Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach was delayed to 2021, stating the game's scope was too great to be finished by the end of 2020.

On October 18, 2023, Cawthon released his first video game since his retirement, Freddy in Space 3: Chica in Space which was released as a supposed tie-in game for the Five Nights at Freddy's film.

In December 2015, Cawthon released teasers for his first novel, Five Nights at Freddy's: The Untold Story, later renamed . The book was released on December 17, 2015, as an ebook for Amazon Kindle; a paperback edition is available. According to Cawthon, the book was released earlier than its planned release date due to a mistake on Amazon's part. On June 24, 2016, Cawthon announced that he had made a three-book deal with Scholastic Corporation and that the first book ( The Silver Eyes) would be reprinted on paperback in October that year, with the second and third being released in 2017 and 2018.

On June 27, 2017, Cawthon's second novel, , was released. It was the sequel to The Silver Eyes, and its story follows the main character, Charlie, who is "drawn back into the world of her father's frightening creations" when she tried to get over the events of The Silver Eyes. On August 29, 2017, Cawthon released the first official guidebook of Five Nights at Freddy's, entitled The Freddy Files. It contains character profiles, easter eggs, advice for playing the games, and theories sprouted from the franchise.

On December 26, 2017, Cawthon released the second guidebook for Five Nights at Freddy's called Survival Logbook. Unlike previous book releases, Survival Logbook has no listed Amazon Kindle editions, implying that it has pages designed for physical writing as opposed to simply reading from a device. The book, disguised as a normal children's activity book, contains many things to do, including a word search, grid drawing, and fill-in-the-blank activities, however, all of these were found to hold secrets involving the lore.

On June 26, 2018, the third novel in the Five Nights at Freddy's book series, , was revealed on Amazon and was slated for release that same day.

Graphic novels

Guide books

• Scott Games (archived)