Fredbear and His Spin Offs

So the news has come out that Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location will be coming out on October 7th. That's the rumour in the grapevine so far, and if you haven't seen the trailer yet, do check it out. Dear Mr. Cawthon himself has said that there won't be further trailers. We'll just have to make due with what we have, and I personally enjoy rewatching it.

For those who aren't aware, I am a big fan of the Five Nights series. There are a lot of fan games out there, and I do have my favourites. I won't be able to get into them all, of course, but I still wanna chit chat for little bit about them – let's do this.

Five Night at Wario's: This is one that I haven't played myself, but this is a game that I still enjoyed the look of. It does have its share of flaws, but it is a good bit of fun. I enjoyed the voice acting in FNAW3. I don't need professional voice acting. As long as it adds to the atmosphere and/or the other person is giving their all, I'm here for it.

One Night at Flumpty's: As you know, this is probably my favourite FNAF fan game. (FNAFFG? No? I agree.) I've done a review on it and its sequel. Flumpty-Dumpty is an egg who can transcend time and space and is immune to the plot. Don't we all wish we had such a power? This game is fully drawn and animated, which is such a signature touch. I haven't seen any other FNAF games that have animated theirs. To be fair, there are hundreds and hundreds of fan games, so that's not really a proper assumption I can make.

Five Nights at Candy's: Wow. This game is really clean looking. The animatronics are new and adorable, but of course, in true FNAF-style fashion, they're cute but deadly. Like a visual fart. …Probably not the most welcoming comparison. FNAC takes place after Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria has closed down, and so this new restaurant has risen to take its place. In entertainment? In terror? Be sure to find out the lore of it all yourself. FNAC3 is currently in development.

Those Nights at Rachel's: A 3D terror town. This game takes place at Doug and Rachel's, a direct competitor to the Freddy Fazbear Pizzeria franchise. So, the layout of your office is different, but there are still animatronics running wild. I'm very curious as to why – but maybe one day that will be discovered in the story! There's a sequel, but it's currently in the works. So, we'll have to stay tuned. Also, sidebar: Nikson has such a clean style when it comes to his creations. I really appreciate the work that he and his team put in!

TJOC-R: Its full name is The Joy of Creation-Reborn. This game has a number of changes since its creation, which makes sense. TJOC-R is still in early access, but you're able to play the game while it's in development.

Final Nights: And finally, finally, to wrap up my list, you have Final Nights. The first one has been taken down but is in redevelopment, I believe, under the name Final Nights: Redux. FN is a reimagining of the FNAF series, and I really appreciate what it does. The models look great; the storytelling is pretty solid. Much like many (if not all) of the FNAF games, you'll need to get used to the actual mechanics before you feel you can make any progress. If you like, you can start from the second one (Sins of the Father), or you can wait ever so patiently for the first one's redux.

Some are hilarious in their own right and shouldn't be taken awfully serious like Five Nights at Fuckboys. And there are bad ones, jumping into the hype. You can't get better if you don't fail sometimes, so hopefully people can just use their fan games as a building experience. Personally (I've been typing that a lot), I think that creating free fan games are an important way to learn how to develop and build one's skills. Plus, you can get feedback, especially if you're signed up on communities like GameJolt or itch.io.

If you want to see more, Rock Paper Shotgun has compiled a list of 1139 (yup!) FNAF fan games. You can find more and even play a few on GameJolt.  Have fun and remember: tell 'em GDR sent ya. See you when Sister Location comes out.