A Brief History
Five Nights at Freddy's is an indie horror game by developer Scott Cawthon first released in August 2014, following the negative perception of Scott's earlier game Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. The game's release coincided with YouTube's Let's Player boom, elevating the title alongside gamers like Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, and Game Theory's MatPat to trailblazer status, ushering in the era of mascot horror and larger than life content creators.
The success of FNaF led to the first four games in the franchise to be released within the span of two years, and both FNaF World and Sister Location in 2016. In the decade since the release of the first game, there have been a total of 16 mainline games, with Secret of the Mimic slated for June 2025.
Alongside the video games, Five Nights at Freddy's has expanded to include multiple book series, two (so far) feature-length films, and a surplus of "fan songs" written and produced by independent musicians.
Gameplay
Most FNaF installments are point-and-click games that require the player to defend their office (or in the case of FNaF 4, their bedroom) by keeping out the animatronics in the vicinity. While mechanics change from game to game, the end goal is to survive from 12am to 6am, otherwise the player gets jumpscared, ending the game.
A trademark of the franchise is the presence of hidden mini-games and intentional glitches that are often utilized as a way to deliver story-relevant information.
How'd I Get Here?
FNaF was and still remains, first and foremost, an indie horror franchise. Since it first popped into the public consciousness however, the mixture of uncanny mascots and over-the-top jumpscares, coupled with the over-the-top reactions from up-and-coming YouTube juggernauts, made for a perfectly baked pie that kids sneaking behind their parents' back gobbled up. Cawthon quickly realized that this was the money making button, and while the franchise has never shied away from its gruesome story beats, a lot of its horror got buried under increasingly convoluted layers designed to fly over kids' heads in the hopes of keeping the name Five Nights at Freddy's marketable.
To me, back in 2014, YouTube was the website I went to watch Marble Hornets. I knew nothing about Let's Players, and my fandoms didn't even share corners with things like FNaF. It would be another three years before I even heard of the franchise thanks to my elementary school students.
See first 'issue': I'm old as balls. Second 'issue': I'm a hardcore horror buff. Third 'issue': I'm (as of 2020 for very obvious reasons) a former teacher, lover of finding meaning and literary analyses.
Between 2017 and 2019, FNaF was the game parents would big my co-teacher and I to dissuade their kids from engaging with. But because I was never a fucking narc and wanted kids to read, I pretended not to see when they checked books out of the library. ANYWAY, by the time COVID dropkicked me into unemployment, I knew who Freddy and Foxy were, and that was about it.
It wasn't until Security Breach that I first experienced the franchise for myself, and boy howdy was I confused. As I sat there on my couch, running a fever, Jacksepticeye declared that he's never wanted to fuck those animatronics more. I was enraptured. As a 90s kid, seeing the Pizzaplex while in such a vulnerable state of "everyone around me is dying", nostalgia gripped me so tightly I wanted to sob.
I was also really fucking confused as to why Freddy Fazbear was being so nice to this little boy. I thought he was supposed to be the bad guy. That's when I realized that I had no idea what FNaF was actually about, so made the worst fucking decision of my life.
I typed in "FNAF full story explained" onto the YouTube search bar.
If you're part of this fandom, you KNOW what's coming up.
Game Theory was gearing up to release its timeline and I, not knowing any better, ate it up. From there on out, I became a "casual fan", watching videos as they popped up but knowing close to nothing still. That was okay. I was happy. I used to be happy.
Then, the movie happened. The moment Matthew Lillard was announced to play William Afton, my friends turned to me and with every ounce of strength in their hearts said: "I hope you walk out of the theater normal about that old man".
Spoiler alert: my friends know me all too well.
Being a writer, I quickly got to work on a movie!verse fic while I housesat for a friend of mine. Being a writer, I realized I needed to do a bit more research into the human characters. It was around this time when I sat to watch Gibi's Horror Homestead's 9-hour FNaF video. It took me four days to get through it and boy howdy did it open the biggest can of worms in history. Suddenly, I had beef with MatPat. Suddenly, I knew I couldn't trust anyone to be objective about the story of this franchise. Suddenly, I needed to go through all of the games myself and put two and two together.
It is now March 2025 as I write this. I cannot tell you why my brain decided to latch onto FNaF, of all things, so fiercely. But my AuDHD brain never lets go of the things I grow attached to, so I know I'm here for the long run.
I don't consider myself a theorist, since my area of expertise is solely in writing speculative fiction and literary analysis. Though, I've watched a lot of 'theory' videos out there and on god so many of these folks don't know the difference between speculation, analysis, and straight up fanfiction.
One day I'll write up a piece on how the story of Five Nights at Freddy's will never be solved, but not today. Today, I finish up this shrine, and share with you my lovingly crafted ongoing fanfic.
Catch ya' on the flipside.
-Miller