#SO in the interview with Scott Cawthon and Dawko

[chloesimaginationthings]

This is Scott Cawthon’s biggest regret in FNAF..

[wimbu]

So the Fnaf anniversary schedule released and I’m hyped

(Also, the day of the mystery announcement is the same day as a Fortnite downtime, so Freddy might finally be coming to fort)

I am going to explode

[fnaf-movie-countdown]

Scott Cawthon stated in his recent interview with Dawko that part of the reason the script for the film took so long was because he wanted to keep the spirits of the animatronics as they were — not violent killers but innocent scared children

Source

[directdogman]

Dogman, how do you write SO WELL!?!? I love all your characters and I need to know what/where you find inspo from...

Ha. Every writer is just someone who apes the creative processes of their inspirations. For video game writing specifically, there's two answers for me.

Toby Fox is always gonna be a huge inspiration for me. I've written plots and characters before and had to abandon ideas after realizing I'd accidentally written part of UT again. Even some of the ideas I used were undeniably inspired by UT in a subconscious way and ofc, I included several explicit references to UT in my last series. Toby's a very clever guy who likely pays very close attention to the art he consumes and tries to figure out how to maximize how much his work connects with his audience. Whatever his process is, it works.

The other answer is a lil funnier: Scott Cawthon, but specifically the legend, not the man. For context: Back in the earlier days of the FNaF fandom, people had a hyper-inflated view of Scott Cawthon's writing skills that largely came from how little of a presence he had back in those days. In the vacuum of Scott actually explaining his own process in detail, people got caught up in his genuinely creative way of hiding exposition in his games using cryptid and (then) unexpected methods, and a narrative formed (one that he's since refuted.)

While he never implied it tmk, fans broadly believed that he constructed these sweeping and complex narratives with tons of cohesive moving parts, with the games essentially acting like the mere tip of his lore iceberg. People even thought he wrote so much that he had whole games worth of lore outlined from the beginning! In the first Dawko interview he gave, he clarified that this wasn't the case and explained roughly what his process was (basically just outlining rough theme ideas + aesthetics for future titles.)

However, that legend made younger-me's mind run wild and any time I wrote a story, it became very difficult for me to not keep writing down ideas while completing the grunt work that followed me finishing my scripts. When I finished DSaF 1, I already had DSaF 2's draft written and by the time 2 was done, I had enough lore for a 3rd game on paper (and a lot more stuff that I didn't use.) By the time three was out, I had pages upon pages of unused concepts/story ideas and more or less just had to decide to call it quits or else I'd be pumping out entries forever!

That's why if you go back to those older games, there's references that directly refer to future plot-points in pretty casual/easy to miss ways. (Like Henry's mention in DSaF 1, Dave being heartless in DSaF 2, Jack being soulless in 1, and even Blackjack being Jack's soul in 2. Most of 3's major plotpoints are implied somewhere in 2 and some of 2's in 1.)

DT is much the same. By the time I finished writing it, I had fairly detailed drafts for arcs for each of the characters, some early material ended up getting completely recontextualized (and even modified in small ways to not conflict with the wider ideas I came up with.)

I get really into writing my stories/characters and I always wonder exactly how things ended up where they are, what characters think about but don't say, etc etc. This is why I have an obscene amount of Crown lore that I have very little to do with rn (since he impacted the whole world so deeply.)

This extra stuff also includes plenty of sequel material ideas, though I didn't think I'd even get a chance to use them since DT performed pretty meagerly before the big release and I was expecting to have to move onto something new. Though it turned out that Scott didn't actually write his games this way (by his own admission), it's the correct answer for what my core writing inspiration for writing game narratives is.

Hope this helps!

[miiilowo]

Highlights / Notable info from the second Scott Cawthon Dawko interview for people who don't want to watch it

MISC/START OF INTERVIEW

- scott says the 1 thing he'd wanna go back and change/fix the past 10 years is FNAF world; said a lot of weird/bad decisions were made going into it, that he didn't like the graphics and it Could Have been a good game but he doesn't like it overall & he may consider making an improved sequel

- he was scared to hand FNAF over to steel wool but he thinks he got lucky w/ them

- refuses to play both FNAF VR games because they genuinely scare him too much; didn't want to beta test them (funny)

- he very much knows the fandom prefers pure horror and the supernatural but cant resist leaning into scifi stuff

- doesn't like the names burntrap and glitchtrap and they were supposed to be temporary

SECURITY BREACH

- half blames covid splitting up steel wools workforce for the games lack of quality and delays

- says his "vision of the game" was misaligned with steel wool, that he had a "very specific story in mind" for security breach and it didnt pan out like he wanted

- he takes fault for it, saying he conveyed it in a bad way; "I was trying to tell steel wool to do specific things throughout the game, put specific items in specific places, have specific characters do certain things, meanwhile not TELLING them what the story plot was. Because in my head, I was thinking 'Okay, when people find this, they'll connect this to this to this & it will all be revealed, and I thought I could do that without telling steel wool the story plot. That didn't work out very well because they got all of these pieces, and they thought it was their job to connect them in a way that made sense. And so really what you ended up having were the same pieces telling completely different stories...I don't blame them for that, I blame myself for that, because what I should have done was gone 'hey, heres the story, the pieces are here, here's how theyre supposed to connect'."

- burntrap originally even supposed to move; just supposed to see something you saw in between machinery or in corners, that you werent supposed to know his purpose even though he used to have a very specific one (that the fandom doesnt know)

- he knows it didnt turn out like anyone wanted & thats why they made the RUIN dlc, he hopes it redeemed security breach

- he said hes learned from that mistake with security breach and things should be better in the future

- he cannot share any thoughts on the mimic

- he likes vanny a lot, shes one of his favorites and he thinks that shes underutilized and should get more spotlight in the future

THE BOOKS

- process is 'he has an idea, he proposes it to the writers, they flesh it out'

- he likes bunny call the most, and that it's not entirely made up; he took his family to a summer camp. 2 older kids 2 babies. one of the things you could sign up for was a 'panda call' . a very 'deceiving title', he says. early in the morning, a bunch of the camp counselors dressed as killer clowns would come into your cabin and scare the kids to wake them up early and drag them off to do their daily activities (?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????) and he knew this was the case, & before it happened he started to sort of feel bad that he signed up his two youngest kids for it so he crept outside in the dark and 'started listening for screams' early in the morning. 'somewhere in the dark in these trees theres clowns and theyre coming for my cabin'

- acknowledges the fazgoo is weird and bad.

- the 'creature on the cover of blackbird is my sleep paralysis demon' (quite literally)

- says his least favorite story is the guy getting pregnant with springtrap's baby and that he Doesnt Know What He Was Thinking, that he swears he 'wasnt trying to pick on matpat'

- he says theres potential for the books to be adapted into shorts goosebumps style, but hes afraid it might be 'too much' and oversaturate the franchise

THE MOVIE

- he says a big issue was that there was material thats difficult to translate to the big screen; the nuance of the antagonists being that the animatronics are possessed by the spirits of innocent children, and he wanted to preserve the innocence of the victims while also having the horror and the kills, and thats a big part of why several screenplays got scrapped; he was more picky/cautious about that than anything else

- says the victims are sort of like 'confused, scared animals backed into a corner, who believe that adults are out to get them' & thats part of why they kill people + the manipulation from william afton

- he likes the movie overall but thinks specific things could be improved and they aim to do that with the second movie, but doesn't want to dwell on those shortcomings too much

- hes perfectly happy with critics hating it but the fanbase loving it & that was his goal for it

- when the movie began showing in theatres he said: 'i told myself i wasnt gonna go online i wasnt gonna read any reviews i had already told everybody at blumhouse and i told my legal team DONT talk to me DONT call me DONT email me DONT send me charts DONT send me facts or figures i dont want hear ANYTHING', saw 1 negative review on accident then started reading all of them immediately before the 2nd showing even happened

- 'for a couple of hours there i was distraught, i thought it was a complete disaster' (based off the initial negative critic reviews, before learning how much the fans loved it)

SECOND MOVIE

- Not giving away many details, but following the same formula; 1st movie based on 1st game, 2nd movie based on 2nd game, etc

- Thinks people will like it, that the setup for the 1st movie was the hardest part but now that they have that launch pad to go off of and hes really fond of what they have planned

- Emma Tammi is also directing the second one

INTO THE PIT GAME

- was originally just supposed to be a short novelty game, but they made something really good and he encouraged them to keep going & its turned into a full-fledged game

- he says its going to be a very 'unique experience' and that everyone will like it a lot

- says working with megacat (studio for the game) has been 'weird but good', that theyll vanish for several months and return with a bunch of info

SPINOFFS, GENERAL FRANCHISE STUFF, FUTURE PLANS

- Would want to work on a game based off of Fetch and that he thinks it'd be really cool

- Says he feels like he's sort of lost touch with the fanbase as things have gotten bigger

- Wants to have a better structure for managing a twitter page, official news feed, etc., wants more management than just Himself because it'd better service the fanbase

- He says theres another game planned with steel wool (not the mimic game) way down the line that hasnt been announced yet

- Making more choose-your-adventure fnaf book stuff

- He's 'very careful' with collaborations because he wants to preserve the fact its fnaf and he doesnt want it to be distorted or tainted, & even if he really really likes a game he won't do a collab if the vibes are mismatched, but he's a little more open to things like that now (but we have FNAF X DBD now! yay)

THE BOX.

- (paraphrased) His process for a lot of the lore in games is that he'll come up with half of a mystery and then come up with an answer as things progress, that he feels something is there and he makes the path for that thing to be revealed

- 'but sometimes when things progress the roads that have been put in place arent the same roads that were there before'

- he had something planned for the box. the progression of the story did not allow for the reveal of whats in the box

- he never pursued whats in the box. and he will never know whats in the box.

[theoatmealbowl]

Schedule update!

So the official Scottgames account just put out an update to the schedule for August 1st - 8th. It now is:

August 1st- myPOPGOES, Full Game Release

August 2nd- The Joy of Creation (remake), Demo

August 3rd- VIP- Interactive Novel (free)

August 4th- Scott Cawthon Interview with Dawko 2.0

August 5th- ??? Collab Announcement

August 6th- Steel Wool Announcement

August 7th- Five Laps at Freddy's, Demo

August 8th- Into the Pit, Full Game Release

I think a Fortnite collab might be less likely now...

[oligoweee]

RANDOM ENCOUNTERS FIRST NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S MUSICAL/MOVIE SPOILERS BELOW DON'T OPEN IF YOU WANNA AVOID SPOILERS AND WERE NOT AT THE WATCH PARTY TODAY ‼️‼️‼️‼️

Oh. My. God. THAT MOVIE WAS SO INTENSE. THERES SO MUCH THAT I CANNOT PROCESS, I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT ALL THE NEW SCENES THAT WERE IN IT BECAUSE I WILL EXPLODE.

SO FIRST OFF

-DAWKO HAD A CAMEO IN IT.

HE WAS ON A PHONE CALL WITH MATPAT AND THEN IN THE CREDITS WAS CREDITED AS "Mr. MadPad" LIKE WHAT!?!??! I WAS REALLY HOPING DAWKO WOULD BE IN IT SOMEHOW BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS TOO WILD BUT THERE HE WAS.

-DHEUSTA AT THE BEGINNING AS WILLIAM AFTON He finds this kid hiding in the backrooms or something and I'm not quite sure what that was about but I think it's connected to the story in Virus anyway HE GETS EITHER KILLED OR BEATEN UP BY MATPAT (HENRY EMILY...? SCOTT CAWTHON...?) Think he got killed but IT WAS CRAZY

-WEB OF LIES GOT REMADE WITH THE CURRENT LIZZY ACTOR

-GPU ACCELERATION THE BEST CHARACTER IN DARK REMAINS!! (It was an error)

-then we had Media Offline in Shadows of Agony (another error)

-OK SO THEN AFTER VIRUS THAT'S WHEN IT ALL GETS EVEN MORE INTENSE

-CIRCUS BABY RUNS OVER GLITCHTRAP WITH THE CAR (ACCIDENTAL) and this disables MatPat's bomb so then Lizzy finishes the job of killing Glitchtrap by using the drill HOWEVER this makes loads of sparks which triggers PTSD in Circus Baby so she gets out of the car and attacks Lizzy

-the animatronics beg her to stop and she doesn't so Lizzy has no choice but to attack Circus Baby and IT. WAS. SO GOREY???

-TLT I can't fix you ref

-the animatronics and Lizzy are about to leave and ditch the restaurant and the animatronics make it out but then Glitchtrap momentarily comes back to life and sends electricity throughout the place which REACTIVATES THE BOMB

it ALL EXPLODES. Was not good for my pyrophobic soul but I just looked away I'm okay cus it was fake so nobody really got hurt

BUT IT WAS SO FUCKING SAAAAD CUS THEN FREDDY CALLS NATE (WANTSTOBATTLE) AND IS SOBBING ON THE PHONE SAYING HE'S THE ONLY ONE THEY HAVE :((

Anyway then we see MatPat watching the news about the restaurant exploding and TURNS OUT HE HAS ROBOT HANDS LIKE WOAH But like that makes sense obviously

then it goes to him in the works of opening the new restaurant and we see him interviewing AJ and Nate

ANYWAY IT WAS SUCH A GOOD MOVIE I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE FULLY FINISHED ONE TOMORROW SO MY FNAF THE MUSICAL FRIENDS CAN WATCH CUS THEY'RE ALL ASLEEP/BUSY RN AND THE WATCH PARTY ISN'T BEING ARCHIVED 😓😓

Thanks for reading my post 🙏

[kozykricket]

ok idc about scott cawthon hes a whole can of worms but like

for those out of the loop he did another interview with Dawko and like. i just think 2 things should be taken away from this for those who arent big FNAF fans:

i find it funny that he revealed that his way of storytelling that makes him seem like a genius (though tbf hes admitted he didnt have everything planned from the getgo) is... to just like. put stuff in a game where hes like "yeah thats definitely a mystery right there that'll be revealed later. i dont exactly know how or what precisely it is, but thats good. i can figure out how to go back to that in the next game" like it works?? ig?? what he said was that he lays down strings (by putting mysterious stuff in) that he can later tug on and connect to something in the next game. but what really gets me is the reason security breachs story was so confusing so, apparently. he... didnt want to TELL steel wool studios the story and lore to the game, and he just told them like. what he wanted them to make. he gave an example of how he didnt intend "burntrap" to be The Return of William Afton Again, but just to be some spooky thing that you'd see peering at you from corners. that wouldnt even move at all but he just... told them things to model! like hey, make this corpse in a rabbit suit thing. and they were like okaaay so this is... the revival of the main villain again maybe? sure yeah we'll make him like that, we'll make more stuff to really sell that. like animating him he admitted this was a really dumb thing to do, to not communicate clearly but GOD like THAT IS. THAT MAKES A LOT MAKE SENSE. IF YOU DONT TELL THEM WHAT ANY OF THE PIECES YOURE TELLING THEM TO MAKE MEANS... THEN THEY WONT PUT THOSE PIECES TOGETHER OR USE THEM FOR THE THINGS THAT YOU HAD INTENDED THEYLL TAKE EM IN WAY DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS

all in all

given the pieces but not the plot and trying to put a plot together primarily out of pieces that were intended for a very specific story. leads to erm. a peculiar story subnautica below zero

[hyperrealisticblood]

laughing at scott cawthons answers in the dawko interview and then immediately shaking my head in disapproval so the feds watching me through my webcam dont think i agree with his politics

[puhpandas]

i swear, there’s like a very clear difference between how scott sees gregory’s character and how steel wool sees gregory’s character. tbh it feels like sw was probably just given a short description on his character for the game and ran with it.

ggy describes gregory to be halfway between tony and ellis, yet we never really get to see those characteristics at all in sb. we barely see gregory’s intelligence except for maybe gameplay wise. even ruin does a better job at portraying his character than the base game does which is kind of insane??

to me, it feels like every character was rushed and done dirty in sb… even characters like gregory and freddy despite them having the most dialogue.

exactly! I've heard that (I think the source is from a dawko interview with steel wool, but take this with a grain of salt) scott cawthon was distant during development for sb and thats why so many things are messed up in the game, like characters and story (and completely removed)

and I've also heard that scott was actually working with sw in the way he should have been in the first place with ruin and that's why it's so much more polished and everyone feels so much better character (+ story) wise.

with this in mind I'm just so excited to see future games (and another game like sb and ruin that's a free roam with interactions between characters, unlike games like help wanted) where theyll be able to focus so much more on the characters! because with the distinct lack of in sb, where there was supposed to be, theyll probably make other games to make up for that lack. it's just a lot to look forward to

[chloesimaginationthings]

Scott Cawthon’s version of FNAF Burntrap..

[ponds-of-ink]

Here is the official (but unofficially titled) Eight Days of Freddy’s lineup, as directly stated by ScottGames on Twitter:

August 1st- MyPopgoes, Full Game Release

August 2nd- The Joy of Creation (remake), Demo

August 3rd- VIP- Interactive Novel (free)

August 4th- Steel Wool Announcement

August 5th- Scott Cawthon Interview with Dawko 2.0

August 6th- ??? Collab Announcement

August 7th- Five Laps at Freddy's (by Clickteam), Demo

August 8th- Into the Pit, Full Game Release

Some things may be subject to change as we get closer, so please keep an eye out.

What in the world is Five Laps at Freddy’s, btw? Is it a racing game?

[justalittleegg]

When are we going to get the Fnaf Security Breach Scott Cawthon cut?

I wanna see the story as scott intended even if it's no longer canon.

(Context for those who don't know, in his recent interview with Dawko [.] Scott said that the story of security breach is not the one he intended however he didn't actually explain the plot to steel wool so they just made it up with the pieces of plot they were given.

[notthewriteryourelookingfor]

Was looking for a transcript of both of Dawkos interviews with Scott Cawthon. Might have found one for the 1st on reddit but it was just a brick of text that made my brain hurt to look at.

So maybe I should just make them myself unless someone has a link for them?

[afloofwithmultipleinterests]

I think i know what's in the box.

So... as of recently, Dawko did another interview with scott cawthon, a Scott Cawthon interview 2.0 here To celebrate the tenth anniversary of FNAF, Scott decided to... 'reveal' what was in the box. It seems like it was a gag, right? something to dangle infront of the fandom and then SNATCH it away, yeah? ... i don't think so. you see... i decided to take a closer listen to it... and the point where scott is cut off with a 'connection lost', there IS indeed still SOMETHING being said there. I repeated it over and over, replaying it and replaying it... when i recognized that the last part may have very well been saying 'Bear'. after i realized that... my mind jumped to FAZBEAR.

listened to it again.... it would fit. syllables and all. FAZBEAR is in that box... meaning that the company of Fazbear.... William afton, Henry, Charolette Emily, The crying child, and whoever else has ever existed in the fnaf universe.... doesn't exist. Nothing of that universe is real despite us seeing it... The dead children aren't dead. The serial killer who killed them is purely a vessel for us to use as entertainment upon false slaughtered souls. I think that scott cawthon is being beyond meta.. is pulling a twin peaks, an Undertale. If Fazbear is inside of the box... metaphorically, something in that box wants outside of the box. something in that box wants to be apart of OUR WORLD because it's... 'real'. Something is trying to connect with us from the digital plane.. trying to grab our attention and implant itself into our minds because it knows its merely an idea. a creation, and the only way for it to survive is to be apart of our memories.

[crabsnpersimmons]

eeeee thanks for the tag, Clou!

🧡my favourite colour is orange! just makes me happy 🥰

🎧last song i listened to was a cover of Doomsday Ride with lyrics (here here!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAGIljVOqAY)

📖last thing i read was "as long as we are loved" by ShiraCheshire! (a beautiful fic btw! go check it out!: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54656689/chapters/138507916)

📺last thing i watched was the Scott Cawthon interview with Dawko

😋i'm currently craving poke. my office is close by to a poke shop, but my work besties don't like poke, so i'm just 🫠 my body craves poke but my brain craves social acceptance

🍵i like both! but if i had to choose one, then tea, because it's more versatile and i can drink it anytime of the day

no pressure tagging!: @starriegalaxy @vacantfields @ohno-the-sun @craykaycee @itsmuffiiee

Q&A brought to you by @moonliched! Thanks for the tag! 💙💙💙

Rules: Answer the questions and tag 9 people.

☀️ favorite color: Blue! All shades of it really

🌙 last song listened to: 2econd 2ight 2eer (that was fun, goodbye.) by Will Wood

☀️currently reading: Ace In The Hole by Certified_Handler on Ao3

🌙 currently watching: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. (Binging everything while I draw lmao)

☀️ currently craving: Sunflower seeds and tres leches cake

🌙 coffee or tea: Tea ofc, with honey

I tag @mariheadspace @sun-e-chips @nosleepgummitato @ikamigami @virtualglittervoid @gemigemigemi @yellowrabbitfurry @dalimaly and @firephoenix2020!!!