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How FNAF creator Scott Cawthon made a game for his kids using other people's characters, then turned it into an official Five Nights at Freddy's game
The lesson you can learn from Five Nights at Freddy's creator Scott Cawthon is that you should never throw out anything you create. Just in case.
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Experienced creatives know that you never throw anything away or delete any files because you never know when you’ll use them again for another project. When Scott Cawthon, creator of the Five Nights at Freddy’s series, was making Freddy in Space 3, he dug into some old assets he had lying around, including designs he created for a game for his kids.
Back in 2023, Scott Cawthon was hard at work on the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy’s movie, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t also working on a new game in the series. In October 2023, Cawthon released Freddy in Space 3: Chica in Space, though it was (jokingly) referred to as FNAF: The Movie: The Game at the time. The game is a sidescrolling platformer like the rest of the Freddy in Space games, but it didn’t take long for fans to do a bit of digging into the game’s files to discover some unused artwork.
It turns out that most of Freddy in Space 3 was actually a reskin of a game that Scott Cawthon had lying around. “Yeah, you guys caught me,” he posted on Reddit shortly after people pointed out the unused assets. “This was originally a game I made for my kids. And for those of you asking if you can play the original, probably not. Everything was based on their favorite games, so lots of copyrighted characters, ha ha. I thought I’d reskinned everything but obviously I missed a few things!”
So let it be a lesson to everyone who is sitting on some unused art. You shouldn’t throw it out, since you never know when it will help you in the future.
The Five Nights at Freddy's phenomenon is lasting longer than five nights. Get up to speed, with how to play all the FNAF games in order, why Five Nights at Freddy's is the ideal starter kit for a kid wanting to get into horror, details on the characters and lore, getting to know the FNAF movie animatronics, how the movie fits in the canon of the games, and how Chuck E. Cheese is responding.
Can't get enough? We have recommendations for five movies to watch after Five Nights at Freddy's.
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