Five Nights at Freddy's (series)

Gameplay

The main Five Nights at Freddy's series consists of horror-themed video games, in which the player usually takes on the role of a night guard at a certain location canonically connected to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a fictional children's-oriented restaurant and game arcade similar to Chuck E. Cheese's and ShowBiz Pizza. The restaurant uses life-size animatronic characters that sing and dance for children's parties. These animatronics wander the restaurant at night, and the guard is instructed to keep watch on these, as the restaurants have had "incidents" of previous guards being attacked and killed by these characters.

To progress through the games, the player must guard themself from the animatronics. The player remains stationary in their office/room (with the exception of Sister Location), and in most games, has the ability to use a tablet-based security system to observe the positions of the characters through several locations in the restaurant using security cameras, though only one location at a time can be viewed. In the first game, the player can control the two security doors connecting the office to the adjacent hallways or power the lights illuminating the hallways, which temporarily barricades the player from any animatronics in the vicinity. Each night, the player has a limited power supply that depletes quicker when either of these tools are used; if the player exhausts the power supply, the doors permanently open for the rest of the night, allowing any animatronic to breach the office. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 provides different tools to work with. In the second game, due to being a prequel, the company has not yet installed doors into the office, and instead the player must defend themselves with an empty Freddy Fazbear head, to fool most animatronics. The power usage is also removed, instead being replaced with a limited flashlight, which is used to ward off Foxy and to light up darkened rooms. The game also introduces the music box, a tool that must be kept wound to prevent an imminent attack.

Five Nights at Freddy's 3 replaces these tools with a monitor panel, where the player must keep certain systems from malfunctioning, so as not to hinder the player. The ability to seal vents is also added, and must be used to prevent the sole animatronic from entering the office.

Five Nights at Freddy's 4 is the first game to reintroduce the removed tools, specifically the doors and flashlight, albeit with different mechanics. The doors can now only be closed when the player is next to them, and will re-open if the player moves away. However, if the player shuts the doors too early, the animatronics will jump scare the player when the door is opened. The flashlight can now no-longer run out, but can not ward away animatronics. If the player flashes the flashlight while an animatronic is in the doorway, the player will be instantly jumpscared. There is one new mechanic, where the player must listen for breathing. This can determine whether to use the flashlight or close the door.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location once again keeps the doors, albeit for the secret ending. The flashlight returns, but now loses all functionality, now being stuck permanently on when in certain rooms, and permanently off in others. The lights also return, but are now combined with a new tool, the "controlled shock" mechanism, part of a control pad with the ability to light up rooms and shock the animatronics. Other mechanics include another control pad inside the "breaker room", controlling the power to the whole facility, and a flash beacon, which allows the player to see in the darkened "Funtime auditorium" and avoid the sole animatronic in that room. This is also the only game where the player is able to move between rooms.

In all of the main series games, if any animatronic manage to reach the player, the game is over and the animatronic attacks the player-character and plays a jump scare. Each game requires the player to survive five nights, with each night increasing the difficulty.

In the games, except Five Nights at Freddy's 1, the player will gain access to a series of (predominantly 8-bit) minigames, sometimes randomly after death, and sometimes once the player has completed a specific task. These minigames usually tell a story or event relevant to the game's lore, although presented in a cryptic way.

There is an unlockable sixth night present in all games (excluding Sister Location), with additional nights varying between games: the first two games feature a customizable seventh night which allows the player to customize the AI level of each animatronic. The third game does not feature any night after the sixth, while the fourth game includes a seventh and eighth night, neither of which are customizable. The fifth game is currently the only game with only five nights.

The spin-off game, FNaF World, has the player explore a light-hearted RPG world battling for experience points. The player unlocks different areas as they continue on their adventure. Eventually, after completing certain tasks, the player wins one of eight different endings, all of which will unlock a trophy on the title screen once completed. The game also received an update titled "Update 2" which introduced the animatronic characters in the FNAF4 Halloween Edition and some characters from Scott Cawthon's older games. The update also introduced another boss character which the player must defeat as well as minigames to unlock the new characters.

Humans

The main characters in the Five Nights at Freddy's series are generally security guards working at a Freddy Fazbear's Pizza or related location. None of them have distinct personalities and most of the gameplay takes place from their point of view. In Five Nights at Freddy's, the guard's name is Mike Schmidt. In Five Nights at Freddy's 2, the guard is named Jeremy Fitzgerald for all of the main five nights and the bonus sixth night, though he is replaced in the custom seventh night by another guard, Fritz Smith. The security guard for Fazbear's Fright: The Horror Attraction in Five Nights at Freddy's 3, is unknown. The main character of Five Nights at Freddy's 4 is an unnamed boy, who experiences nightmares of the animatronics. The player in Sister Location is a technician named Mike, but has his name jokingly mistaken as Eggs Benedict.

Apart from Mike Schmidt (FNaF), Jeremy Fitzgerald (FNaF 2), Fritz Smith (FNaF 2) and Mike (Sister Location) none of the other human characters in the series have any real names. In the first three games, a man simply identified as "Phone Guy" leaves a recording over the phone at the beginning of each night which serves as advice to the player on how to deal with the animatronics. Phone Guy is present through all five nights of Five Nights at Freddy's 2, four of the main nights in Five Nights at Freddy's, and four of the main nights in Five Nights at Freddy's 3 (as well as in Night 6 for the second and third games.) He is not present in the fourth and fifth games, though his first night recording from the original game is sometimes played backwards as ambiance in Five Nights at Freddy's 4. His call at the start of Night 4 in Five Nights at Freddy's implies that he was killed by the animatronics. In the third game, he is heard over archival recordings discovered by the creators of Fazbear's Fright. Sister Location instead features a human A.I. named "HandUnit", who like Phone Guy, acts as a tutor to the player. The first two nights of the third game also feature "Phone Dude", one of the creators of Fazbear's Fright.

The main antagonist of the series is "Purple Guy", who is presumably a former Fazbear Entertainment employee who murdered at least five children, whose spirits now inhabit the animatronics. In mini-games from the second game, he murders a child, who's spirit is largely believed to inhabit the Puppet. In the third game, it is revealed that he returned to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza after it closed down to dismantle the animatronics. This released the spirits of the children he murdered, scaring him into hiding inside a spring lock suit, where he was crushed to death by the suit's faulty internal workings. It is believed that his body resides in Five Nights at Freddy's 3's main antagonist, Springtrap. In the novel adaptation of the series, Purple Guy receives a name: William Afton. It was also revealed that he was the co-owner of Fazbear Entertainment. While Scott Cawthon has confirmed that the novel is not exactly canon, most of the gaming community accepts it as Purple Guy's true name and work. A certain "Mr. Afton", mentioned in Sister Location's prologue is thought to be Purple Guy, making him the creator of the animatronics seen in the game.

A character named Michael was introduced in Sister Location, whose identity is currently unknown. His dialogue seems to imply that he is the player character in Sister Location, and has a father, whom he has decided to seek as his final aspiration.

Animatronics

There are four main animatronics in the first game: Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken, and Foxy the Pirate Fox. A fifth animatronic, Golden Freddy, occasionally appears, albeit it in the form of a hallucination. His jumpscare is capable of crashing the game. They return in various forms throughout the following games, except in the fifth installment, in which Chica is completely absent.

Despite being a prequel, the second game introduces upgraded versions of the original characters called Toy Freddy, Toy Bonnie, Toy Chica and Mangle, along with old, ripped and worn out versions of the original animatronics. Mangle is meant to be a toy version of Foxy, but was ripped apart so much by children that the staff got tired of reassembling it and left it as a "take apart, put back together" attraction, according to Phone Guy. He also mentions that the employees nicknamed it "the Mangle". Two new characters are also introduced: Balloon Boy, who has no jumpscare and can only disable the players' lights, and The Puppet (also known as The Marionette), who must be quelled by constantly winding up a music box.

The only true animatronic in the third game is Springtrap, who looks like a decayed golden version of Bonnie. Additionally, Freddy, Chica, Foxy, Balloon Boy, Mangle, and The Puppet return as hallucinations (or "phantoms"), and although their jumpscares don't kill the player, they can disable certain features.

In the fourth game, nightmare versions of the original four animatronics- Nightmare Bonnie, Nightmare Chica, Nightmare Foxy, and Nightmare Freddy - appear, haunting a small boy. A nightmare version of Golden Freddy is also featured, identified as Nightmare Fredbear, who replaces all animatronics on the fifth night. Two new animatronics also make their debut: Plushtrap, a finger trap toy version of Springtrap, and Nightmare, a version of Nightmare Fredbear whose jumpscare causes the game to reset. The "Halloween Edition" of the game also features Nightmare Balloon Boy (who replaces Plushtrap), Nightmare Mangle (who replaces Nightmare Foxy), and Nightmarionne, a nightmare version of the Puppet, who replaces Nightmare.

In the fifth game, Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, Funtime versions of Freddy and Foxy appear as well as multiple new characters: Circus Baby, who is the main animatronic and appears to be a female circus clown, Ballora, who appears to be a dancing female ballerina animatronic, Bonnet, a miniature rabbit animatronic, similar to Bon-Bon, Electrobab, an electrified BidyBab capable of draining power, a completely naked endoskeleton named Yenndo, Lolbit, an alternately coloured Funtime Foxy, and Ennard, who is a hive-mind animatronic and is made of the endoskeletons of other animatronics from the game. Three of these animatronics are accompanied with smaller companion animatronics: Funtime Freddy, who is accompanied by "Bon-Bon", a hand-puppet version of Bonnie; Ballora, who is accompanied by Minireenas (small, ballet-dancer like animatronics); and Baby, who is accompanied by multiple baby-shaped animatronics called Bidybabs.

In the spin-off game, FNaF World, there are up to 30+ characters the player can unlock, consisting of characters from FNaF 1, 2, 3, and 4, (as well as Coffee from The Desolate Hope, Chipper from Chipper and Sons Lumber Co, Funtime Foxy from Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, and Animdude, the character in Scott Cawthons logo.). Lolbit (a character from Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location's custom night) is also featured in its debut appearance, but is only an NPC, and thus isn't playable.

Five Nights at Freddy's (2014)

The main character, whose name is later revealed to be Mike Schmidt, has started a job working as a night watch security guard at the restaurant Freddy Fazbear's Pizza (a pastiche of restaurants like Chuck E. Cheese's and ShowBiz Pizza Place).

A voicemail message left by Mike's predecessor explains that the animatronic characters used at the restaurant, Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Rabbit, Chica the Chicken, and the disused Foxy the Pirate, are able to roam freely around it at night, because if they were left off for too long, their motors would lock up. He adds that the animatronics were no longer allowed to roam freely during the day following an incident referred to as the "Bite of '87", which apparently involved the loss of someone's frontal lobe.

The employee warns Mike that if one of the robots encounters a human after hours, they will automatically assume that it is an endoskeleton that is not yet in costume, and "forcefully stuff them" into a spare mechanical Freddy Fazbear costume, killing the person in the process.

Newspaper clippings in the background of one of the scenes reveal that the restaurant was the site of the disappearance of five children whose bodies were never found, after a man dressed as one of the animatronics lured them into a back room and reportedly murdered them. Later, the restaurant received complaints that the animatronics began to smell foul and became stained with blood and mucus around the eyes and mouth, with one customer comparing them to "reanimated carcasses".

After these events, and after the seventh night, Mike gets fired for tampering with the animatronics, odor and general unprofessionalism. The restaurant was also shut down for health violations, as mentioned in the clippings.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (2014)

The player character, whose name is later revealed to be Jeremy Fitzgerald, has started working as a night watch security guard at the improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. As he did in the previous game, a certain Freddy Fazbear's Pizza employee calls Jeremy on the phone in the office at the beginning of each night to explain both gameplay and parts of the backstory surrounding the restaurant. He explains that the "new" (at the time) animatronics, which have special facial recognition software to protect the children from potential harm, were not programmed with a proper night mode; when things go silent, their programming tells them that they are in the wrong room and they seek out the nearest source of noise to find people to entertain, which happens to be in the office.

As in the previous game, the animatronics' programming tells them that there should not be people in the restaurant after hours, so when they encounter Jeremy, they believe he is an animatronic endoskeleton without a costume and stuff him into a spare Freddy Fazbear suit, killing him in the process. The man on the phone explains that this restaurant has an unlimited power source at night, unlike the previous location, however there are no doors blocking access to the office, requiring the player to use a spare Freddy Fazbear mask to trick most animatronics into thinking he is not an endoskeleton. The player will be informed to keep a music box wound up to keep a marionette animatronic from leaving its box and attacking the player.

The player is also informed that their flashlight will cause certain animatronics to reboot and leave the room. As more enemy characters appear as the player advances through the game, the man on the phone informs Jeremy of the characters' presence, their movement patterns, and some background information on their presence in the game. For example, the man on the phone explains that the older animatronics are in the new restaurant, and have been retrofitted with the new technology, but as they did not work properly they are kept for spare parts.

As the game progresses, it is hinted that something is going on during the day, as the man on the phone mentions that rumors are going around and, later, that a police investigation is going on regarding the restaurant. On the game's fifth night, Jeremy is informed by the man on the phone that the restaurant has been put on lock-down due to an event that he will not describe but which is in place to make sure no employees, present or former, can come in or go out. The man also mentions that the position of the restaurant's day shift security has a vacancy and Jeremy may be promoted to it, and that the owner of the older restaurant named "Fredbear's Family Diner" will be contacted for more information on the animatronics.

On the sixth night, the man on the phone informs Jeremy that the restaurant has been shut down for undisclosed reasons, although mentioning the use of a "spare yellow suit". and an issue of the animatronics not functioning properly. He also tells Jeremy that he will be taking over as night shift security guard when the restaurant reopens. If Jeremy is successful in surviving the sixth night, he is promoted to day shift to cover a birthday party on the next day to make sure the animatronics do not cause any problems.

In the custom night level, Jeremy is replaced by a new player character named Fritz Smith due to Jeremy's promotion. If the player manages to win the custom night, they discover Fritz has been fired for "tampering with the animatronics" and "odor", a call back to the previous game's custom level message. A newspaper that is shown in the winning screen of the sixth night says that the restaurant will close down and the newer animatronics will be scrapped, however the older ones saved for when the restaurant reopens, hinting at the events of the first game.

Five Nights at Freddy's 3 (2015)

Five Nights at Freddy's 3 is set thirty years after the events of the first game. The player assumes the role of a newly hired employee at Fazbear's Fright, a horror-themed attraction based on the unsolved mysteries of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, constructed using paraphernalia salvaged from the original restaurants. During the week before the attraction is scheduled to open to the public, the player must watch over the facility from the security office during their shift (12:00 am to 6:00 am game time), using a network of surveillance cameras placed in the rooms and air vents. In addition, the player must monitor the status of three operating systems - cameras, audio, and ventilation - and reboot them whenever they begin to malfunction. Camera problems cause the video feeds, already poorly lit and distorted, to become totally obscured by static. If the ventilation fails, the player begins to hallucinate and to see phantoms of animatronics from the previous games, which may cause additional malfunctions. Audio malfunctions prevent player from using sound to lure the animatronic away.

After the first night, the staff at Fazbear's Fright uncover an older deteriorated, rabbit-like animatronic, which they refer to as Springtrap. The player must now prevent it from entering the office and attacking; if this happens, the game ends. The player can seal off the air vents at certain points to block its progress, but cannot seal the door or air vent that lead directly into the office. The audio system can be used to play sound effects that draw it away from the office.

As the nights progress, the player hears a series of instructional cassette tapes, similar to the telephone calls from the first two games, that instruct employees how to operate the "Spring Bonnie" suit, which can be worn by both humans and animatronic endoskeletons. However, later tapes discourage usage of the suit by employees due to a series of fatal accidents involving the failure of the suit's spring-lock mechanism. Low-resolution minigames between nights hint at the restaurant's troubled past, with the first four nights' minigames depicting the original animatronics following a dark purple animatronic before being violently disassembled by a purple-colored man, referred to as 'Purple Guy', previously seen in the minigames of Five Nights at Freddy's 2 as the man responsible for the various murders that occurred throughout the franchise's fictional history. In the fifth night's minigame, the ghosts of the five children who inhabited the animatronics corner the 'Purple Guy', who attempts to protect himself by hiding in the "Spring Bonnie" suit. However, the suit's faulty spring-lock mechanism fails, and the 'Purple Guy' is crushed as the children fade away, leaving their killer to bleed to death.

Unlike the previous entries, Five Nights at Freddy's 3 contains two endings, depending on whether the player has found and completed all of the hidden minigames within the main game. Some of these are only available on specific nights, while others can be accessed during any night. The "bad ending" is attained from completing the game without completing all the hidden minigames, and shows a screen depicting the heads of the five animatronics from the first game with lit-up eyes, implying that the animatronics are still possessed. Completing all the hidden minigames before completing the game earns the "good ending", which is the same screen as described previously but with the animatronics' heads turned off, with one head disappearing, presumably Golden Freddy. This implies that the children's souls have finally been put to rest.

Completing all five nights unlocks a bonus night, "Nightmare", which boosts the game's difficulty, similar to "Night 6" in the previous titles. While playing the mode, an archived recording states that all Freddy Fazbear Pizza locations' safe rooms, an additional emergency room not recorded in the animatronics' AI or security systems, will be permanently sealed, instructing employees to tell no one of their existence. When this night is completed, a newspaper clipping reveals that Fazbear's Fright is destroyed in a fire shortly after the events of the game, and that any salvageable pieces from the attraction are to be auctioned off. However, brightening the image reveals Springtrap in the background, which suggests he somehow survived, leaving his fate unknown.

Five Nights at Freddy's 4 (2015)

The game starts with the player, a young boy, locked in his bedroom with plush versions of the animatronics from Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, being guided by a plushie version of Fredbear. Each night, he suffers from nightmares that he is being attacked by nightmare versions of the animatronics, possibly due to damage to his frontal lobe. After the player survives the first night, Freddy tells the boy that "He" is hiding in the house before the boy is jumped by his brother, who is wearing a Foxy mask. After the second night, the boy is abandoned at the pizzeria, only to be warned by Fredbear's voice that "He" is coming and that he needs to be brave; however, the boy is sensitive and afraid of the animatronics and costumed mascots, and he ends up crying. An easter egg during this scene briefly shows the "Purple Guy" from the second and third games placing someone in the Spring Bonnie suit.

After the third night, the minigame reveals that other children think of the boy as a coward and crybaby, that he is constantly bullied by other kids, and that there are rumors of the animatronics coming to life at night and attempting to murder people. The boy, in turn, sees his plush toys as his only friends and generally eschews interaction with other people in favor of them. After the fourth night, it is revealed that he was once locked in the building's parts and services room as a prank. If the fifth night is completed, the boy is shown crying at his own birthday party in the pizzeria. "He" is revealed to be the boy's brother, alongside other bullies wearing the masks of the animatronics from the first game to terrorize the boy. The group, deciding to prank the boy, grab him and try to get him close to the mouth of Fredbear for a "kiss" and end up stuffing the boy's head into the mouth of Fredbear. Suddenly, Fredbear, who was in the middle of singing, forcefully closes his mouth, resulting in the boy's head being crushed while the brother and his friends stand staring in abject horror.

After the sixth night, the boy hears a voice apologizing to him, as Fredbear promises him that no matter how many times he "breaks", he and the others will always be there for him, will put him back together and will always be his friends. The characters then fade out one by one, and the faint sound of a heart monitor flatlining can be heard, ending the game.

If the player completes Nightmare mode, an image of a locked metal trunk is displayed; if the player wiggles the padlocks, the game eventually states "Perhaps some things are best left forgotten, for now." Cawthon has remained cryptic about what the significance of the trunk is and whether it can be opened, and one player who decompiled the game suggested that there is no way to open it. What is inside the trunk remains unknown.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location (2016)

The player character, seemingly named Mike, mistakenly referred to as "Eggs Benedict", is a new employee of the underground Circus Baby's Rentals and Entertainment, a sister company of Fazbear Entertainment featuring animatronics that are rented out to children's birthday parties; they were originally intended for use in a pizzeria called Circus Baby's Pizza World, but the pizzeria had been shut down shortly before it was supposed to open due to "gas leaks". Both companies are owned by a certain British-accented individual called Mr. Afton. It is also implied in the source code of teasers for the game that both locations are part of a robotics company going by the name of "Afton Robotics".

Mike is instructed by HandUnit (an AI that helps the player throughout the game) to watch and 'motivate' the animatronics by electrocuting them so they may be used during the day. He is also guided by the voice of Circus Baby, a female, clown-like, animatronic and the star of Circus Baby's Pizza World, who gives instructions sometimes contradictory to those of HandUnit. Baby's instructions help Mike survive the nights from the hostile animatronics: the ballerina Ballora and smaller ballerinas known as Minireenas; miniature animatronics known as Bidybabs; and 'Funtime' versions of Freddy Fazbear and Foxy the Pirate Fox. It is implied via monologues throughout the game, as well as the ending of the 8-bit-style minigame, that Circus Baby houses the remains of Mr. Afton's daughter, who was previously killed by her in a freak accident.

In between nights, the voice of a young British Girl, whom is presumably Mr. Afton's daughter, is overheard, asking her father if she can go and play with Circus Baby. This is further elaborated on during Baby's third night speech and the mini game, both of which imply the girl went against her father's wishes.

As the week passes, the animatronics are taken to the Parts and Service room one by one due to apparent malfunction, later to be taken to the "scooping room". At the end of the third night, Circus Baby reveals that she kidnapped Mike, and on the fourth night, hides him in a spring lock suit just outside the "scooping room", where the animatronics' endoskeletons are forcibly removed by a machine Circus Baby refers to as "The Scooper" (designed in a way similar to an excavator), and has Mike watch as the machine tears Ballora's endoskeleton out. On the final night, two agents sent to fix the animatronics are found hanged in the Ballora and Funtime auditoriums, respectively. After reaching the Parts and Service room, Mike is told by Circus Baby to take her to the scooping room. From there, Mike can heed Circus Baby's instruction and obtain the normal ending, or sidetrack to the hidden "private room" and get into the alternate ending after completing Circus Baby's minigame, where the player needs to clear a survival mission modeled after the first game for the alternate ending.

In the normal ending, after entering the scooping room, Circus Baby, who is now the consciousness of Ennard (an animatronic formed out of the other animatronics), reveals that she and the other animatronics have been attempting to escape the complex, but without a human guise, they are unable to. However, now that they have gained Mike's trust via Baby, they have merged into a single animatronic called Ennard to take his body. Ennard then locks Mike inside the scooping room and uses the machine to disembowel him and take his body. The final scene of the game's canon area shows Ennard inspecting itself in the mirror while inhabiting Mike's body.

In the alternate ending, after surviving inside a security office, Mike escapes to his home and watches the season finale of the animated series The Immortal and the Restless (whose previous episodes are shown in-between the nights and whose plot lampoons the series). After the show ends, however, Ennard appears in the room and slowly advances towards Mike. This ending is apparently non-canon, since it has been labelled the "fake ending" of the game. The veracity of this title has not been confirmed, however.

Completing the various Custom Night modes on the hardest difficulty setting unlocks a set of 8-bit cutscenes. These scenes show Ennard walking down the block disguised in Mike's skin - appearing normal at first, but gradually decaying and deteriorating from one scene to the next. Neighbors initially wave to him, but later become concerned and hide as Mike's outward appearance worsens. In the last of these scenes, Mike vomits Ennard into the sewer and collapses, presumably due to the lack of innards. However, he rises to his feet again as Ennard repeatedly says, "You won't die."

The cutscene that follows the most difficult mode ("Golden Freddy") is rendered in the same resolution as the game itself. This scene depicts the burnt wreckage of the Fazbear's Fright attraction from Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and is accompanied by a voice-over narration by "Michael" (possibly Mike), addressed to his father. He states that he has found "her" and put "her" back together, adding that he should be dead and that he will seek out his father. Just before the scene ends, Springtrap steps into view.

FNaF World (2016)

On September 15, 2015, Scott Cawthon announced a spin-off of his series, entitled FNAF World. Unlike the main series, the game is a RPG-based video game, using the various animatronic characters from the first four games. Though originally planned for release on February 2, 2016, Cawthon rescheduled the release to January 22, 2016, but eventually launched yet another day earlier, on January 21, 2016, respectively.

Post-release, community and critics criticized the game for missing key features, being unstable and unfinished, which Cawthon later apologized for, stating, "I got too eager to show the things that were finished, that I neglected to pay attention to the things that weren't." The game was subsequently removed by Steam per Cawthon's decision, and he stated that the game would be improved upon and re-released for no charge at a later date. Cawthon also announced that he asked Valve to refund everyone's money who bought the game.

In February 2016, Cawthon released a free version of the game, which featured a 3D overworld and an updated character selection screen. In March 2016, Cawthon updated his website with a new teaser, which featured new characters, like the infamous "Purple Guy" from the main series, and most of the characters from the Halloween update for Five Nights at Freddy's 4. Cawthon also created some spin-off minigames in the second update of the game, including Foxy Fighters, FOXY.exe, Chica's Magic Rainbow and FNAF 57: Freddy In Space.

Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes (2015)

Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes is the first novel written by Cawthon and Kira Breed-Wrisley, released early on December 17, 2015 for the Amazon Kindle and with a printed paperback released by Scholastic on September 27, 2016. According to Cawthon, the novel "expands the mythos and reveals a human element never before seen in the games". However, he stated that though the book is technically canon to the FNaF universe, the book and the game series may not be "intended to fit together like two puzzle pieces".

Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones (2017)

Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones is the upcoming second novel written by Cawthon and Breed-Wrisley, a direct sequel to The Silver Eyes. Digital and paperback editions will be released on June 27, 2017. It was discovered by a Reddit user, who stated they had found a novel under Cawthon's name on Amazon, but were unsure of its legitimacy. It was confirmed to be official by Cawthon himself soon afterwards.

The Freddy Files (2017)

The Freddy Files is the upcoming official guidebook to the series, supposedly outlining several gameplay mechanics and plot points of the series. Digital and paperback editions will be released on August 29, 2017.

Film adaptation

Warner Bros. Pictures announced in April 2015 that it had acquired the rights to adapt the series to film. Roy Lee, David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith are set to produce. Grahame-Smith stated that they would collaborate with Cawthon "to make an insane, terrifying and weirdly adorable movie". In July 2015, Gil Kenan signed to direct the adaptation and co-write it with Tyler Burton Smith. The film will feature an original story set within the same canon as the video game series, with animatronics designed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

In January 2017, Cawthon stated that partially due to "problems within the movie industry as a whole", the film "was met with several delays and roadblocks" and it was "back at square one", but promised "to be involved with the movie from day one this time, and that's something extremely important to me. I want this movie to be something that I'm excited for the fanbase to see."

Reception

The first game has been praised by critics for its unique take on the survival horror genre. Indie Game Magazine praised the first game's artistic design, commenting that "it's an incredibly terrifying experience to try to save yourself from the single jump scare that ends the game" and that it was a "fantastic example of how cleverness in design and subtlety can be used to make an experience terrifying". PC Gamer, when reviewing the first game, commented on the fact that players will likely experience familiarity with the setting due to restaurants such as Chuck E. Cheese's. They also noted that while "the AI isn't some masterwork of procedural unpredictability, it would [still] head straight to you and eat your face off, or it'll play around like an innocent child before closing in for the kill. Your mind will fill in the rest."

The second game received similarly positive reviews, with PC Gamer commenting that what he had hoped for in the sequel "was more mind games and more uncertainty. I wanted the plodding animatronic suits to find me and rip my face off in new and interesting ways. I wanted working legs", and that "what I got was a horror game dipping heavily into deception and subtlety". However, he also noted that "enjoying the good parts, though, comes with a cost of a frustratingly steep difficulty". Destructoid also gave the game a positive review, saying that "It's absolutely terrifying to know that you could be attacked at any moment from multiple avenues" and also praised the introduction of new animatronics and mechanics, but also criticizing the jumpscares and called the game "too hard for its own good".

The third game has, however, proven to be slightly less popular among critics. Critics from PC Gamer stated that although they enjoyed the new reworked camera system, the jumpscares from the animatronics "felt a little stale by the third night", to the point of becoming a mere annoyance. Destructoid commented that while Five Nights at Freddy's 3 is "by far the most technically proficient and mechanically satisfying installment yet", he was disappointed that Fazbear's Fright and Springtrap "[lacked] charm of the original cast and locations".

The fourth game has also received mixed reviews from critics. Destructoid criticized the fourth game for its excessively-loud jumpscares and the breathing mechanic being too difficult and confusing for players. Despite this, it was praised by one reviewer at GameZebo for its intense environment and creepy sounds and graphics, as well as its jumpscares. It was also given a mixed review by PC Gamer, who called it "another rivet in the series' steel-clad design which immortalized its Let's Play legacy in a few short months" and "certainly the scariest of the four [games]", but also criticized the gameplay, saying that "the humdrum repetition of the same sequence over and over ... is too much of a chore to fully pull me in", as well as criticizing the game's lack of the series's signature camera system.

The fifth game received mixed to positive reviews. Destructoid called it "slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy this game, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled." GameCrate summarized that "Sister Location is a fantastic horror game, even if it doesn't particularly feel like the rest of the FNaF series."

The Five Nights at Freddy's games have proven popular to be played by video streamers to their audience, so as to capture the players' jump scares and other frightened reactions, becoming a common game for Let's Play videos. Popular video streamers such as PewDiePie, Markiplier, and Jacksepticeye helped the games to receive additional attention through their playthroughs. In May 2015, YouTube reported that playthroughs of the Five Nights at Freddy's series were the eighth most-watched of all video game series on the service.