Scott Cawthon
Animator, author, video game developer.
Background
Scott Cawthon was born on July 26, 1971 in Houston, TX. His career in game design and animation began in the 1990s. Some of his early games include:
Sit N' Survive
Chipper and Sons Lumber Co.
The Desolate Hope.
Chipper & Sons Lumber Co.
This is the game that started it all. Who knew that a fun little game about cutting trees and collecting wood would lead to his success. He definitely didn't.
In fact, reviewers heavily criticized this game saying that his characters were unsettling and moved like creepy robotic dolls. Cawthon was discouraged and almost quit making games entirely, but instead decided to use the animatronic-like characters to his advantage...
Five Nights at Freddy's
On August, 2014, Cawthon released this new indie-horror game. The objective was simple. Check your cameras, conserve your power, and survive the night at a chuck-e-cheese-like restaurant.
It quickly gained a massive amount of popularity. The game was well-received by critics, and became the subject of numerous popular Let's Play videos on YouTube.
The Lore
The horror and jumpscares made for entertaining reactions on Youtube. However, this isn't the main reason why people came back to this game.
There was a hidden story behind the animatronic characters. A story about missing children and vengeful spirits that was revealed through rare easter eggs and minigames. As people would find more pieces to the puzzle, others would join in to theorize what it all meant.
Freddy's Sequels
A second game was released only a few months later on November 10, 2014, by Cawthon.
The third on March 2, 2015.
And the fourth was meant to be the final game in the series and was released July 23, 2015. With a free Halloween update on October 31, 2015.
FNAF World
On January 21, 2016, Cawthon released a a stylized RPG featuring the many characters from his previous games. It also recieved a free expansion update on May 13, 2016.
The game recieved a lot of criticism and Cawthon admitted that the game was rushed. He gave refunds to everyone who had purchased it and made the game available for free.
The Main Series' Ending
FNAF World contained a secret ending where players got a teaser of a new character. This teaser actually introduced a new game located in an underground facility. FNAF Sister Location was released on October 7, 2016 as the fifth game in the main series.
The following year on December 4, 2017, Cawthon released a pizzeria simulator game that contained the finale of his story. Where several lore questions were answered and the villian met a fiery end.
The last game he personally worked on was Ultimate Custom Night where players could choose which characters they wanted to face. This was released on June 27, 2018.
Expanding and Upgrading
After the ending of the main series, Cawthon partners with Steel Wool Studios to recreate his games in Virtual Reality. This was released on May 28, 2019. Along with a non-VR version on December 17, 2019.
On September 13, 2019, Illumix, another partner company, brings players a brand-new Augmented Reality mobile game. This is currently free on the app store.
Besides the games, several authors work with Cawthon to create a Five Nights at Freddy's novel trilogy and an anthology book series. The trilogy was finished with its last book release on June 26, 2018. The novel series is ongoing with seven books released so far and at least five left.
Future Projects
Steel Wool Studios, the company who created the Fnaf VR title, are currently work on a new Play Station 5 game that will feauture real time ray-tracing. It's planned to release this year. No date has been revealed yet.
A Five Nights at Freddy's film is also being produced by Blumhouse Productions. Scott Cawthon, Jason Blum, and Christopher Columbus are all producing this film. The last announcement said that filming would begin spring of 2021.