Intro
Dawko: 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 excited and nervous at the same time. Um, I'm so fricking nervous for this, but it's gonna be great. I've got a bunch of questions to ask him from all of the games: FNaF 1 through 'till Ultimate Custom Night, and the future as well. So, we're gonna ask him some future updates, what he's planning, and stuff about himself, as well. So, it's gonna be a great interview. Please understand as well that I've got a lot of questions, but I couldn't ask everybody's, of course. I got, like, literally ten thousand 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, okay? So, yeah, that's all I need to say. Thank you 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-lifetime opportunity, and I'm incredibly grateful for you guys, and Scott as well, and this franchise. Happy anniversary to FNaF. Four years today! It's insane! Let's go! *Excitable laughter*
First Contact
*the sound of a phone ringing*
Dawko: Hello?
Scott (as Phone Guy): Uh, hello? Hello, hello? Um, if you're hearing this, that means that you beat 50/20 mode, and I have to do an interview now, which I'm kind of uncomfortable with, but I'm going to do any...
Scott (Normally): Ah, forget it. Okay, I'm done with the Phone Guy shtick, so...
Dawko: *Uncontrollable laughter*
Scott: I was gonna try and keep it going for a while, but nah, I think I'll just end it right there.
Dawko: Yeah, yeah, that's perfect. That's perfect.
Scott: So, how are you doing today, Lewis?
Dawko: I am...very scared...and nervous, 'cos you know...
Scott: No, no, no, that's crazy talk. Yeah, I've been a little anxious about this, too, 'cos, you know, I tend to ramble on with my answers sometimes, but I haven't prepared any answers for this. I'm just gonna try to speak from the heart, and just talk about some stuff, and yeah, it'll be good.
Dawko: Yeah, awesome, because today is the four year anniversary of Five Nights at Freddys, so...four years! It's crazy!
Scott: Yeah, four years.
Dawko: And, we'll just get straight into it.
Five Nights at Freddy's
Dawko: So, the first game, so four years since Five Nights at Freddy's 1, we're gonna go straight into that. Um, so the first question I'd love to ask you, to kick it off with: How did you think of the original designs of the animatronics? So, the original gang.
Scott: Um, you know, the main three characters of Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica, those designs just kind of, uh, I didn't really plan ahead, like, what animals they should be, those three just kind of came natural to me, for some reason. You know, the only one I really struggled with was trying to think of the fourth character, you know, who would be on the separate little stage, kinda by himself.
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: And I'm tryna to remember all the options that I, uh, originally was kinda debating between. I mean, one of the contenders a fox, obviously, which ended up winning. Uh, another one was a wolf. Another one was going to be a beaver. *laughs*
Dawko: *laughs*
Scott: But then later, I decided against that 'cos I thought that was too on the nose from Chipper's, so I decided against that. Actually, if I remember correctly, I really 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 gonna be the original, like, leader instead of, um, Chipper?
Scott: Yeah, yeah. Freddy was always gonna be the main character. He was the first character I made. Um, it just came naturally. I didn't have to plan him out. I just knew that he was gonna be a bear with a top hat, holding a microphone.
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: You know? He was always gonna be the leader of the pack.
Dawko: Uh, the next question is: How did you come up with the game mechanics? So, sitting alone in an office, not being able to move. Um, I think someone mentioned about Sit 'N Survive. Did that have any inspiration for that? Any, like, old games inspire you for this one?
Scott: Um, well I don't think it was Sit 'N Survive, heh. Sit 'N Survive was just kinda, you know, you know...all of these games... Well, then again, I guess it was my mindset at the time, because my mindset at the time was, uh, to make smaller games, and that would be kind of a shorter experience. 'Cos, for a while, I was trying to make these, you know, big, sweeping, epic games, like The Desolate Hope, and stuff. You know, it was just too much of a gigantic commitment that, ultimately, you know, that they just weren't paying off, and at the time, I was really struggling, you know, to find, you know, something to kind of, you know, support my family, and everything, and uh, Five Nights at Freddy's was kind of the result of me switching to this idea of making these shorter experiences that I can make a bit faster, you know, without committing, you know, two years to them, you know, while also, um, y-you know, just making it a really robust experience. It's just a shorter game, you know?
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: So, I think that played a big part in it, you know? Everything is designed to where you see everything right away, you know? As soon as you jump in, you're in the experience, you know? And so, it doesn't matter if it lasts for five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes, an hour, you know, you're in the middle of it right away. And, uh, yeah.
Dawko: Did anything change along the course of making FNaF 1?
Scott: Um, I don't think I had any problems with...Lots of the stuff that was in there, I don't know. Five Nights at Freddy's 1, I think was just a result of just all the right ingredients to be there, you know? I do a bunch of stuff in there, and then, you know, people would kinda, the people who'd test it would kinda, and not my kids. I let some other people test it as well. But, you know, they would give me some advice. Like, one person said "Oh, I think you should leave out Phone Guy. I think that's too much exposition." And, you know, my mother jumped in and said "Oh, I don't think you should have a backstory about anybody getting killed", you know, "I don't think the game needs that." You know, and then I think I made a lot of good decisions about what to leave in, heh, you know, and what to take out. And it just, it was just all the right ingredients. All the right ingredients were there, you know? Um, so yeah, I'm really happy with how it turned out.
Dawko: Yeah, it really stood out from all of the indie games everybody was playing at that time. And, um, that's definitely how, it, like, became successful. It just stood out from any other horror experience as well. Um, so yeah. Good job, you know?. Really good job.
Scott: Thanks.
Dawko: Um, speaking about it, um, exploding, did you think it was going to, you know, get a huge reaction on the internet?
Scott: No, of course not! I mean, like I said, at the time, you know, uh, I was just trying to, you know, make a bunch of little games to kind of, you know, help support my family, and at the time, I think I was making, you know, slot machine games, and just, you know, anything that would bring in an extra, you know, forty or fifty dollars a month, you know, and just trying to accumulate all that stuff up, so no, you know, whenever, I mean, don't get me wrong, you know, that wasn't just an afterthought of a game. I mean, I put a lot of, you know, time and effort into Five Nights at Freddy's, obviously. But as far as, you know, expecting it to explode, no of course not. You know, I remember whenever I released it, you know, I didn't get it on Steam, or anything. It was a website called Desara at the time, which was just more immediately welcoming of, you know, anybody who wanted to post games. I think there are other sites that do that now, but you know, I was watching the download count on that, and I was watching it just kind of skyrocket, and...
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: You know, and eventually, my wife would come over and she'd be like: "Let me look at the numbers. Let me look at the numbers." She'd come over every ten minutes wanting to see, 'cos she was just astonished at how quickly that number was just going from, you know, five thousand downloads, ten thousand, fifteen downloads, twenty thousand, it was just going through the roof, just by the minute, you know? And, it really, at the time, I was just kind of enjoying it that evening. I was like: "Well, you know, this is great, you know, but it will be over tomorrow.", you know. And that was really my mindset, it's like "Oh, wow, this is a big spike. Everybody's really enjoying it. I wonder what I'm gonna make it tomorrow." You know, I had no idea that four years later, I was still gonna be in the middle of a bunch of, you know, Five Nights at Freddy's projects.
Dawko: Yeah, that's awesome. That's really awesome. Um, do you have a favourite memory of Five Nights at Freddy's 1?
Scott: Uh, yeah, I do, and it's the first jumpscare for me, and the first jumpscare for my two kids, you know? And, it was ol' Bonnie, which thrilled me, because Bonnie is kind of the only one that I think is a scary design for me. Like, I've never had a nightmare about any of my own characters, except for Bonnie. *laughs*
Dawko: *laughs*
Scott: Um, so yeah, I remember when I was developing the game at the time, Bonnie was just a still image, and not an animated jumpscare. I just had an image of Bonnie up in your face for whenever, you know, he had reached you.
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: And that startled me, you know. I was looking through the panels, and stuff, and I was intentionally, I was testing out the A.I., you know, I think I even had a little map, showing me that there was a little red dot moving through the building. But even though I was expecting it, I put down my monitor, and there was Bonnie, looking at me, and it was upsetting, you know. It was startling. You know, and now, that doesn't really startle me, but at the time, I don't know, it got me. And so then, after I animated it, I was letting my two sons play it, and I was getting to, you know, watch the, you know, I had a good seat behind both of them, so I was able to get a good view of them playing, and what they were playing and everything. And, I knew what was coming, and they had no idea, and um, you know, and the younger of the two, he got jumpscared by Bonnie. He just launched backwards in his chair, you know, hehe.
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Scott: Good times, tormenting the children.
Dawko: I mean, you still do, you made them test Ultimate Custom Night as well. Four years on.
Scott: No, I'll tell you what, you know, my two sons, Ian and Braden, they've been great, they've been great supporters, you know, all these years. I couldn't have done any of this without those two, you know? They've been just faithful beta-testers for me, and when they were really little, you know, I'd pay them through ice-cream, and stuff like that.
Dawko: Aww.
Scott: But I made a big mistake this last time with Braden. You know, I was, you know, obviously, I don't make them do this, so I try to incentivise them, and uh, Braden, you know, Braden's gotten wise to it. He's like: "Well, you know, how about if I go and beat all these challenges?", you know, and I sort of just thought: "Well, you know, I don't know, I'll give, you know, I'll give you twenty bucks for each of the challenges you'll beat.", thinking he was going to beat one or two of them, I was like: "Yeah, he'll spend thirty minutes on this. You know, I'll commit twenty, you know, twenty, forty, sixty dollars, whatever." He sat there, and he did, like, a twelve hour marathon on that game. He was playing non-stop. He was raging so hard in there, and he completed every single one of those challenges, except for, like, the last one, I think.
Dawko: Yes!
Scott: That boy made bank that day! He walked away with about three hundred dollars!
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Dawko: What?! Oh, worth it.
Scott: Yeah, yeah, but it was totally worth, 'cos he found bugs and glitches that would have been really bad. I mean, and that's the whole point, anyway, you know. He found these things that I needed to fix before I released the game, so...
Dawko: Okay, here's an interesting question about FNaF 1: Was there any reason why the kitchen camera was disabled due to gameplay limits on Clickteam, or anything like that.
Scott: Uh, no, no, I thought it would be interesting. I mean, you know, that mechanic ended up not really playing a big role in anything. Um, I think, originally, you know, I had wanted, and I got better with this in later games, how to make audio play a bigger role, and you know, I got better at that. But in the first one, that was just my attempt to make audio play a bigger part in it.
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: But yeah, it kind of ended up being just something different, and not being a major mechanic, or anything.
Dawko: Yeah, I mean, I think it was a good mechanic to know that Freddy was in the kitchen as well, because when Freddy's in the kitchen, he plays his, um, music, right?
Scott: That's right, that's right, that's right.
Dawko: So, I think it does play as, you know, a mechanic because you know that Freddy's in there, and usually, when Freddy's roaming around, you see his eyes, but you just see nothing inside there, so...
Scott: Right.
Dawko: So, when you were making Five Nights at Freddy's 1, were you already planning on making a sequel, or any other ideas what were flinging in your head on what to do?
Scott: Um, I definitely left a lot of things open-ended, you know, in case I wanted to expand upon them later. I mean, obviously, like, you know, I did not have the entire story planned out, as I know there's much debate about that on the subreddit, like, oh you know, some kind of mad genius that had, you know, seven games planned out from the beginning. No, I didn't.
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Scott: However, uh, you know, but I definitely knew that the story I was telling in the game was a small snippet of a larger story. Even if I didn't have all the details of the story fleshed out yet, you know, I knew that the story being told in that game was a smaller part of a whole.
Dawko: And if you could go back in time, is there anything you would change or add to Five Nights at Freddy's 1?
Scott: No, not the first one. Um, I can go back and think about all the other games, and be like "Uh, I wish I'd done this." and "Uh, I wish I'd done that." But, no, the first game was, like, kind of a perfect storm of ingredients. It was, you know, it was just the right time, you know, when everybody was really into indie horror games, and I think it was the right look, you know, the right feel, 'cos it was something different from what everybody else was playing. And it was, you know, kind of a type of horror game, or at least, um, the antagonists were something that hadn't really been explored in horror games, I didn't feel. You know, the idea of animatronic creatures, so, and you know, everybody really likes Phone Guy, obviously. Everybody likes the little easter eggs thrown in, and the backstory. No, it was just a good mix of ingredients. And it was kind of lightning in a bottle, and I don't think I was ever able to fully capture that again, and I don't think I really will be able to, and that's okay. I mean, like I said, that was kind of lightning in a bottle.
Five Nights at Freddy's 2
Dawko: Right, we'll go onto Five Nights at Freddy's 2 next. Um, November 2014! If you didn't make this game, I wouldn't be here now, basically. Honestly, it's the truth. Um, FNaF 2 is the game that really means a lot to me, and I'll be forever grateful for it. So, yeah. Thank you. *laughs* Just wanted to quickly plug that in. I appreciate it.
Scott: Good.
Dawko: About Five Nights at Freddy's 2, how did you get the idea for, you know, changing the mechanics up a little bit? So, the masks, and the vents, you know, watching the Puppet.
Scott: You know, there wasn't a really in-depth planning phase. For, like, the overall feel of the games, like a lot of these were, I just kinda knew what they were supposed to be, or just kinda felt the way the series should progress. Like, I knew Part 2 should be chaotic, you know, Part 2 should be, you know, a lot more chaotic than the first one. It should be just crazy. There should be overwhelming panic. And, then I also knew, even at that time, as I was working on Part 2, I knew that 3 should be a very personal experience. It should be the opposite of what 2 was, you know? Part 3 should be kind of one-on-one. And I knew, Part 4 should be, um, kind of...unique, for setting, and things like that. And I knew that Part 5 should be kind of high-tech. And I even kinda already had colour schemes picked out. I knew that Part 5 should kinda be purples and blues. Um, I knew that 3 should be kind of green, and I knew that 2 should still kind of be industrial, which I think that does. Um, but outside of that, I'm not really sure. Maybe there was more to it at the time, but you know, it all happened so fast, you know?
Dawko: Yeah, it's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, did you have any scrapped content, or anything for the game? Because some people, um, mentioned the, um, the tox-tox-toxicit- is that how you say it? Toxicity meter?
Scott: Right, right, uh yeah, uh, the toxic meter. I think, if I remember correctly, I think that the toxic meter was an early idea on, um, just something so that players couldn't put the mask on and leave it on forever.
Dawko: Yes, leave it on forever. Yeah.
Scott: I had an idea that if you put the mask on, this meter starts running out. But I don't know, that seemed...that didn't really seem to fit. I don't know, it just didn't seem to...it just didn't make quite as much sense. And so then the way that I solved it was, you know, obviously, having the wind to wind the music box every once in a while, and the fact that Foxy was immune to the mask. You know, so I came up with other ways that felt...that felt a little more natural than just putting on the mask and seeing a meter deplete. It's like "Uh-oh, okay, I can only wear this for five seconds." It seemed a little too artificial.
Dawko: And it worked perfectly, anyway, so I don't think it was needed, anyway, because of what you just said. The things that you've added. You're not gonna always going to keep the mask on forever, anyway, so... Was there a reason why you decided to remove Toy Chica's beak after she left the stage, to make...probably to make her more creepy, right?
Scott: Uh, you know, once again, I'm not entirely sure what my mindset was on that. I think it was just kind of a way to distinguish her, you know, stage presence Chica from "Now I'm a monster coming to get you." You know, like, she's entered attack mode, or something, you know? Uh, once again, I'm...actually, I think maybe part of it was because, like, you know, Classic Chica, even on stage, was still kind of creepy looking. But the Toy versions, just in there standing state on stage, weren't quite as creepy. I mean, I think Toy Bonnie still retains some of that. But like, Toy Chica isn't really scary looking. Toy Chica by herself isn't very scary, I didn't think. And, um, you know, removing the beak was just one thing to just kind of push it into kinda, you know...
Dawko: ...creepy.
Scott: Making her look a little more uncomfortable.
Dawko: Um, so, um, how did you come up with the minigames? Because, this was the first game to ever have minigames. Was this to, you know, um, show the lore not on paper, if that makes sense? So, you know, instead of giving just like this and this and this "Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, um, the killer killed five kids, yada, yada, ya." But, instead you didn't show it on paper. You put it into a minigame.
Scott: Right. Um, I think it was because, I don't know, I wanted to keep the gameplay experience similar, but I also wanted to make the game a little bit more fleshed out than the first one. And so, that just seemed like a kinda natural way to do that, where...while not interfering with the gameplay. You know, putting it in in kind of an unexpected way, that would make it interesting, though, while also not making the player feel like they're forced to sit through cutscenes. Things like that.
Dawko: Um, d'you have any good memories of FNaF 2 at all? Or bad! *laughs*
Scott: Um, that was a really stressful time for me, I think, because, obviously, you know, my life was changing a lot at that point, you know, so a lot of...there was a big frenzy going on with just...all aspects of my life. And I was really trying to work on that, but I mean, there's still good memories, but I just wouldn't want to revisit that, you know? It was just...it was really chaotic, and I was really stressed out. Um, hehe. Yeah, so I mean, yeah, all good memories, but I wouldn't want to revisit it.
Five Nights at Freddy's 3
Dawko: Okay, we'll move on to Five Nights at Freddy's 3, then. So, this is the...this is when I e-mailed you for early access. I only had a...I literally had only, like, I think it was like 6K subs, or something like that. And I still got the e-mail. I was like: "Hey, Scott. My name's Dawko. I make FNaF videos, um, is there any chance I can get it early when it comes out?" And you said, yeah! You put me on your list, which is insane. And that, like, honestly...
Scott: *laughs* I've still got that list, I've still got that list on my desktop. The same one from all those years ago.
Dawko: Whaaat?!
Scott: And, it's literally called 'The V.I.P. List'.
Dawko: *laughs* Yeah, no, no, yeah you said that. In the e-mail, you said "I'll put you on the V.I.P. list" and I was so happy! I was screaming when you replied. Oh, it's such a good memory!
Scott: And I don't use that list very often anymore, but I still keep it, 'cos you know, you never know, you never know what's gonna come up, you know, for future events. I always keep that V.I.P. list.
Dawko: That's awesome. I'm I still on it? *laughs*
Scott: Oh yeah, of course! Of course you're still on it. Yeah, I never take anybody off the V.I.P. list.
Dawko: Okay, so, I can do...I can be bad and then you'll never take me off, right?
Scott: Well, I mean, don't test it, but...
Dawko: *laughs* I was kinda testing it with Ultimate Custom Night, with this 50/20 mode fiasco.
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Dawko: Five Nights at Freddy's 3, another good memory for me. Um, February. After this game came out, I was in university studying law at the time, and I quit to carry on with this game franchise for my channel. So yeah, another good memory with FNaF 3. First off, how did you think of Springtrap?
Scott: I don't know. Um, once again, he was just the character for that game. I did not sketch out a whole bunch of characters, and write pros and cons lists. You know, he was just the natural villain for that, you know? I knew what the villain was supposed to be, and I just kind of started modelling him, and um, he just kind of came together.
Dawko: Yeah. Um, this model was like, um, a big difference compared to the other ones you did, because you had to go through all the details of the, you know, being withered, and having, like, body parts, and gore, and stuff like that.
Scott: Yeah, so he did take longer to model, and you know, his purple corpse was in that whole body that whole time. You know, even though for the majority of the game, you never see it, you know, that Purple Guy, he's in there.
Dawko: Yeah, um, well, we got those secret, um, images.
Scott: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's true. You get to see him a little bit.
Dawko: And the troll! Was this the first time you did the troll game, as well? Was this the fi...you...this was when you first...the launch of the troll games!
Scott: Uh-huh, yep, it sure was. Yeah, yeah, that was the first time, yeah, that was the first troll game. It sure was.
Dawko: And it was...um...oh, we were...it was like a platformer from one of your old games, right?
Scott: Yeah, an old game: There Is No Pause Button. I stuck Freddys head...
Dawko: Yes, that's it! Yes! That was the first time we saw, um, Springtrap as well, because you put Springtrap in the menu, and there was some frames where he did have his, like, his mask, and stuff going crazy, like, going on and off.
Scott: That's right. That's right.
Dawko: I remember the first teaser you did with "He always come back.", and stuff. And people originally thought that it was like, Fredbear, didn't they?
Scott: Well, yeah, they thought it was Golden Freddy, yeah.
Dawko: Yeah, instead of it being, like, a rabbit character. So, I remember those times, man. I was one of them, by the way. I originally thought it was Golden Freddy. This game, um, was when things went a little bit crazy with, like, the minigames, and stuff, and the good ending and the bad ending. Um, if you can answer this, which ending really happened?
Scott: I've given it a lot of thought as to whether or not I should answer this question. And I went back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth. And, the answer is very interesting, you know?
Dawko: Okay.
Scott: The answer is very interesting. The answer is complex. However, I'm not gonna answer it, because it's only cause strife. I mean, you see the kinda trouble that erupts, especially several years ago. The flame wars that would go on over Mangle's gender, something as simple as that, you know? You know, I mean, you know, people with torches and pitchforks, you know? Now, yeah, I don't think I'm gonna answer this one, I'm afraid.
Dawko: So, um, the good ending, you know, it was very, you know, um, sad, and it seemed like it was the end of the franchise. Um, was this meant to be the final game?
Scott: I think when I was making that game, in my mind, that was the end of a trilogy, you know? I think, in my mind, the original, the story was gonna be three games. And in all honesty, I think Five Nights at Freddy's 3 was where I kind of started letting myself be driven a little bit more by criticisms of the games than maybe I had before. Before, I was just really, really excited, you know, happy to have all this stuff. But whenever 3 came out, um, I really was starting to pay attention to criticisms. You know, for instance, you know, even though I may have, you know, in some, you know, alternate life, may have left the series alone at three, people were not happy with the jumpscare, and it's kind of as simple as that. People weren't happy with the jumpscare of Springtrap, and that really bothered me. Um, and so then, in my mind, I wouldn't let the series rest, in a way, because I wanted to make another entry that was really, really scary again, you know? And I think I kind of pushed that with Five Nights at Freddy's 4.
Dawko: Yes.
Scott: You know, really focusing on really cool, really quick, unexpected jumpscares that would kinda make you jerk. So, yeah, so honestly, the series kind of was nudged forward by me wanting to improve upon the last entry.
Dawko: Okay. Awesome. That's interesting.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 4
Dawko: Speaking about Five Nights at Freddy's 4, this was the next one. Um, July, where you originally planned for it to be a Hallowe'en release, right? And then, you released it in July! *laughs*
Scott: Right. Well, I had things to do. You know, the way that I see it is that if you have something ready to go...
Dawko: Just do it. Yeah.
Scott: You know, I mean, what's the point, you know? I'm not a, you know...I wasn't this gigantic corporation, you know, with, you know, uh, you know, releasing, you know, advertis...with a big marketing campaign, targeting a specific date, trying to squeeze it between other releases. You know, I mean, I had people who were excited about the game, and who were looking to it. And those were the only people that I was thinking about, you know? It's like "Hey, there's a fanbase here, and they're excited for this. You know, why not just go ahead and let them have it? And I'll just hop into the next project, you know? And that's served me really well for, you know, for the majority of the games.
Dawko: Yeah. Um, 'cos I remember, um, I was on holiday, wasn't I? And you e-mailed me about, um, doing, like, a first thoughts on the game. And I remember you e-mailing me, like, I think it was, like, literally the day after saying: "You know what? I'm just gonna release it."
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Dawko: So, I think that made everybody excited about it, though. Like, everyone was like: "Right, we know what it's like now. Scott, please, just release it now, because..." And you did, so, I think, you know, I played it on holiday and I have a lot of good memories playing through it. You know, while I'm screaming when people are next door to me, 'cos you know, on cruse ships, cabins are really close together. So, I was full-on *laughs* screaming in my cabin. I was honestly wondering what the next door neighbours were thinking about what the hell I was doing.
Scott: Well, I'm glad that ended up being a good memory. Sorry that it stressed you out. You're not the only person that I stressed out, by the way, so don't feel like you're getting isolated, trying to cause you trouble. I think, um, if I remember correctly, so after I released Five Nights at Freddy's 4, I was sending out e-mails saying: "Hey, this game's out." "Hey, this game's out." And I sent one to Markiplier, you know, and he e-mailed me back, saying, you know, "Dude! I can't play this! I just got to...this game conference just started. It's gonna be going on for four days!" You know, I stressed him out too, 'cos obviously, at the time, everybody was pestering him, you know, to play it immediately, and I think that he, you know, he was able to, you know, um, you know, being the good sport that he is, he still, just like you did, even though you were inconvenienced, you still found time to, you know, do videos.
Dawko: Yeah. I always try to. If you remember with FNaF World, and I was in hospital. I still played it.
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Scott: Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. You sure were.
Dawko: Yeah, oh God! I can never miss anything. Ever. So, with Five Nights at Freddy's 4, like you said, I think you basically answered this question anyway, but the game and the mechanics, like, you said that you wanted to make this more scarier, um, back to, like, you know, being anxious all the time. And, the interesting thing you did with this one...I feel like, every game you make, you try and implement a new mechanic that you haven't done before...and this one was specifically to do with sound. Because you had to go to the doors, and listen closely for breathing. And I think that impacted the jumpscare, like, a million times as scary, because, you know, you're full on listening to the game. You have to listen to the game. So, when you get that jumpscare out of nowhere while you're listening, waiting for them to breathe, you know, I think that really, you know, made the game stand out.
Scott: Yeah, well, lots of the games were kind of experimental with different ways of initiating, you know, the jumpscares, to see what was really effective. And, yeah, I think looking into, you know, this big dark chasm in front of you, not knowing if there's a face, you know, two inches from your own face looking back at you, then you having to commit to turn on the flashlight, and yeah...I think that one really worked. I think that one really worked.
Dawko: Yes. Yeah, it was terrifying. Um, so how were these to model? Were they, you know, just as hard Springtrap? You know, because it seemed like you were going all out on these Nightmare animatronics for the designs.
Scott: Yeah, the Nightmare animatronics were probably the most elaborate to model. I mean, I remember, um, anytime I start a new game, that's always the most difficult phase, just starting into the modelling phase, because I know that it's gonna take a really long time. It takes a lot of patience, you know? A lot of attention to detail. You know, the Five Nights at Freddy's 1 models weren't that bad. I think I modelled Freddy in two days, and then I think I took that model, and adjusted it to make Bonnie in another day. Um, and then the ones for Five Nights at Freddy's 2 were probably about the same today, maybe, you know, maybe one or two days per character. And that's working all day on them, but still, just a day or two per character. I think Springtrap took maybe four or five days to make him. And each of the Nightmare animatronics, I think I spent about a week and a half on each one. Uh, I think a couple of them even two weeks on each one, just because, lots of teeth, lots of tears in the fabric, which are not texture mapped on, I mean, those are actually kind of torn out into the model, 'cos I think it looks a lot more convincing then trying to, you know, texture map them on there. So, I'd have to go in there, really close. And I would have to actually, you know, cut into that character, you know, delete polygons, and then straighten them all out to make them all look like they're sharp corners, rather than, you know, blocky squares. There was just a lotta work, but I mean, totally worth it though, you know?
Dawko: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, about the models, people were wondering about Foxy's tongue. So, Foxy originally had a tongue in the teaser. Did you take that out because of complications with the game, or anything?
Scott: Uh, no, I took it out 'cos I didn't think it was...it was scary on the teaser. You know, there's something about those, you know, those, you know, those snake-like demonic tongues. They're kind of cool, in theory. But they're not really scary in practice. Like, I don't think I've ever seen a monster in a movie, you know, extend out, you know, it's long tongue, and, you know, snake it around, and then me being scared by it. You know, they're not very scary. So, I just took it out of the game.
Dawko: Yeah, awesome. Um, about this game, it created a bit of a divide between people, specifically the box at the end, and then the TV advertisement with 1983, and then the Bite of '87 debate. How did you feel about the reactions to that?
Scott: Kind of like with Five Nights at Freddy's 3, where there was something that I was kinda left unsatisfied with. The reaction to Five Nights at Freddy's 4, and the box is tied into this, you know very, very closely, I don't think that, uh, people weren't really happy from a lore standpoint, you know, even though I got the jumpscares kinda right. And the box really fit into that lore aspect. You know, I felt that it had all gone kind of too...that it strayed too far from an actual story in a way. Me, just saying that, I'm gonna get torn apart for even saying that, 'cos people are gonna look like at what I've ended up with, and they're gonna be like, "And you call this a story?!" Uh, but by Five Nights at Freddy's 4, it just got...it just kind of went a little too broad. It cast it's net too wide for interpretation. I guess that's the best way to say it. You know, it went too broad for interpretation, and that left people unsatisfied, you know? 'Cos whereas the other ones, yeah, there were mysteries, 4 ended just too mysterious to the point where you really couldn't...there was no real way to figure out what was going on. It left people unsatisfied. And like I said, with jumping from 3 to 4, I knew that I had to go in and straighten that out. So, you know, people aren't really happy with this, you know, I need to make another game. I need to kind of ground this again. Not necessarily in reality, but I need to ground it in storytelling again, and really lay this down with, like, with what's going on. You know, obviously, I watch all the Game Theory videos, and you know, me and MatPat have sometimes had an antagonistic relationship back in 4, you know? I inconvenienced him with my games, and sometimes he inconveniences me with his theories, but it's all in good fun, you know, but I'll tell you, he did a video on that box, and he kind of said that the contents of the box changed over the years. You know, and I bet nobody gave that a whole lot of thought, but I saw that, and I was like, he's absolutely right. He's absolutely right. The contents of that box have changed over the years, because, and it's for that very reason, it's because, uh, you know, what I was intending the game to be when it happened, and then after the reaction, I was like: "I need to craft this into something better for the people who see this as important." And that kind of indirectly does change the contents of the box, you know. It changes the contents of everything that came before. Um, yeah, so I thought that was an interesting observation on his part.
Dawko: Yeah. And I think you said...I think you mentioned this on one of your Steam posts, or something that you, um, you put some things in Sister Location to ground out the story of FNaF 4, right?
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Dawko: Yeah.
FNaF World
Dawko: Right, so, um, I mentioned about the hospital fiasco. This was when FNaF World was on the scene. So, why did you decide to change things up, and make FNaF World?
Scott: Well, I do have some reasons for why I made it, even though they're not...it doesn't mean it was a good idea. Just bec...you know, just because, I wanna go ahead and get that out front, just because I had reasons for making it, doesn't mean it was a good idea. But, you know, one part of it was just that, I mean, you know, there's only so much you can let your mind focus on, you know, murders and tragedy, and stuff like that, before, you know, you kind of start cracking, even if it's just stories that you're making up. There's only so much human suffering that the human mind can sit around and think about, and at that point, you know, I was two years in, you know, just fully committed to this...grisly story of murders. And I had to make something more lighthearted, and in hindsight, what I should have done is, you know, I should've used that for a troll game, or I should've, you know, made something like, you know, uh, Foxy Fighters, you know? I should have just done something that was obviously...for fun, and not try to somehow tie it into a canon game, you know? And that's obvious to me now, but like I'm sayi...you know, like I was saying, I'm wasn't thinking completely rationally at the time, um, you know, and whereas, like I was saying, Five Nights at Freddy's 1 was the right game at the right time, FNaF World, that wasn't a good time for it to be made, because I was already in the rhythm of making games that were, you know, coming out not-too-far apart from each other, you know? I was making them pretty fast, and that's what people were wanting and expecting, and that's what I was wanting to do anyway. I'm not blaming, you know, people for wanting that. That's what I had created, that pattern. And I was happy with that. I liked making games really fast, you know, but that was just a very poor decision of a game to try to make fast. You know, in hindsight, like, now would have probably been a better time to sit back, and work on something like that.
Dawko: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely.
Scott: I mean, you know, like after all the kind of, after I'm kind of...after I was kind of satisfied with all the canon games, and other companies, you know, had taken on some other projects, then I could sit back, and maybe enjoy making an RPG, you know, and spend a couple of years on it, you know, and just make something that looked like, you know, The Desolate Hope. You know, really make some nice 3D models for it. Oh, and another mistake I made with FNaF World, I was designing it for mobile. I don't know. You know, I can...this is a whole separate interview about what went wrong with FNaF World, so let's move along!
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Dawko: Okay, um, so how would you treat the game now as an experience? Like, have you learned anything, making this game?
Scott: Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, I learned a lot. In fact, right before you called, I was kinda thinking over that game, and I realised that, you know, that's probably the least valuable I've ever made, as far as profit as concerned. But it's also the single most valuable game of the entire franchise, and the reason is because, what I learned from FNaF World is what is driving every single project going on right now. It is serving as the gemstone of quality control in my mind, and it has solidified exactly what I have to do going forward. If I was treating the movie as I was treating my game series at the time I made FNaF World, we would be three movies in to the FNaF movies by now, and they would probably be terrible, you know? If I had the mindset that "Oh, hey, it's Five Nights at Freddy's! People will love it!", you know, regardless of quality, then we would already have several movies, and they would all be terrible. I mean, you know, and this, you know, Ultimate Custom Night would've come out way too soon, and it just served as a really important lesson for me that you should never take...it taught me to never take for granted how special it is to have a group of people who are eager to play what you make. Whenever I made the, you know...I'll use The Desolate Hope as my example again, I saw one person made a piece of fanart of that on the internet. I found it on Google. Someone had drawn one of the characters, and that was the most special thing to me in the world. That someone had drawn a picture of one of my characters. Like, I can't even tell you how important seeing that one drawing was, and it was just, you know, I have no idea who it was. You know, but then, you know to have a fanbase, and to have kids that are drawing these pictures and, you know sendi...I got a letter the other day addressed to Foxy.
Dawko: Aww.
Scott: You know? And, God bless the post office in my town, for knowing me and sending me these letters anyway. I kid you not, it was addressed to Foxy.
*Dawko laughs*
Scott: Only to Foxy. And I think below it, it might have had some other clue as to who it was for, but the post office made sure to pass it along to me.
Dawko: Aww.
Scott: You know, I mean, how awesome is that, you know? And, the letter was written to Foxy. It was asking Foxy a question.
Dawko: That's so awesome.
Scott: You know, that's so...there's nothing more priceless than that.
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: You know? And to have a fanbase, you know, of people who care about these characters in the games, you know, that is the only thing that matters, you know? And it should never be taken for granted.
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: And, you know, and, you know, who cares if something is commercial? And who cares if something is gonna make a whole bunch of money, you know? You just have to make sure that you...that whenever those people finally get to see this next thing, that it's something that lifts them up and makes them happy, and it's something that it was everything that they wanted to see. You know, like that's all that matters, you know? And I need to write that kid back. I'm going to go get a big envelope and put a bunch of Foxy plush toys and I'm gonna write a letter as a Foxy.
Dawko: Aww!
Scott: And I've never done that before. But I'm gonna totally do it. And I'm gonna even make a little tear in the paper, and say that it was on my hook that it...
Dawko:...that it got stuck, yeah. That's awesome. That's really awesome.
Scott: But yeah so, that's a long story, but no, FNaF World taught me to never take for granted your fanbase.
Dawko: Yeah, exactly. And the final question, which everybody's wanted to ask is: Will Chipper ever return like he said he would?
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Scott: Hey, Chipper is...listen, all of these games are haunted by different spirits, right?
Dawko: Right?
Scott: But the real spirit haunting this whole franchise is Chipper. Chipper is haunting this whole franchise. I mean, I received a box of merchandise the other day, you know, like, a manufacturer sample, and there's a plush toy of Chipper called El Chip, you know?
Dawko: Yeah, yeah.
Scott: But I held that plush toy, and I was looking at El Chip, and I was just thinking to myself, you know, "You got merch. You got merch, Chipper. You know, you were an abysmal failure, but you find your way into this merch. And there you sit, with that goofy grin on your face.", you know. No, so Chipper is already back. He's infiltrated the franchise.
Dawko: Yeah, so El Chip, to you, was, um, a reference to Chipper?
Scott: Oh yeah, of course he is.
Dawko: Yeah. Thought so.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location
Dawko: Now, Sister Location. Um, I feel like this was, like, the biggest change-up in the franchise, because you added voice actors, um, you know, you went beyond the limits of Clickteam to a lot of people where, you know, you added a sense of free roam in this, like, huge location. Is that maybe why you decided to put voice acting in? Um, to change things up a little bit?
Scott: I think for Five Nights at Freddy 1 through 4, I consider that all like one sitting for me. Like, I sat down, I feel like I just sat down and made all four games in one sitting. You know, it was only after that, that I sat back and thought: "Hmm.", you know, "How can I improve upon this? How can I add something new?", and that's when I was, you know, entertaining new ideas in my mind. And you know, voice acting was just kind of...I don't remember exactly what it was, but, man, I'm sure glad that I did, you know? I bumped into just some incredible talent, you know, I got to use, um, obviously, I mean, almost all of them, if not all the voice actors I got for Sister Location have come back to reprise their roles, or other roles, you know?
Dawko: Yeah, yeah. Exactly. That's awesome.
Scott: Just amazing people.
Dawko: Yeah, they really are. Hello, by the way, voice actors, if you're watching. *laughs*
Scott: Hello, voice actors.
Dawko: Um, so, I think you've basically answered some of these, I asked like: What inspired you to make the game style so different. I mean, like, I think you've answered that throughout the interview. You just wanted to make something different compared to the others. So, how were these to model and design?
Scott: Um, I think the Sister Location characters are probably...were my favourite ones to model. Um, I just really liked the metallic kind of look. I always kinda tend to lean sci-fi, which has actually gotten me in trouble a couple times with this franchise, you know. Any time I try to lean sci-fi, which is my natural inclination, you know, people are like: "Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is a horror story." And then I have to somehow try to guide it back, you know. And rightfully so. The first game is a horror movie, it's not sci-fi. Um, so yeah, I don't know, I just, uh, I wanted it to be sci-fi. I wanted it to look really slick and polished. And I really enjoyed modelling all of those characters. And you know, like I said, I think those are probably some of my favourite characters of the series.
Dawko: So, here's an interesting one, which I don't...I've...I don't know if you're gonna answer or not: So, in Night 4, when we're inside the suit, a lot of people wanted to know: Whose suit is that?
Scott: Whose suit is that?
*Dawko laughs*
Scott: I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to answer that for you.
Dawko: That's fine. That is...
Scott: That's gonna have to remain a topic of discussion.
Dawko: Any memories or favourite moments?
Scott: I really enjoyed making that game. I have nothing but good memories about that.
Dawko: Awesome.
Scott: I really enjoyed making that, and I really enjoyed working on the trailer. I think that's my favourite trailer, the one that I made. And I loved seeing the reactions, everybody just...everybody just seemed to...and honestly, I think that's what creates the memories for me, is just seeing how things are kind of received. And you know, obviously, if something is received really well, then I know I did my job right, you know, and I know that, you know, that I know that I did something right. So, I think that my favourite moment was getting to release that trailer, and just seeing all the excitement from it, and then I knew I was on the right track.
Dawko: Awesome. Yeah, I loved that trailer. I think I did....yes I did a reaction. I loved it. It was so good, and different as well, compared to your other trailers, too, because, I think, um, the favourite trailers from you to me, um, are most likely FNaF 3 and Sister Location, um, I love it when you put, like, your own cutscenes in the trailers. I think it's really awesome. I have no idea how you did that. Um, how did you that? If I can ask that. Like, how did you put the models in cutscenes? Was that with Clickteam? I don't know anything about this stuff.
Scott: Oh, um, well, before I was making video games, I mean, I was an animator, you know? I mean, I got my degree in computer animation, and I had several jobs where I was...none of my jobs have ever involved making games at all, you know? It's always been about using 3D Studio Max, uh, obviously, the modelling software that I use. And, you know, and that's a full animation programme, you know? So, whenever I went to make the cutscenes, I wouldn't use Clickteam at all, uh, I would just, you know, go back to my old school skills, bring my characters together, and animate them, you know? Render out, you know, movie, drop those in my video editing software, and there you go.
Dawko: Yeah, that's awesome.
Scott's Animations
Dawko: Um, I've watched some of your old animations, by the way, on YouTube.
Scott: Oh no.
Dawko: They're all out there, Scott. *laughs*
Scott: Oh, I know, I know, man. I know. There's no getting away from it.
Dawko: No! They were good, honestly! I'm not even kidding.
They were really good. My favourite one, right, was...with the cat. So, the cat under the bridge, and the kid was always scared to see the cat, but he always used to leave her food. And, what he didn't know is that she had babies. That's so cute!
Scott: Hey, that's a true story. That is based off of a true story. Um, my family, we were living in a little apartment complex, and there was always this creepy, ratty looking cat, that we all started fondly calling Demon Cat. You know, and in fact I took, you know, my two sons now who are teenagers, you know, they were just three and four at the time, you know? But we actually went out, searching for Demon Cat. We made an event of it one night. We all got flashlights, and went searching around the apartment complex looking for the Demon Cat. And I even got a photograph of it, and man, I don't know whatever happened to it, you know, we peered under a car, and I took a picture, and of course, it's eyes were glowing green. And you know, we found Demon Cat. You know, but then true to the story, like, I don't know if it was a week or two later, whatever. You know, it was a momma cat. It had little babies, you know? It wasn't really this big bad cat. It was just a momma. And of course, everbody was taking care of it. Every single person was setting out food for, so she was well taken care of.
Dawko: Aww! That's awesome. Um, actually, thinking about your voice right now, you did narrate those, right?
Scott: Oh, yeah, you know, that was me in all of the voice roles, I mean, uh, you know, all of the male roles, obviously, but, um, well I mean, you know, these days, I'm so fortunate to be able to go online, and to be able to connect with voice talent. I mean, I wouldn't have been able to afford it back at the time, anyway. You know, the internet was brand new. I mean, you're talking, we're talking, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years ago, when, you know, I mean, yeah, the internet was around, but you couldn't just go online and connect with the kind of talent you can today, you know? So, I was pretty much on my own when it came to voice acting.
Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator
Dawko: Okay, uh, moving onto your...I'd say the highlight of your trollness: Five Nights at Freddy's 6! The game you originally planned to be a pizza simulator, an 8-bit pizza simulator. And everyone was like: "Okay, okay, let's have it.", and you released the whole game without anybody knowing anything for a whole year. Like, why? Just for the surprise?
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Scott: Okay, well no, there actually was reasoning behind it. It wasn't just to be a troll, okay. And the reasoning was kind of complicated, and it was not a very fun year. That was a game that was born out of necessity, because I needed to kind of bring a conclusion to several events from the series. However, whenever I was in the early stages of it, and I think I'd released the early idea that I was working on another game. And I think it was someone on Steam that just made a passing comment. It was just a passing comment, you know? Nobody paid any attention to it, you know, "He better not just start teasing a game like he always has been before, you know, because that's just not gonna cut it anymore." Something like that, I don't know, it was just some passing comment, but it just made me start thinking. It's like "This next game, I really can't do that. You know? I can't just do the same thing that I did before. I can't just start releasing teasers because, for some reason, at that time, I just knew that if I went through another year of just releasing teasers, that would give everybody a lot of fatigue. Like, that would fatigue people. That would wear people out, and it was going to rub people the wrong way. You know, and I can't explain why I felt that way, but I just really felt that way. But at the same time, I needed to resolve a lot of issues with a story. And so those two factors combined, that's the way I handled it the way that I did. I worked on that game for a year in secret, all the while, the fanbase was you know, was getting pretty agitated, that, you know, that I wasn't talking to them, and I wasn't working on anything. But I knew that that was the way that it just had to be. It had to be this way this time. This game could not have a lot of hype behind it, 'cos that wasn't the purpose. The purpose of it was not to make a lot of money. The purpose of it was not to build a lot of hype. It was just to resolve some plot points that people wanted to see. And so, the result of that was me going into the dark for a year, and then...just dropping a game. And there you have it. And you know, even on the Steam store, you know, it's not there to draw a bunch of attention to itself. You know, it's using all the simplest screenshots. That is truly there for just people who wanted to have resolution to some of the story.
Dawko: It was still a big highlight, though. Like, the surprise just, I think blew everybody away, to be honest. It's one of my favourite memories, where I'm just, you know, being Freddy, throwing pizzas. And then, the game glitches, and then you sat in a room with Scrap Baby. D'you know what I mean? Like, it was the biggest surprise ever!
Scott: Well, good. Well, see...and that's exactly what it needed to be, 'cos just like every game needs to be a little bit different, you know, the way it's approached needs to be different, too. And the reason why I brought that comment was because it just kind of reminded, you know, you can't just do...you can't just do the same thing that you've been doing. You can't just start releasing teasers again randomly, and just expect everybody to keep caring. You know, so I knew that I had to handle it differently. Yeah, I think that I was successful with that. I think it worked out well.
Dawko: Yeah it did. Specifically, as well with changing things up a little bit, you added the, um, the simulator. So, you make your own pizzeria. You put your own animatronics and designs in. I think that was a really cool idea. It split the game up as well, so you're not just always in an office. You have a break from being scared, and you know, you can make your own pizzeria. Simple as that.
Scott: Yeah, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
Dawko: Awesome!
Ultimate Custom Night
Dawko: Next up is Ultimate Custom Night. So, this was the...literally released, um, uh, a month ago? Has it been a month already?
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Dawko: What?
Scott: Maybe a little more, even.
Dawko: With Ultimate Custom Night, you know, having fifty plus animatronics, was this bigger than you originally wanted it to be? So, did you originally think: "Right, I'm gonna put fifty animatronics into this game." Or did you just keep building it up?
Scott: I mean, I always knew that it was going to be a full sized game. I mean, origina...I mean, I guess at the very beginning, it was gonna be an add-on to Pizzeria Simulator, but it was very soon afterwards, that I realised, you know, this is gonna be a full Five Nights at Freddy's experience. You know, this just needed to be its own full game. And yeah, originally, there was gonna be, you know, forty characters, but then I kind of filled those slots up pretty quick, and there was just too many characters left out, you know, so I added an extra row. And even then, there was too many characters left out, so I kept on adding, adding, adding, and I found a lot of really good, uh, I found some really good tricks to really help the programme be able to handle it. You know, cos, like, my biggest problem with Pizzeria Simulator, and I'm just kicking myself, was that, you know, I wasn't utilising some of the graphic features properly, you know. Especially with the jumpscares, you know, because I had these high-resolution jumpscares, and it would just run out of video memory so fast, so I had to just chop out frames. But, you know, but there were just some really neat tricks, you know. To render them smaller, and then scale them up for the sake of the game. And you really can't tell when you're playing it. They might look a little bit fuzzier, but they still look pretty high quality, but you know, it just allowed me to squeeze in all these characters and all these jumpscares, and just all this content, you know, really seamlessly.
Dawko: Was there any scrapped ideas at all for the game? So anything that you wanted in, but you couldn't or you just didn't like how it turned out?
Scott: No, whereas...in some of the prior...in the some of the other games, yeah, there had been some different ways that I considered taking it, but no, Ultimate Custom Night, it was really only the way that it could go. I kept on, just kind of, uh, adding on to it. Oh yeah, I will say this, just for the record, you know, to all of your viewers listening. I'm gonna give you credit where credit is due for coming up with the idea for being able to purchase new office skins. Cos, I think that, originally, I had had it where they would just randomly pop up, whenever I gave you that original test copy to play, you had a 1% chance of each of those offices appearing. And you made a comment saying "Hey, it'd be cool if you could unlock those, you know." And then I changed that, and know I think it's a great feature of the game, so...
Dawko: Awesome. I feel like I've participated in something.
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Dawko: Yeah, no, I thought having the offices as a reward would be good. And I think you've put the score amount for each office, like, perfectly. So, I think you just said that you were satisfied with the game. Um, but are you satisfied with this possibly being the last game that you might create? The last FNaF game.
Scott: Yeah, I am. I really am. Starting with Five Nights at Freddy's 3, there was always something that I wasn't completely with, and that would become a core principle of the next game. With 3, I wasn't completely happy with the jumpscares, so I worked on 4. With 4, I wasn't completely happy with the storyline, so I made Sister Location. With Sister Location, I felt like I leaned a little too sci-fi, and left a few plot points...well there were a few plot points that were really bothering people, so then I made Pizzeria Simulator. But even with Pizzeria Simulator, even though I was really happy with the game, um, I don't know, I just felt like it needed a capstone. It needed, you know, another...another...some other bookend. So, Ultimate Custom Night brought it in all the characters, you know, and, um, I think so far it's been the best reviewed of the games, which thrills me, of course. I'm really happy to see that. Everybody seems to really enjoy it. Uh, people have even welcomed Dee Dee into their hearts after all this time. You know, it took everyone a little bit of time, I think everyone likes Dee Dee now, so...
Dawko: Well, um...
Scott: Maybe not. Am I wrong? I'll tell you what, everybody just leave a comment on Dawko's video if you disagree.
Dawko: No, I like Dee Dee. Um, she can just sometimes spawn at awkward times for me. Um, with 50/20 mode, there was no stopping Dee Dee, so you know, I wasn't really bothered by...I'm just gonna say...does she have a specific name? Should I just say Shadow Dee Dee?
Scott: Um, I named Shadow Dee Dee Xor, and I'm not sure why. But like with most of the other characters in his franchise, whenever I'm making them, the name immediately comes to mind. It doesn't mean anything. That's the name of Shadow Dee Dee.
Dawko: Xor. Okay. People said that might be 'Zor', or is it 'X-O-R'?
Scott: It's just 'X-O-R'.
Dawko: Okay, awesome. Um, but yeah, Xor was just with the mechanics of 50/20 mode anyway, you couldn't be annoyed with Xor, because it was part of the mechanics on what to do to try to beat. Speaking about 50/20 mode, have you tried it after the game has been released, you know it's possible now?
Scott: Oh no. No, no, no. Listen, my high score is still just 6800. You know, making Custom Night, the tricky thing about it, and actually, I only had to worry about this here, but you know, I know I've mentioned it other times, but anytime I've made a Custom Night, I've always assumed that the most difficult mode was impossible, because that was never the intent of the game. When making the game, there always five nights, and I make sure that those nights are basically. I make sure the sixth night is beatable. I make sure that Nightmare Mode is beateable, you know. But as far as setting all the difficulties to twenty, it's never been a goal to make it possible. And really, one of the main reasons is because if I ever get to a point where I could beat, then everybody else would beat it within the first twelve hours of the game being released. You know, me being able to beat something is not a super high bar to clear, as far as, you know, someone else being able to come along and beat it. With Ultimate Custom Night, it was really tricky, because unlike the other games, I did...there was a burden on me to make sure that it could be beaten, and that this is one of the areas all these years of designing games really benefitted me, because even though I could never beat, and I still can't beat it, everything was designed in such a way to where I was 99.9% confident that nothing was going to conflict with something else in a way to where it would genuinely make it impossible. And, it was...okay, with one exception. One oversight might have been the issue of coin collection, because I think I do agree that it might've been possible to collect coins, you know? But other mechanics provided kind of a back door to solve that, you know? You know, being able to watch...keep something on your camera, and them not moving, you know, that is intentional. It might have been used in ways that I hadn't intended, you know, but it was intentional, 'cos obviously you don't want to have a character on screen, and then suddenly pull down your screen and jumpscare you. That would be teleporting. It gives, you know, it kind of immersion-breaking if something is one place...you know. So, the idea of locking them in place by watching them is a game mechanic, and it was used by everybody in a really clever way, to kind of bypass mechanics that would have otherwise made the experience unplayable.
Dawko: Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's awesome to know. So, the watching the plushie was intentional where they couldn't get you, basically.
Scott: Uh, yeah, yeah, I mean, Lefty...there are several characters like Lefty. As long as you keep the camera on Lefty, Lefty will never attack you. See, I mean, that's kinda been a feature in I think, pretty much all of the games, or at least many of them.
Dawko: Yeah, Yeah. I think...I think you could actually thirty fazcoins, by the way. I don't think...I did try that though. Because what we did was...we kept lifting up the monitor, which made BB, JJ, and Helpy spawn. We could get ten fazcoins for the Death Coin in, literally, ten seconds. So, I think it is possible to get the plushies, if you just, you know.
Scott: I think it was...I think it was like a month ago that someone finally beat Custom Night for Sister Location before the patch came out.
Dawko: Oh, yes. I saw that. Yeah, with the power.
Scott: You know, someone did that, so I'm sure that, who knows, maybe six months, nine months, a year, two years down the road, someone's going to take it upon themselves to beat Custom Night, you know, no Death Coin, buying all the plushes, you know an just really torment themselves with that. And, that'll be interesting.
Dawko: Yeah, um, that's not gonna be me. Just letting you know that.
Scott: It's not gonna be you? Come on, man!
Dawko: Well, I would do it for another bet, but you know...
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Scott: No, no, no, you've served your time.
Dawko: Wow, okay! I don't think I would be able to, honestly. Maybe for like a charity stream, something like that. I could maybe do something with it. But yeah, Ultimate Custom Night. One of my favourite games, by the way, in the series. It's on the top for me.
Scott: That's good.
Dawko: Really, really awesome. And a nice send-off as well, Scott. Bringing them all together.
Scott: Yeah.
Dawko: I feel like it was a great send off to the game. I think it's left a lot of people satisfied, as well, though. That's a point I wanted to make. I'm satisfied, just letting you know that, and I think a lot of people are satisfied with this too, like, you know. We understand that it's the last one and, yeah.
Scott: Well, good.
Dawko: Speaking about it being the last one...
Scott: Well, that's all that matters to me. I'm glad to hear it.
Dawko: Awesome.
Theories
Dawko: Um, you've mentioned, um, during the interview that you've watched MatPat's theories, and stuff. Has there ever been a theorist or somebody you've watched on YouTube, and you've thought: "You know what? This is actually quite close, or like, very accurate to the story I wanted to tell.", or something like that? Like, if they were right...close to being right, or something.
Scott: Yeah, yeah, but I can't...I can't say anything whenever I see that, um, you know? But like I said, I can't jump in and confirm it, because then people would stop...stop caring at all. Then they would just wait for me to come out and give the answers.
Dawko: Yeah, yeah, to say something, yeah.
Scott: Yeah, so I would just have to look at that comment and just kind of nod to myself like, "You've got it.", you know? "You've got it right, friend, but..."
Dawko: You can't say anything, yeah.
Scott: You know? "...but no one's gonna ever know." You know?
Dawko: Yeah. Has that been hard to do that? To stop yourself from, you know, trying to reveal stuff, because I remember, a while ago, um, in the, um, MatPat's livestream, when we were all involved, you were putting things on the website about, like some little hints, and stuff, to try and guide us to right direction.
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Dawko: But we...but we still never got it!
Scott: Um, um, it has been difficult, and the times that I have tried to step in and say and something has usually been mistakes.
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: Because that's part of the fun of it, right? People...the discussion is just as much fun as...that's what's it all about, you know? People really enjoy that and the times that I've stepped in to...I don't know. I've learned to just...I've learned to just focus on making the games, and let the community do the talking. And they really enjoy that. But yeah, but sometimes I'll see, like I said, sometimes I'll see someone say something that was...way out there, and I want to jump in and say "No, no, no, that's...that's...that's not...", like one of the big things for a while was, you know, whenever Sister Location first came out, there was Adult Theory, you know?
Dawko: Oh yeah! Yeah! *laughs*
Scott: You know? And I saw that, and I'm like "Oh no!", you know? And it wasn't completely off-base, like, I could see where it was being derived from, so it's not like it was someone just trying to cause trouble for no reason. It was just a theory, but I was like, "I have to step in.", like, "I have to do something to fix this right away." And my response to that, to fix that, evolved into, you know, a pretty simple solution. I would just release a new teaser that would just kind of steer it in the correct direction, you know? And that was the right way to handle it. It's not to directly interact with the community, but just to release a new teaser that just kind of guides us back. And I did that very soon. Very soon. Like, within a couple days after Adult Theory gained popularity, and I kind of guided it back to where it was supposed to be. Um, yeah, no, like I said, sometimes someone will get a good idea, but I can't say anything about that either, you know? I just have to...I've just tried to monitor the community, monitor the comments, monitor the theories, and then when the group as a whole starts getting the wrong idea, that usually means that, um, you know...you know, sometimes that just means I need to do a better job of storytelling, and then I try to use that as kind of course correction for the next thing that I do to guide the story the right way, you know?
Dawko: Yeah, exactly. Have I ever been...right on anything? *laughs* Like, close to anything at all? Or have I just been completely wrong for years?
Scott: It's...that's...that's a difficult question to answer, 'cos there are really two kinds of people...there are two kinds of theorists, you know? One kind is the kind of...viewer, member, whatever, who takes all the known facts, and only uses those to put together a storyline, you know, which is kinda what MatPat does. And then the other kind is taking those few facts, and then ad-libbing a lot more, taking more creative freedom to where this story might go, you know? So in other words, one type is trying to figure out what happened, and the other type is the kind that tries to figure out what might happen, like, after another six months, or after another year, after the next game, or whatever, you know, and then try to figure it all out. So, one is much more speculative then the other. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. So, it's hard to...you know, that being the case, it's hard to gauge people as how right or how wrong they were, you know, whenever, you know, a lot of people are, you know, obviously adding a lot more of their own imagination to the mix, you know?
Dawko: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Scott: I mean...but I cannot...alright, I'll say this...but I cannot remember a time whenever I have watched one of your theory videos, and just rolled my eyes, "Oh my gosh!", you know, "He's lost it." you know?
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Dawko: Okay! Okay, I'll take that. I'll take that. Yeah, 'cos I'm, like, I just do video on just ideas, and stuff. Like, if I have an idea, I just say it, 'cos I like to try and make the community expand more. D'you what I mean? Not just set there mind on one idea. Like, you know, with any theory, there's always multiple ideas to something, and that's what I tried to do with Ultimate Custom Night, and stuff, recently, is try to give the community ideas to have their own judgement on the game. Um, I think MatPat has a lot of pressure to just do one set plan, because if he tries to go with other ideas, and stuff, his audience start to think, like: "Well, hold on here. You're going all over the place. You're telling us loads of ideas and not just one solid idea."
Scott: Well, um, I mean, yeah, he...you know...he's got a lot more pressure on him, basically, just because of, you know, the audience, you know?
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: That goes with anything else. There's always gonna be a lot more pressure on him, and a lot more scrutiny, and a lot more criticism, you know, focused on him. I think he's managed it really well without...
Dawko: Yeah, he has.
Scott: I think he's done really well, you know, and yeah, like I was saying, that's why it's hard to tell you if you've ever been really right or wrong, 'cos you lean more into the speculative craft. You know, you add...your theories are much more speculative on what could be going on, rather than trying to put together a solid timeline, and stuff like that, you know?
Dawko: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The Movie
Dawko: Okay! Next question I'd like to ask is: How is the movie going? Because I know a lot of people have been wondering about this.
Scott: The movie's been going really well. You know, the first few years of the franchise, everybody was trying to get a movie out as fast as possible to catch the hype wave, and stuff. But now, looking back, I'm really glad that that didn't happen, because something I've really started to...something I've really started to come to want over these last few years is I want that movie to be able to stand on its own as a good movie, and not ride the coattails of a different part of the franchise, you know? Because then, you know, for instance, if you were to make a movie that just had the name 'Five Nights at Freddy's' without a whole lot of emphasis on the quality of the movie itself, then ya. If it happened during the peak of the popularity of Five Nights at Freddy's, it would do really well, but if the franchise as a whole, you know, had waned a little bit, then the movie wouldn't do well either. Like, I want the movie to stand on its own. I want the movie to be good on its own right. I want it to be a great movie. And for that reason, I'm really glad it didn't happen those first two years, because I think too much emphasis would have been placed on getting it out as fast as possible, and, you know, one of the challenges with the movie, and one of the reasons why it has taken so long, it's actually really difficult to...it's really difficult to make a script of this. I've seen...I've had the privilege of working with a couple of studios now, obviously, talked to a lot of directors. I've had a lot of scripts come across my desk. I've had a lot of ideas pitched, and you know, and one of the biggest challenges...oh yeah, and I've written three scripts on my own. Um, uh, and I've struggled, honestly, with the same problem as lots of these other directors, which is just the fact that with eight games, what, five books including the Security Logbook, and the...I forget the name of the other one.
Dawko: The Freddy Files.
Scott: Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, so with the eight games, five books, you know, just thousands and thousands of videos and fan theories and this and that and timelines and all that stuff, too many...the people I've worked with so far have either looked at it all, been completely overwhelmed, and decided to do something original, just start completely over. And you know, obviously, that doesn't work. And a couple other guys have tried to incorporate everything into some, you know, master script that includes, you know, every aspect, every character, every idea, and obviously, that doesn't work either, because that's just, you know, a dumpster fire. It's just too much to squeeze into two hours. You can't do it, you know? You cannot do it. And, you know, the script was originally going to be based on the books, which, eventually, I decided was not...was not the way to go, you know? The books were...the books were originally designed for people who just wanted...who just wanted extra stories, you know? They wanted a little bit more detail, more story, but that was never intended to be the definitive story of Five Nights at Freddy's, and people who go to see the movie aren't gonna want to see a retelling of the books. They're gonna want to see the first game. They're gonna want to see a retelling of the story that got that them interested in the first place, you know? The first game had the right atmosphere, the right characters, and that's what people are gonna want. And um, ideally, if the first movie does really well, I think it was work great as a trilogy. Um, Five Nights at Freddy's 1, Five Nights at Freddy's 2, and Five Nights at Freddy's 3, based on the first three games. I'm not gonna go into the first movie with that mentality, though. You know, I've seen too many good movies get kind of sidetracked, or trying to set up future movies. I'm not gonna fall into that. Um, I'm just gonna really focus on telling a good story with this first one. But yeah, I've seen some interesting things, and I'm gonna try to be really careful, you know, not to...not to sound critical of some of the ideas that I've seen, because, like I said, you know, there are a lot of challenges to writing a script for this. Even for me, 'cos there's just so much information, but there are some things that I'm really glad never made it. You know, and one of them being...one of them being something I actually heard, I think it was MatPat on a livestream was musing about bad ideas...bad ideas that could potentially happen in a Five Nights at Freddy's movie. And one of the ones that he just brushed off and laughed about was the idea of plush toys coming to life. And I heard that, and that's another time where I wanted to jump in and say something, but I knew that I couldn't, because that is something that actually could've happened, you know? It wasn't a full-blown script, but somebody...somebody had that idea, and could have implemented it and there wouldn't have been a whole lot that I could've done about it, at the time. So, that's...that's a scary thought, and that's kind of the risk, you know, of that's kind of the risk of not really understanding a franchise really well, and then trying to come up with something that's...I don't know. That would've been, *laughs*, that would've been really bad. But yeah, I heard him mention that comment on a livestream, and I was thinking to myself: "You have no idea that that actually almost happened. That specific idea. Plush toys coming to life and taking over Manhattan. That actually almost happened."
Dawko: *laughs* I actually kind of want to see that now, though. *laughs*
Scott: Well, you know, I don't know, it's just...maybe it would work better with a different name, but...
Dawko: Yeah, I mean, the community's so talented, and stuff. Maybe they could make a little, uh, cartoon, or something. Like an animation of it happening as a joke.
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Scott: I don't know, man. But, yeah...but...to...in short, though, I think that everything's where it...where it needs to be right now, you know, um...
Dawko: Good.
The Future of FNaF
Dawko: Um, so, what's next...uh...what are...you got any future projects, or anything? Or anything that you're working on?
Scott: I'm...I'm gonna try to take life a little easier, I think. I did finally get a couple of...a couple of big deals signed with some companies, and I'll be able to provide details on that later. But there are a few...a few...a few big things in the works that are happening right now, which is the Virtual Reality game is going, and the, uh, the Augmented Reality is going. I know most people, you know, the only example they can think of for Augmented Reality would be Pokemon Go, you know?
Dawko: Uh-huh.
Scott: But really, Augmented Reality just means, you know, you hold up your phone, and you see it overlaid on the screen, you know? It's kind of half and half between what you're really seeing, and then something superimposed, so you know, I don't think...it's not gonna have any kind of, you know, you're not going to be running through the bushes in your neighbour's garden, trying to catch Freddy Fazbear, or anything like that, you know?
Dawko: *laughs* Dammit!
Scott: It's gonna be something, uh, I think it'll be like, you know, a party game. Something to do with your friends, you know, creeping through the dark, creeping through your house. And then, somebody's gonna jump out at you. But, you know, that's in the early stages, but I think it's gonna be really cool. Um, so that's in the works. And, uh, I'm in talks with a company right now to start porting Five Nights at Freddy's to, um, to major consoles right now. And I'm gonna hold off on that, because, you know, 'til I have more details on it.
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: But yeah, you know, I'm really encouraged by that. For the longest time, I wasn't willing to sign on with any companies, because I was keeping the series too tight under wraps, you know. I really wanted to be protective of the story. I didn't want other companies to come in and add characters. I didn't want other companies to come in and add storylines. And I'm still holding onto that, you know? My, you know, my deals with them are very, very specific. You know, they don't have free reign to add storylines and characters, um, but I am...but I am more open to getting help now, you know? I'm more open to letting other companies do what I can't do. Like, you know, I don't know how to make an Augmented Reality game. I can't do that on my own. I don't know how to make an Virtual Reality game. I can't do that on my own. So, um...
Dawko: Yeah. Awesome.
Scott: But yeah, I'm working really closely, you know, and I've done my best to pick really good people to work with, so, yeah, good things!
Dawko: Exciting. Very exciting. So, we've got these, um the VR, the AR, the movie, um, possible console ports. So yeah, really excited. So, I think a lot of people are gonna be excited for those. Definitely. If you could get the...I think you've just answered this, but this is a little bit different.
Looking Back
Dawko: If you could get a second chance, um, to go back to 2013/14, would you do it all over again in the same way?
Scott: Um, no, I don't know, I don't think I'd go back and...I mean, obviously there are little details that I want to maybe polish up on, but no, I wouldn't...I wouldn't change anything. I mean, you know, in 2014, I think I mentioned this on an online interview, but you know, I was considering making another Legacy of Flan game, which is some series I used to make. Some obscure series I used to work on many years ago that, like, two people know about. Um, or work on a sequel to The Desolate Hope. Or make an indie horror game, you know, featuring security cameras. You know, and that was a long decision, you know, and...'cos it could've gone any direction. And I chose the indie horror game, and the same thing with the sequel. After I made the first one, I almost didn't make a sequel to it, you know? I was considering two or three different game ideas. Um, but no, you know, everything turned out for the best, I think. I wouldn't go back and mess with it.
Scott's Family
Dawko: Did your family through the course of these years give you any good ideas? Or, like, any...did they implement anything in any way? Or influence the story?
Scott: Well, I will tell you, my oldest son...my oldest son, Ian, he contributed an idea for the first game that has become iconic to this series, and the series could not go on without it.
Dawko: Right...
Scott: And I need to take a moment to give him full credit for that. My son, Ian, after they had been beta-testing, I was like: "Hey, so do you guys have any suggestions for anything? Like, what do y'all think I should add to this?" And Ian said: "You should make it so that when you click on Freddy's nose, it honks."
*Dawko laughs*
Scott: And I was like: "Oh!" Like that would be kind of a fun easter egg.
Dawko: Yeah!
Scott: So I added it in, and now...and now the rest is history. Like, a game can't go by without being able to click on Freddy's nose. Like, it's become just, you know...
Dawko: We all expect it, yeah.
Scott: So, yeah, so...so...so...so big...big shoutout to...big shoutout to Ian for coming up with that.
Dawko: Thank you, Ian.
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Scott: Um, you know, but...but...but I mean, in all seriousness, I mean, it's just, you know, it's just nice to have a support group. It's great to have people around you to support you. Yeah man, and that's really the best...that's really the most important thing. Even more important than directly contributing ideas, it's just, you know, people who are...people who are around you and love you and support you and encourage you to try one more time, you know? You can't find anything more valuable than that.
Dawko: Yeah, you're exactly right there. Yeah.
Video Games
Dawko: Um, do you have any favourite games? I think you said before that you liked Mega Man? Or am I completely wrong here?
Scott: *laughs* Alright, well, I'm definitely a retro gamer. Whenever I pick a system to play on, I never beyond Super Nintendo. So, I'm stuck in 1993. I have my Nintendo and I have my Super Nintendo. All the games that I play are on those two. And yeah, and if I pick a game that everyone follows, I'll try to really, you know, master whatever, yeah, Mega Man 3 was my big accomplishment. I could play through that game buster only. Very proud of it. And...and, uh, and only recently, I know this will be random, but recently, I found a new gem that I had...that defeated me as a kid, which is UN Squadron on Super Nintendo. It's a side-scrolling airplane game. You know, used to tear me apart as a kid, you know? But now, I've really been playing that everyday, and dedicating myself to it. And I beat it on normal mode. Now, I'm fighting through it on hard mode. Um, you know, just whenever I get a chance. I don't have a whole lot of time to play games.
Scott's Birthday
Dawko: I mean, a few days ago, by the way, on the Reddit, a lot of people were posting things about your birthday, right? Um, a lot of people would like to know when you're birthday actually is, if you're allowed to say. Just so we can, you know, we can say happy birthday.
Scott: Okay, okay. Yeah, there's been a lot of...a lot of confusion about this. Yes, because depending on what year you would try to look me up at, different birth dates would appear on Wikipedia.
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: And a different picture.
Dawko: Yes, that...yes, the original picture! Yep. I remember that.
*Scott and Dawko laugh*
Scott: So, I'll just end this right now: my birthday is February 31st.
Dawko: Okay. For some reason, I've always thought it was, like, summer, for some reason. So, February? Awesome.
Scott Opens Up
Dawko: Okay, so that's a wrap for the interview, apart from one final thing. Would you like to say any final thoughts, um, to the people?
Scott: I think...I think I would just like to make sure everybody out there knows how much I really appreciate this fanbase, and just how much I appreciate all of the support. Um, whenever...back whenever...before all this Five Nights at Freddy's stuff had started, and I had just made The Desolate Hope, I was online and I found one piece of fanart that someone had made of The Desolate Hope characters. You know, just randomly. I have no idea who it was. I have no idea what happened to picture. But, you know, like, that was so special to me. Seeing that someone out there had enjoyed that game, and drawn one of those characters. Like, that was just incredible to me. It made me feel so good. Made my day. Made my week. Made my month, you know? And so, now to be able to, you know, go online and just see this, you know, incredible community of people, you know, with people that are...who have ten times the artistic talent as I do, you know, with all this...with this fanart, you know, these fangames. You know, there are some incredible games out there, and...and I don't wanna...like I'm scared to mention names of anyone, 'cos I know that I'm going to leave out important ones, you know?
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: But, I mean, you know, like seeing these, you know, insane games that Nikson comes up with, you know? And, you know, and I've always heard nothing but good things about, like, the storylines in Popgoes. Um, and then, you know, the artistic direction of games like, uh, Flumpty's, you know? And...and it's like everybody has these specialties where they're just...where they just flourish and the stuff that they make. You know, and, like, you go into Game Jolt, and just see these pages and pages of all these really cool and, you know, and I've picked out a few but, you know, because, you know, those are probably the more experienced members of the community, but you know, I don't want to overlook people who are up-and-coming game designers, who decide fangames as their first game. You know, and what an honour that. What an incredible honour that is. For someone to want be a game developer and to have their first couple of games be a Five Nights at Freddy's fangame. You know, it's just such an honour, and like I said, just the incredible artistic community, like, on DeviantArt. And anytime I go on Reddit to see illustrations of...you know, and I've been fortunate enough to, uh, snag a couple of artists to do official artwork for me. But, you know, and you know, and the memes are great, too. I've been very fortunate to see myself featured in memes. You know, not many people get to say that. And to see my characters featured in memes, so that's always exciting.
Dawko: Yeah.
Scott: But yeah, you know, and just the YouTube community just, you know, amazing. I mean, you know, you, Razzbowski, the Ryans, you know, uh, Cory Kenshin, you know, Fusion. This whole community of great...of great YouTubers have just been so supportive over the years. I'm just blessed. I'm just really blessed. This isn't so much a thank you, as just a...I'm just grateful. I'm grateful to be surrounded by just such an incredibly talented community. It's just been an amazing experience. It really has been.
Dawko: Yeah, and for many years to come, by the way, Scott. Like, we'll always be supportive of the community and you. Always.
Scott: Well, I'm gonna try not to let you guys down, but I hope, you know, I mean, I don't always...I don't always get these things just right, but I hope everybody in the community believes, at least, that, you know, just like what I said, you know, how I've been trying to write this script. It doesn't mean it's gonna be...it doesn't mean the movie's gonna be perfect, and it doesn't mean that these next few games are gonna be perfect, but I hope everybody at least believes that I'm...that my number one goal is to make sure I don't let anybody out there down, you know. I know that a lot of people enjoy this...enjoy these characters, and enjoy these games, and that means the world to me. I'm just gonna try not to let anybody down. That's always the fir...at the forefront of all of my thoughts. Just making sure that I do right by everybody.
Outro
Dawko: So, yeah, thank you so much...thank you so much, Scott. I really do app...I really, really do appreciate it, you know? It's been a long interview, and I really do appreciate the fact that, you know, that you've took the time to do this means a lot to me and everybody watching, of course.
Scott: Well, I hope I haven't, uh, I hope I haven't misspoken anywhere. I hope the fanbase will forgive me if I overcomplicated some points. The last thing I want to do is start up a...see a flame war erupt on Reddit right after this interview, with everybody taking something that I said. So, let me just make this disclaimer again, like, no lore has been hidden in this interview. Like, this is all off-the-cuff. Nothing was pre-planned. You know, and this is just some guy, you know, talking about his experiences making the game series. So I hope nobody will read, you know, too much into that, you know. But yeah this has been a lot of fun, Lewis. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me.
Dawko: Thank you very much, and yeah, that's what the community's like, though. They try and think about things too much. Um, so yeah.
Scott: Well, and I've done that. That's my fault. This is what I have created, you know?
Dawko: Curious people! Um, I think that's it, guys. Thank you so much for watching. Um, let me know your thoughts in the comment section about everything. I really hope you've enjoyed it. I really hope that the interview has satisfied you. Um, you know, because there's been a lot of hype for this, so hopefully, like, the questions were good, and you know, everything was perfect for you guys. So, yeah. Thanks for watching!