Scott Braden Cawthon (born 1978) is an American independent Video Game developer.
Scott's early career included Christian games and simple platformers, as well as the platformer adventure roleplay game The Desolate Hope (which was the Spiritual Successor of The Desolate Room
), the roleplay game Iffermoon and the construction and management game Chipper & Sons Lumber Co..
However, most of his games were harshly criticized; in the case of the lattermost game, the characters' stiff movements were likened to unnerving animatronic creatures. Discouraged, Scott decided to make one more game before ending his game career. Running with the criticism, he created a game about a security guard working the night shift at a restaurant whose mascot animatronics have murderous minds of their own. This was Five Nights at Freddy's.
The game was far from the end of his career, however, as online exposure and Let's Play videos skyrocketed FNAF to fame. People enjoyed its combination of suspense and outright horror, and the characters proved to be very popular note . The vague storyline also intrigued people and spawned a number of theories. In response, three terrifying sequels were made...in the course of one year... with a fourth sequel out in 2016, and then another sequel in 2017. A spinoff game called Five Nights at Freddy's World was released in 2016 as a lighthearted RPG starring the characters from the games.
On June 16, 2021, Scott announced his retirement from the FNAF games, citing age and family, though noting that the franchise will continue in someone else's hands. Despite this, Scott continues to write the Fazbear Frights: Tales from the Pizzaplex series, and additionally co-wrote and co-produced the 2023 film based on the franchise.
Scott's works with TV Tropes pages:
- Chipper & Sons Lumber Co.
- The Desolate Hope
- Five Nights at Freddy's
- Five Nights at Freddy's
- Five Nights at Freddy's 2
- Five Nights at Freddy's 3
- Five Nights at Freddy's 4
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location
- Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator
- Five Nights at Freddy's World
- Five Nights At Freddys VR Help Wanted
- Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach
- Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)
- Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes
- Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones
- Five Nights at Freddy's: The Fourth Closet
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Fazbear Frights
Tropes applying to Scott's works include:
- Author Avatar: His avatar is the man from "There Is No Pause Button", which Scott nicknamed Animdude on sites like Reddit.
- Author Tract: Many of his earlier project were done with the intents of teaching Christian values to children, as Scott is himself a devout Christian conservative. One of his most notable (and succesful) example of this is The Pilgrim's Progress, a game adapted from the book of the same name with a heavy-handed religious theme. However, due to these games not selling well, Scott gradually began to shift to concepts with a wider appeal, it's for this reason that Five Nights at Freddy's isn't an example of this.
- Creator Backlash:
- His view on FNaF World is pretty sour. A few months after giving the game a major update with post-game content, he eventually came to regret the game's bizarre plotline, mistakes he claimed he made early in the production, and the number of debates that it had sparked overall. He wrote the Android/iOS port description in to Self-Deprecation (to the point where he called it "the game that almost single handedly destroyed the FNaF franchise") and then cancelled the ports altogether, and its official website had gone completely black.
- Scott expressed regrets for, in his own words, "squandering years of [his] life" on Christian game that didn't succeed commercially, as said in an interview. Though he did eventually expressed interest in making RPGs again in his post announcing his retirement.
- Creator Breakdown: Cawthon took the criticisms for Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. very hard, the complaints about how his characters looked creepy almost driving him to retire. He managed to later take the criticism, however, and turn it into a Career Resurrection by dialing the creep-factor of his next game up to eleven.
- Descended Creator: He started making game and animations alone and was pretty much doing all the work himself, including modelling, animation, programming and voice acting.
- Doing It for the Art: While Scott openly admits that game making is a career he does for a living, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator and Ultimate Custom Night were done for the sole purpose of expanding the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise. Scott feared to be seen as milking it for money, so he decided to make them free.
- Easter Egg: His signature way of delivering information, usually by making information visible when a teaser image is brightened.
- Friendly Rivalry: He and MatPat had a bit of a thing going on, with Scott even telling him he was wrong and screwing with him on a few occasions such as confirming an old theory... on April Fool's Day. They're on friendly terms however, with Scott even congratulating Mat and his wife on their new baby. Scott even made a completely new game for Matt, Markiplier, Dawko and DJ Sterf to play for a charity livestream, saying he would donate $500,000 if they found all the money in the game. They didn’t, but Scott still donated the $500,000. Eventually, during MatPat's final Game Theory video as the host of the show on March 9th, 2024, Scott Cawthon himself appeared at the very end of the video.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Scott has stated that Bonnie the Bunny gave him nightmares while developing the first FNAF game. This didn't stop him from making more horrifying designs in future games.
- Production Posse: Most of the musics heard in his games are made by composer Leon Riskin.
- Self-Deprecation: Has been known to release games far ahead of schedule. He began mocking this with the release announcement of FNAF 4 and the teaser for FNAF World. Reached new levels when he revealed that he's the True Final Boss of FNaF World not due to ego, but because he figured some of the fans would enjoy killing him. Ouch.
- Teasing Creator: He manages to top this in 2017 with Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator. After Five Nights At Freddy's 6 had to be delayed numerous times, he released this as a fun sidegame for free, both to give the fans something to tide them over in the meantime, and so that he wouldn't go a whole year without releasing something. None of the game's teasers suggested that it was anything but what it was advertised as. As it turns out? This is the sixth game in the series, and the retro gameplay falls apart after a few minutes to reveal the game's true nature. The best part? He released this game for free, meaning he made zero money off the game just for the sake of fooling everyone!
- Trolling Creator:
- Is infamous for it. Special mention would have to go to the troll "games" he's created, and everything to do with his "lolz_hax" persona.
- In 2016, he announced that Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location would be delayed while he retooled it into a more family-friendly form, but that he'd release the "mature" version in installments. Installment 1 turned out to be a reskin of his survival game, "Sit 'N' Survive", putting the main character in a Freddy Fazbear mask.
- Upon the release of Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) he promised a Recursive Adaptation game only for it to be Freddy In Space 3.
- Even in matters not relating directly to his games, he's this. When asked in an interview what his birthday is, he answered February 31st.
- True Final Boss: Scott himself appears in Five Nights at Freddy's World as the final boss of Hard Mode.
