Five Nights at Freddy's Security Breach

It has been two years since Scott Cawthon, an American video game developer and writer, created a new game. He is also well known for his Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise. To those who are unfamiliar with the franchise, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a popular horror game that revolves around players monitoring robotic animals known as animatronics until a certain time, specifically from 12AM to 6AM. Although typically most Five Nights at Freddy’s games are about watching animatronics, Scott Cawthon released a new video game that is unlike the rest.

Before getting into the actual details of the game, it is reasonable to look at the past of Scott Cawthon. On July 24th, 2014, he released a small project called Five Nights at Freddy’s which was only allowed to be played on the computer before it was on other platforms. Going back to the horror game franchise that revolves around the players monitoring animatronics in a pizza place, players play as a guard working a night shift. While monitoring the animatronics until 6AM, it should be noted that the animatronics are alive and move around in the premise during that time frame. There are four main animatronics: Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. The group wishes to murder the security guards and stuff them into animatronic suits. This transforms the game to instead of players focused on the animatronics, they transition to monitoring their own lives until 6AM. The only issue that players must focus on while monitoring themselves and the animatronics is the limited power accessed. The players are allowed to utilize the electrical power to shut doors and turn lights on and off to protect themselves from the animatronics. If either the players fail to monitor the animatronics from coming into the security room, or if all power is drained, an animatronic will pop up on the screen and frighten them. This is known as a jump scare, which implies the players lost…and the security guard is stuffed in a suit. For the next four to five games, the franchise revolved around the same gameplay, but with new environments, characters, and actions implemented. The small project became a whole franchise over the years, leading to Scott Cawthon’s success.

Moving forward to late 2021, about 7 years from the first game, Scott Cawthon released a new game called, “Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach.” This game is different compared to the other games that Scott Cawthon developed. The idea still revolves around winning by reaching 6AM; however, instead of playing as a security guard monitoring the animatronics, players play a child called, Gregory. Gregory was not able to leave the pizza place before it closes for the night causing him to be trapped; fortunately, Freddy, who is not an evil animatronic, assists Gregory with his escape from the pizza place. Instead of the game revolving around being stuck in one place, players are able to move freely around the enormous pizza place. While completing the goal of escaping the pizza complex, the other animatronics are on the lookout for finding Gregory. Not only the animatronics are looking for him, but also a security guard; therefore, players are able to utilize hiding spots in order to not be seen by any of them. Old and new ideas were implemented in the game such as new jump scares, old and new characters, and actions (closing and opening doors, using power). One gimmick that has surprised players was that Gregory is allowed to go inside Freddy. Instead of being stuffed into him, Gregory is allowed to utilize Freddy to obtain access to other parts of the pizza place and hide from other animatronics.

Today, Scott Cawthon’s Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise has impacted many people. It is astonishing how a small project that was developed years ago led to big ideas. It has peaked multiple times, for famous YouTubers streamed his games in the past and present. While Scott Cawthon developed his games, he left easter eggs, or clues and secrets inside video games, for the players who wanted more than just winning. This led to an abundance of theories and analysis on websites and articles. People were able to put the pieces together where it is not only a game, but also a story. The whole entire franchise is connected to a singular timeline leading up to Security Breach. Additionally, Scott Cawthon has a giant fanbase where some people draw their own characters, speculate about animatronics getting romantically together, making music of their own parodies of the games, and posting a lot on social media platforms like TikTok.