Mascot Horror is a subgenre of horror that focuses on targeting younger audiences with recognizable, often marketable mascots. The term was first used to describe Five Nights at Freddy’s by an anonymous 4chan user in a /v/ thread on December 26th, 2016. This game pioneered Mascot Horror by using a child-friendly animatronic design with horror, pulling in kids and curious players.
The genre has been controversial, with some claiming it is the “d” subgenre of horror. The thematic concept coined to describe games where a mascot character for a fictional and child-aimed brand is responsible for terrifying player and characters alike. Mascot Horror has evolved over time, with games like Freddy, Bendy, Baldi, and e.
The genre has been successful due to its ability to twist and embodie commercial objects that contain unethical and extreme unauthorized elements unique to the brand. It has been around for quite some time, but it could be argued that FNAF pioneered the genre.
The first game to use the term “mascot horror” was Five Nights at Freddy’s, which was based on Jim Henson’s works. The games follow the story of Tim Denson, who is hunted by packs of murderous muppet-like monsters. The genre has been around for quite some time, with some arguing that it is the “d” subgenre of horror.
📹 Why Current Mascot Horror ABSOLUTELY SUCKS
In this video, we’re talking about why incorrectly using “Main” and “Sub” lore is KILLING modern Mascot Horror, as well as how it …
What was the first game mascot?
In 1980, Namco introduced PAC-Man, the inaugural gaming mascot. The yellow mouth of PAC-Man has become so pervasive in popular culture that it is considered a near-equivalent to that of Mario.
What is the most famous gaming mascot?
The video game mascots Mario, Pac-Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, and Mega Man are regarded as iconic, having revolutionized gaming in the 1980s and attained the status of cultural phenomena, alongside other popular characters such as Pac-Man, Sonic, and Mega Man.
Who said horror horror and why?
In Joseph Conrad’s 1902 novel, The *Heart of Darkness, Mr. Kurtz expresses despair at the potential for savagery within civilized human behavior. The dying words of Mr. Kurtz highlight the dangers of a society that is too focused on preserving its own interests and power. Access to full text content on Oxford Reference requires a subscription or purchase, while public users can search the site and view abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Why are mascot horror games so popular?
The success of the horror video game genre is largely attributed to its child-friendly nature, with mascot characters and a lack of human antagonists, which reduces the amount of gore or violence. Major horror games, like The Last of Us, often fall in the adults-only M-rating, creating a profitable and exploitable audience of kids looking for a safe but popular way to explore the genre.
Despite debates about the ratings of some games, the cut-off generally falls around the young teen age group. Even games aimed at slightly older players, such as the Bendy series, have developed a fandom within a younger audience due to the cutesy, kid-friendly design of many characters.
The genre’s symbiotic relationship with YouTubers, such as Let’s Play creators like Markiplier, has also contributed to its popularity. Many of the genre’s big hitters come from indie studios, creating a strong connection between fanbase and studio. This community feel has made the games more attractive beyond just an initial playthrough.
In summary, the success of the horror video game genre is largely attributed to its child-friendly nature, mascot characters, and a strong connection between fanbase and studio.
Who created the mascot?
The term “mascot” originates from the Provençal word “mascoto”, meaning bewitchment, enchantment, or witch. It is a protective charm or fetish that would break or protect from evil spells. The first known use of the word “mascot” dates back to 1880 in Edmond Audran’s comic opera “La Mascotte”, where a young turkey herder brings luck, happiness, and success to whoever possesses her. A brand’s logo, derived from the seal, is also a magical symbol, a protective incantation.
In Latin, the words “seal”, “symbol”, or “signature” are contained in one word: “charactere”, an ideogram impossible to pronounce but understood and used to communicate. Provided one is initiated into it, the brand exudes a certain prestige, which it can accentuate with a good mascot.
Symbols from different cultures and practices, such as Japan, runes, magic amulet, Benin, alchemy, Celts, and Crete, are used in modern logos that echo these symbols. These symbols are used to exude prestige and protect against bad luck.
Who is the father of horror?
Edgar Allan Poe, a renowned writer, is credited with establishing the foundation of the popular horror genre. His use of psychological horror through first-person narration inspired other writers like Ambrose Bierce and H. P. Lovecraft. Poe began his literary career as a poet but quickly recognized the demand for short fiction. Gothic tales often involve mystery, horror, and gloomy atmospheres, with elements like dungeons, ghosts, and decaying castles.
Poe uses his main character as a first-person narrator to heighten suspense, draw readers into their situation, and provide an intimate view of their psyche. This layer of realism allows readers to feel more connected to and afraid of the characters.
What is the slang meaning of mascot?
The term “mascot” was borrowed from English and means “a person or thing thought to bring good luck”. Today, it is often used to refer to an animal chosen by a school or college as a good luck symbol for its sports teams. Examples of mascots on the web include Axios Richmond’s mascot, Buc-ee’s famous beaver mascot, RyanAir’s light-hearted spoofs, Duolingo’s green owl mascot, and the school’s mascot.
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word “mascot”. Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Feedback is welcome to help improve the understanding of the term.
Who coined the term horror?
The term “horror” originated in Horace Walpole’s 1764 novel, The Castle of Otranto—A Gothic Story. The genre has roots in early creation myths, Abrahamic and Egyptian mythology, classical Greek and Roman heroes, and Chinese Ancestor worship. The modern horror genre, which began to have form and conventions around 200 years ago, is based on stories dealing with the unknown and unexplained. Every culture has a set of stories dealing with the unknown and unexplained, chilling, and provoking listeners.
Modern horror films are the present-day version of epic poems and ballads told around the fires of our ancestors. While this site is dedicated to horror movies, it is essential for serious horror fans to consider the literary classics that shaped genre paradigms long before moving pictures were invented.
What started mascot horror?
Five Nights At Freddy’s (FNAF) has been a popular genre in children’s media, with 13 games, 12 books, and a movie. Mascot horror is defined by a recognizable mascot, often associated with children’s media, who is either corrupted and scary or associated with a scary context. The indie scene has seen a surge in mascot horror games, catering to the genre’s popularity. This list aims to help fans find games inspired by FNAF that they might also enjoy.
One such game is “Garten of BanBan”, by Euphoric Brothers, which tells the story of a missing child in Banban’s Kintergarten. The player plays as a parent searching for their missing child, discovering horrors as they decipher the conspiracies surrounding the Kintergarten.
What is the origin of the word mascot?
The term “mascot” comes from the French term “mascotte”, meaning lucky charm, and was first recorded in 1867. It was popularized by French composer Edmond Audran in his opera La mascotte. The term entered the English language in 1881, meaning a specific living entity associated with a human organization as a symbol or live logo. The term is a derivative of “masco”, meaning sorceress or witch. Before the 19th century, the term was associated with inanimate objects like locks of hair or figureheads on sailing ships.
Since then, the term has been used to refer to good luck animals, objects, and more recently, human caricatures and fictional creatures created as logos for sports teams. Mascots often reflect desired qualities, such as a “fighting spirit” personified by warriors or predatory animals. They can also symbolize local or regional traits, such as the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ Herbie Husker, a stylized version of a farmer, or Pittsburg State University’s Gus the Gorilla, an old colloquial term for coal miners in the Southeast Kansas area.
When was the word mascot first used?
The term “mascot” has its etymological roots in the French term “mascotte,” which translates to “lucky charm.” The first recorded instance of this term in English occurred in 1867. The term gained popularity through the opera La Mascotte and was first recorded in the English language in 1881.
📹 Mascot Horror’s Past, Present, and Uncertain Future…
Today we’ll be talking about Mascot Horror’s evolution and current state. What about this genre has made it so controversial, with …
Honestly, My Friendly Neighborhood really feels like a good ‘mascot horror’ because it does this, where the ‘surface level’ is easy to understand, and once you get into the ‘sub lore’ it helps connect more things together. Still, its a rational explanation for a lot of things in the industry. Though I’ll note the big thing is ‘most of the story needs to actually be ‘in’ the game’, for it to work.
Having Lore in a Game is nice, but you should know your Balance. I totally agree. Mascot Horror never died, it just has been/is being not so great. We need more Mascot Horror Games that are 1: Good Horror, and 2: Lore thats not overly blown or confusing to figure out, and of course have Soul in it AHEMHELLONEIGHBORAHEMGARTENOFBANBANAHEM
Honestly I feel like Amanda the Adventurer is a great example on how you make a mascot horror game as there were signs that something was off at the start. The most well-written thing about it is Rebecca herself, you just slowly see her lose her shit as she keeps wanting to get out of the show she got trapped in, she isn’t evil but merely lashing out at the unfairness she got dealt with. Knowing that this is just a little girl who is pissed at the fact she got stuck inside a character she voiced as and still missing her dad just tugs at your heartstrings.
I’m SO glad bendy is none of these things. I would always wait for new chapters to drop back in middle school. Even after batim ended, i was still into it. The lore was intriguing, and easy to understand. The books were just the cherry on top. Bendy is absolutely THRIVING now, two new side games, a third one just getting announced, and a official MOVIE on the way is insane to me. The future of bendy is looking brighter than ever.
I completely agree. As a Poppy Playtime fan, I now feel like Chapter 3 can’t be enjoyed without the ARG lore. I mean, you can tell who does and doesn’t know by how a player looks at CaNap. If they hate and find him annoying, they don’t know. But if they gush and praise him, they know. The game did try to sum up what you SHOULD know (Before he was CatNap, he had an accident and nearly died, then the Prototype saved him), but it feels shallow compared to knowing the finer details (wiki Theodore Grambell).
I think my favourite game thats able to balance this is the game How Fish Is Made, while it isnt a mascot horror game it is a horror game. And the reason why is because the sub lore is more of a, what is the meaning? The games so simple when you pick it up, short and sweet. But it brings this urge of “what does it mean” which keeps me to come back to the game. Which is something incredibly great!
I deeply DEEPLY respect you for this article, ESPECIALLY not taking the “It ain’t good no more because it’s not scary” but more of a “it’s getting ridiculous how these games want to make understanding the lore so difficult” kind of argument, if anything the common ”not scary” one I feel is missing the point. So yeah subbed.
One of my favorite games currently is Baldi’s Basics, it isn’t exactly a mascot horror game but it is commonly lumped in with that category, probably due to it being a horror game with a mascot, and the fact that it was made around the time where those games were popular. The game doesn’t really put lore first, or even really considers it most of the time, it’s a very gameplay based game which is why i don’t really consider it a mascot horror game. The only real lore that it has is (spoiler alert) anything that relates to Null, but even then it’s not super complicated Although the creator states that he will probably add more story elements in the future, but we will see how that turns out (probably still won’t be complicated since it might not fit the game very well otherwise). The game is also very unique in its presentation, since it’s not supposed to be taken super seriously (it was made as a parody of old computer games afterall), so that’s another reason i like it lol. I only wanted to say this here because i am tired of people talking about this game the same way they talk about other mascot horror games because it is very different from them, it’s basically the accidental “I’m not like other girls” of mascot horror
Little Nightmares will forever be my top horror game. Despite being a silent game it still manage to tell a story and a great plot twist at certain parts of the game. The enemies actually feel threatening and importantly, scary. As for the lore it’s actually pretty dark but at the same time perfect. It’s like a mix of fairytales and horror and I love it.
This is why I liked Shipwrecked 64. There are ARG elements, but you can solve them by remembering elements from the game. (Most of the time. Looking at you One Fish Two Fish puzzle) Everything you’d want to now aside from a few questions from the last act of the game is answered. My Friendly Neighborhood and Amanda did a great job with this as well.
I remember a few years ago perusal a Game Theory article by Matpat, regarding how he felt that theory articles and YouTube were making horror game developers try to make more obscure and nonsensical lore which wasn’t truly solvable and was just a head-ache as an excuse for theory baiting and getting a theory made out of them, and I always think of it in these discussions. Before, when there wasn’t a huge group of people or there wasn’t hugely deep and hard to solve lore, or it was proven that hard lore equaled popularity, people just made simple stories, most often than not kind of generic, and shit, and you didn’t need to play 5 games to figure the lore out or shit. And then Five Nights at Freddy’s hit the shelves and people were shocked and bamboozled by how deep its lore was and how hidden each piece was, and at first it was engaging, it gave that little feel of being an investigator and shit, but then FNaF itself started becoming nonsensical, doing way too many unexplainable plottwists, retconnings, stupid revelations, making it essentially impossible to follow the story, making fans argue between each other. I respect Scott Cawthon hugely, but he DOES NOT know how to make a story. And then everyone saw FNaF and tried to get their hand onto it, trying to make their own scary game with secret and barely solvable lore which involved as many dead children as they wanted and had as many story redherrings as they wanted, and making theories went from something fun to do, to try to predict the next thing that would happen, or what had truly happened, what lied beneath, to just.
A more recent example, but I feel KinitoPET does this very well. Just playing the game, you have a good understanding of what Kinito is and what his goals are, and if you’re more interested in the lore, you can optionally play the game again and look for secrets with new tools. The lore also happens to be pretty interesting too, so that’s a plus.
(SLAMS TABLE LIKE A BRATTY TODDLER) I want a mascot horror game that looks like was made by Humongous Entertainment! That type of point-and-click gameplay would be perfect for organically hidden lore bc of how nearly everything in the game is clickable despite not always leading to progressing the game. So where before you already had the aspect of never knowing if clicking something would lead to some sort of solution, collectible or just a fun animation, now there would also be the additional options of it leading to either some type of Secret Lore or Scary Moment. It’s the type of gameplay that encourages and rewards thorough exploration, but you might still miss stuff if you just happen to click on the correct thing right away and then choose to move on the moment you have what you need. We’re already on our way there, with more and more “Old Amateur Flash Games” and “Edutainment Games” (often overlapping), but so far I’ve yet to see a point-and-click horror game as large as any Humongous Entertainment game that was actually trying to look like anything other than a genuine horror game. (and even then stuff like Fran Bow, Little Misfortune and The Cat Lady tend to keep all clickability limited to stuff that will either trigger dialogue or lead to progress. There’s never that simple pointless fun factor and surprise animation, yanno? and since they’re not Mascot Horror they are p straight forward with their storytelling or leave things intentionally open for interpretation with little to no secrets to seek out)
The problem is not just with mascot horror it is with modern horror itself. They all rely on a big scary monster and a jumpscare to scare you. There are barely any horror games that can be named without these two things. In my personal opinion, Devs should focus more on atmospheric horror rather than fully relying on the big scary monster. Another problem is that most if not all mascot horrors are more of a puzzle game than actual horror and while puzzle games are fun, doing the puzzle isn’t exactly scary. No matter how good or scary of an atmosphere you make, a puzzle is never scaring anyone. All mascot horrors are just 90% puzzle and 10% horror. There is also nothing new or unique about modern horror itself because all of them are just about getting chased by the monster and trying not to get caught which is also not the issue, it’s that there is nothing more to it than just that. The only unique horror games right now are My Friendly Neibourhood and DDLC. I would put Chapter 3 of PP but it is still just about puzzles and running. The CatNap boss fight was really unique but the only unique thing about this game.
This is why OMORI is a great indie horror game by the end of the game you can see how the characters are even through different routes. The story is told in a way that once you finish, you’ll understand the last battle between Sunny and OMORI and stuff like that. And there’s also a ton of more fun lore to find just for extra details on each character which has already been well established. You really just play the game and then by the end enjoy it for its story and gameplay.
Well I’m going to use this information on how to make good lore in a game, thanks! Also amazing article, I learned something, and that is hide only the basic lore in places that aren’t hard to find, while the deepest parts are in that one file cabinet close to the center of the area, but somewhere you still pass by
Honestly, i remember being a super hardcore Fnaf fan, i loved the idea of dead children looking for revenge, it was so cool and sad… imagining those children missing they’re parents and they’re missing them. I remember wanting to know more about them, I have always been facinated by sad ghost stories in horror media so fnaf was like heaven to me. But then they started focusing more on the magical sciency robos conspiracy theories and i lost interest entirely
I do want to note for FNAF, the tomeline is very confusing, yes, but you don’t NEED to know the books to understand the games. Both are Canon but they’re in separate timelines. You don’t need to learn about Fazgoo and the remote controlled suit with 2 dead twisted kids inside to understand the child murderer stuffing 5 kids in a suit who all want revenge. Knowing they aren’t Canon to each other makes it easier to enjoy overall. I do agree though, regardless the stories are all sorts of jumbled.
a big problem with the games mentioned in the article is that a whole bunch of them are still being written and developers/writers end up being influenced by theories one way or another. Some games see what theorists are saying as joking predictions and go out of their way to disprove them, often walking all over whatever they had been planning just to get the last laugh. (I’m almost certain this is what happened with fnaf, like I’m willing to give credit that there was a story for a couple of games but no way in hell were that many threads left loose for a reason, especially given how much of a rivalry there was going on between Game Theory and fnaf at least for the time I was paying attention to it)
Personally, as a huge fan of Hello Neighbor, while I like the story of the neighbor losing his mind after losing almost all of his family, and being able to beat his fears(the black thing) while Nicky is, and locking his son in the basement, I preferred the original storyline of where the neighbor was a some sort of worshipper of Satan (triple 6 sticker on his shoe, children crying from the basement, burying people alive) this was the direction that HN was supposed to follow.
I know the developer and publisher of Muzy, they are nice people who have stated they are improving the games and as a mascot horror developer myself you are correct about putting communities first before theorists! Not every game needs confusing lore, just some good scares and a good time. Great article, keep it up brother
I’d say Undertale is a game that does main/sub lore really well. There’s a lot of sub lore and secrets, W.D. Gaster’s whole character is sub lore, but even if you never even knew about his existence the story would still be complete. The sub lore can add some interesting and insightful background to some of the characters but you still get a lot of character development and exploration in the main story. Honestly Undertale is just brimming with content in both the main and sub stories, the way it explores its themes, the unique mechanics, the little details, the charming style, the music, the characters who somehow manage to be both zany and cartoony and really complex and deep, with all that stuff in the main plot you don’t really need to know all that stuff about Gaster to enjoy the story. However, there is still a lot of interesting sub lore if you’re willing to look for it, like how Flowey was created, you don’t technically need to know exactly how he came to be to understand his character arcs in the different routes, but it’s still very insightful.
Honestly, I used to be OBSESSED with the fnaf series. But after Security Breach came out? It’s all about robot kids, ai from BEFORE THE FIRST RESTAURANT THATS NEVER BEEN REFERENCED BEFORE, glitchtrap just being a copy of William instead of being him, Gregory being a bad guy, GGY, patient 46, Vanny masks that let you get to weird augmented realities, THE LIST KEEPS GOING? What happened to the terrible dad who put a walkie-talkie in his son’s plush to watch him while he was under the house making Funtime animatronics? Now there is clues everywhere and you don’t know what connects to what, you have to read over 10 books just to TRY to understand it, and even then it’s still unsolved. I’m losing motivation to care about the Fnaf Franchise.
good boy kinda reminds me of this game i played called house. its basically about a girl named tabby who like lives in this time loop with her family full of entities and as time progresses the more creepier & distorted the house gets & once it hits 12AM (if you survive till then), her father comes home and murders her. its probably because of the scene where the character stabs the heart with the knife. its a REALLY unpopular game but its pretty fun imo
I agree fnaf was made with care and passion and scott cawthon wants to tell good stories for people to solve with each release and figure out whats going on and this franchise isnt made to sell merch it wants to be scary and tell story at the same time Other mascot horror games are just not following the same path like fnaf and thats the problem more mascot horror games are baiting youtubers to do lets plays and theories and sell merch to children even though the games are unfinished and they keep copying fnaf and bendy
Actually Remnant is apart of the good old days of fnaf because it’s the reason the ghosts of the missing children could possess the animatronics and the books reveal more about the story except the books that follow Charlie and fnaf world is cannon because it contains the hidden lore of fnaf that you can only learn about in fnaf world
KinitoPET has done right with its lore and balance, surely there’ll be spoilers for those who haven’t played the game and/or watched their favorite youtuber playing it. (SPOILERS BELOW) I love how KinitoPET lore is more about Kinito himself and what’s interesting about him that he isn’t another dead person trapped in the articlegame, he’s just an A.I. and yet he wants to be friends with you whether you like it or not, while attempts to get into your personal infos just to know you better.
Well tbh, as a new mascot horror game fan. it wasn’t that hard to learn poppy playtime’s lore, it’s simple and not complicated (unlike fnaf bc they got books and literally BUNCH of games). so i dont see anything wrong tbh, but one thing they need to add is adding arg lore in the game, bc catnap story is tragic but ppl didn’t knowledge abt it and just hate catnap existence for no reason
To word it from a different point of view… This is basically the hidden side of the saying SHOW, DON’T TELL. It’s an art of balance. You have to balance the obvious with the subtext. Balance the spoon-fed plot TO ROOT THE LORE SUBTEXT BEHIND IT. Balance infodumps with visual cues. Not just in horror, either. This applies to literally any game that isn’t a simulation, FPS, or minigame (ik im forgetting some genres, but you get what I mean).
Great article! There have been several times where I’ve looked at the current state of FNAF and found myself saying that I missed when William Afton was just a murderer known as the Purple Guy. Things were so much more fun, enticing, and simpler then. There were all sorts of fun theories (Pink Guy, Phone Guy being Purple Guy, etc) but it never got into the realm of absurdity or sci-fi. It made you feel genuine fear and unease. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the games up until VR, with VR being the one to kinda sour the story for me due to Afton seemingly coming back in the form of a character that seemingly acted nothing like him. However, I was curious about how things would go from there and with AR giving us hints to how Vanny would be, I was excited for Security Breach… And then the game came out… and it was over… Security Breach killed my excitement for FNAF’s future and the lore of the games. Ruin fixed nothing and only actually made it worse. The lore is catastrophic. The horror is bad or nonexistent. Vanny was the biggest disappointment in FNAF history imo, even trumping the FNAF 4 box. If the series had ended with Ultimate Custom Night or if it at least ended one story with UCN and started a new one VR and onwards, I would’ve been satisfied. Instead, I just have to personally consider the games from SB and onwards as non-canon and stick with an older theory about the timeline and story because nothing works anymore. I stopped perusal FNAF lore articles years ago, especially when I saw that MatPat was making an almost absurd number of articles about Golden Freddy and the FNAF timeline.
I think were fnaf went wrong. Was Afton. Don’t get me wrong that first springtrap design, it’s a reason he’s my favorite character in the series but bringing him back after fnaf 6 using that UGLY design kinda killed it for me. Don’t get me started on PeePaw but fnaf 6 ending would give a nice bow tie to the series
(Just found your website) It’s just entirely interesting about the Mascot Horror Genre and the situation they have with balancing the way they have the lore in their story, and I want to and i want to ask this: When they’re trying to get something across in the games and with some franchises like Fnaf and Poppy already doing so but then start to drift from that to escalate, is that the problem with the games? That they escalate into the plot and creating more content or more branches into the tree that make it hard to track down where and what the main trunk is? Basically, is the expansion of the story the issue as it goes on?
Moral of the story: Make your main and sub lore easy and mabye make the game acctually good Heres a random example:cotl Say about the game or the fandom but the lore while little has a main and sub lore The main being that your a lamb revived from the dead from a god to kill the bishops and start a cult And the sub lore comes from the npcs you meet telling the backstory on how narinder became toww and what happend to the bishops Yeah this comes from a game that has s*x and also isnt a mascot or indie horror game but its lore is setup in a good way
I think most people’s problem with Hello Neighbor is thinking about it literally. The shadow man represents trauma. He stalks the neighbor after his wife dies in a car crash. Neighbor’s son accidentally kills his sister when they were playing hide and seek on the roof, so neighbor locks him in the basement. That’s the missing poster. The lore gets weird after that with the neighbor’s son and you escaping the neighbor, the shadow man stalks you afterwards (remember, shadow man IS trauma) with Act 3 being a dream that helps you get over the trauma.
current? When was mascot “horror” every good? I think I really liked fnaf 1 when i first played it, that was in 2017 where i was 14 and never played a horrorgame or watched a horrormovie in my life. Not a single fnaf game except the first one was more than just meh. And dont even get me started one the 2 million horrible fangames that either all do the same shit or try to bring in a new twist and fail miserably. Then there is Bendy which Id consider to be the worst of them by far (or the dora the explorer thing with the sheep but i dont even think they tried at this point). I feel like the fans of mascot games still didnt really accept that they are not part of the horrorcommunity. If you go to horror discord servers, talks with people on twitter about horror etc etc no one will ever even acknowledge the existence of mascot games. They arent horror, and they are never going to be. If someone here wants to try out a real horror game Id cobsider trying out one of the following: mothered, anomaly (noiseminded), erobos heaven Its kind of like with music, when people need to listen to their exclusive power metal style instead of just listening to music themed around a specific style, it kind of destroys the whole idea of the art. Both Horror and music are artforms, they can never work when they are trying to fit into something and they can never work if profit is the motivation behind it.
One thing to note is that expanding a story does not need to change the lore. They could have easily introduced new characters to replace the old villains so the old stories would not get messed up, but they just kept bringing back old characters for the sake of fanservice which killed the story. It’s like kingdom hearts but with horror.
I would argue Hello Neighbour didn’t fail. The story was just too complicated and the developers presented it was even more mind-boggling. 3rd part of Act 3 was a fever dream. Act 1’s end was an enigma, and Act 2 was meaningless. Everything remained unclear. They decided to make a multiplayer game, a stand-alone that is before Hello Neighbour. TinyBuild was smokin’ something to make such a complicated game like this.
hi there. I know this was two months ago, so you probably won’t see this, but I’m just dropping by to say I really enjoyed the article. I haven’t seen anyone make a point like this before, in fact the thought never even crossed my mind until I watched it. you explained your ideas really well and now I have a new metric by which to evaluate these kinds of media that I consume. thanks a lot. also I don’t know how many other people will be able to pick this up, but I appreciated hearing tracks like Whisker Woods and Crystal Caverns from the Wii version of Catz. also Night Falls from Professor Layton and the Curious Village. those sounds were my childhood and it was really nostalgic hearing them again.
Hide and Seek did a much better job explaining the lore than the main game did. Basically the lore is that the Neighbor’s family consisted of the Neighbor, his wife, his son, and his daughter. His wife dies in a car crash His son accidently pushed his daughter off the roof. And his son ran away cause he thought he’d get in trouble afterwards. The Neighbor kidnaps the boy from the main Hello Neighbor game cause he looks kind of like his son, and the big reveal of the game was supposed to be that “it was you in the basement the whole time.” The shadow man might be a manifestation of bad luck, which is a theme throughout the T.V. show, and then the Alpha v.s. full release cause a very big point of confusion on whether or not the Neighbor made a faustian bargain to get his family back.
Absolutely amazing article, all of my thoughts/problems I have with the genre and story/lore approach are neatly expressed here. A lot of Mascot Horror games want to capture the success and the explosion of the first few FNAF games but a lot of them are misunderstanding where it came from. The missing ingredients isn’t filling your game to the brim with obvious theory bait, or even marketable characters. But a game with a lot of love and soul behind it. Once you have a completed product, then you can go back add the tiny details in the crack. Make it noticeable but not obvious, and those details/lore bits have to matter. And if they aren’t saying anything noteworthy about the world, why bother adding it at all? Again amazing article all around, as a developer myself this article was a great watch!
Mid way through this article I couldn’t help but think “This is Kingdom Hearts, but backwards…” KH1 and FNAF 1-3 both tell their authors’ complete story and hit big because they’re fun experiences, yet Disney/Square mandate the KH sequels whereas Scott Cawthon seems to have made FNAF 4 due to being a big people pleaser who took online criticism of 3 not being a “scary enough” finale at the time too personally. But they’ve already told their stories in full so they don’t have anywhere to go–so inevitably both pad the sub lore. People eat up the sequels because they already love the franchises, but this compounds the creator’s problems; Disney mandates more sequels with more movie tie-ins and Square more console/handheld exclusives that break an already stretched to fractures story. Scott and fans both notice the holes starting to form and fans want more answers and games–Scott attempts to deliver but the main story is already finished. Remakes and fluff/sub lore were all that really could be made at this point for either franchise. And all these newcomers to the scene see Scott’s well-deserved financial success and multimedia franchise and want a piece of that pie. So they jump to the conclusion without seeing why or how Scott and FNAF got there. They see all this sub lore requiring tie-ins and think it’s an ultra-lucrative 4D chess story telling style when in reality it’s a corner Scott accidentally boxed himself in AFTER he became successful.
As much as I enjoy the modern FNAF games because of how fun they are with the free roaming aspects and the ambiences, I agree with FNAF now not having a good basis for an entry point for its main and sub lore. Up to FNAF 4, I could piece up remnants (no pun intended) of the story and I felt like this game despite the mystery of the box was a good final chapter for the Missing Children Arc FNAF 1 established. After FNAF 4, this all felt flat with The books and Sister Location leaning more towards scientific/science fiction and while FNAF 6 did its best to tie everything up in a nice little bow, the books just ended up coming out more and more and it just overbloated the’sub lore’ which led to more recent games like Help Wanted and Security Breach being incredibly confusing. I still adore FNAF and it’s an incredibly important part of my life since 2014 and I still love the characters, the ambience, the gameplay, the music, but the lore is the only thing I just don’t care about anymore because of that.
I really like OMORI, I think it’s a really good horror (I don’t know if it counts as ‘mascot horror’) but it’s really good. The story in the dream world (which you go to when you sleep) is ‘you need to find your friend basil, who went missing’ and the real world is ‘you’re moving away and have been a shut in for four years, so you have to say goodbye to your friends’ but while progressing through the game, you realise that something isn’t right. what happened to your friend basil, or your sister Mari? And why are you a shut in again? Soon the story in the dream world and real world starts to blend together.. and you get more bits and pieces of the story. Until the end, with the big plot reveal.
Have you ever heard of the game Hello, Puppets? It’s specifically made for VR, so it’s probably not for everyone, but the premise is that you investigate the abandoned studio of a debunked puppet TV show, only for you to be taken prisoner by the now-living puppets. You’re made into the unwilling host for an unruly, misfit puppet named Scout, who wants to escape the studio just as much as the player does. So you’re forced to team up and solve puzzles while evading the more sinister puppets who want both of you dead for being “defects.” The funny thing is, because Scout is incredibly brash, snarky, and hot-headed, she immediately starts your adventure with an exposition dump about why the puppets are alive and what their motives are; almost like it’s an intentional jab at the convoluted and vague plots Mascot Horror tends to follow. The real meat and potatoes of Hello, Puppets instead focuses on the original creator’s thoughts and feelings about how his own characters became so twisted, and the logs of a previous investigator who wound up meeting an awful fate after becoming obsessed with exposing the truth.
The only good games (in my opinion) are Indigo Park, Amanda The Adventurer, Kinito Pet, and somewhat Poppy Playtime? I just feel like Chapter Three grabbed a lot more people into the fandom, with Sleep Well, The Frowning Critters (or just making up your own character), and all the Smiling Critter fan animations. Indigo Park is good bc it has lore, fun characters, a lot of fan song opportunities, Rambley, …and Lloyd. It overall is a fun colorful horror game that, yes, is my favorite mascot horror game! Amanda The Adventurer, again, fan animations, good lore, inspiring, I’d even say. It’s very like, say, a sad Dora The Explorer who Is trapped in a tv, and shall I mention Don’t Listen? That’s a bop! Kinito Pet explains itself, with the intresting lore, abrupt scares, the everlasting fun games, how it feels like it actually is hacking you (but it’s not! Ok, I’m done Rambling 🦝
This is my problem with so many stories in general that have been coming out. Everything is getting too ambitious and wide that you need to do fucking homework to understand the basic story. The main product should be where the bulk of the story goes. Everything else is just a fun little side for those devoted fans, not the other way around.
After perusal this article and coincidentally listening to Mesmerizer by 32ki, I realized that the MV was another great example in the balancing of Main and Sub lore. With a relatively simple plot of Miku and Teto being hypnotized, having deeper implications when you start looking at the finer details; leading to several theories on the bigger picture The fact that a 2 and a half minute one-shot music article can do a better job at presenting lore than these major horror series is just baffling
This actually makes sense. When games are easy to digest (or at the least understandable) and leave the sub lore to the viewer/player depending on if they want to keep looking for it. It makes theorist’d game essay’s or game overviews easier with the basic understanding of the game beforehand. If you were to overlap sublore and game lore, it makes it mangled to the point of no understanding. I liked this article alot and it was easy to understand. Thanks cutcafe! 👍🏿👍🏿
I don’t feel fnaf was ruined by deeper lore, I think that’s what Scott wanted, I think he wanted the theorists to always be pondering, the books are optional, there not built into the games, also you don’t need to know the lore of the games for anything before fnaf security breach, and vr. But vr is supposed to be fun, and the books and games are not very connected, also there is a starting point, the articles, I became a lover of the games after a few game theory, fnaf is a game not your average theorist can solve. Only insane men can theorize about fnaf, like matpat. And that’s what makes if exciting, you don’t want to have side lore to become some easy kids game with little deeper story.
I know exactly where FNAF went wrong in terms of lore and story. Mid way through development of FNAF4. Up to that point, it’s a relatively simple story. That all changes with the simple advent of the bite of 83. Without that one simple detail, it makes perfect sense that that is the bite of 87 we’ve heard about. But that one little gotcha was the beginning of the end. It shows that now the focus isn’t on telling a decent narrative that can be discovered alongside the game. It’s now about trying to confuse the players in hopes of inspiring more articles trying to speculate on what anything actually means. It’s why the books are technically not canon, but things in them can be. They exist within the same world, but not the same story. It’s as confusing as it sounds.
Okay, for me, one of my favorite Indie Mascot Horror Games is the Mr. Hopp’s Playhouse Trilogy. At the very least, it’s sub-lore is scattered in notes throughout the game, and it’s main lore is shown to you up front, while also showing you some sub-lore in the background if you look during the 2nd game, which is a Prequel to the first game.
You’re really spot on, also since slay the princess is my hyperfixation (well tbh its just all of black tabby games’ catalog I’m hyperfixating on lmao) I got really excited to see you mention the game so much. I feel like slay the princess is so good with its story cause it’s devs were writers before becoming gamedevs and worked in comics (specifically abby Howard who has made the last Halloween as well an anthology called the crossroads at midnight, along with alot of other horror comics) I feel like new game devs know they need to make a story to get people invested but their too nervous to flat out express the story in a digestible and compressive way so they hide things behind secret letters and merch and hope the fans do the connecting bit for them lol. And like I’m not saying this to be mean, but I feel like if you’re gonna make a game you need to play to your strengths. You don’t need a complex story to be engaging, a simple plot can easily hook players in and theorists will find stuff to theorize about regardless. Also because I’m annoying shoutout to scarlet hollow, the slay the princess devs other game. It’s a chapter by chapter type visiual novel hat isn’t finished yet but has insane replayability and an incredibly engaging cast of characters and a mystery that is intriguing and has enough clues to show the outline of what’s probably going down but since it’s not finished there’s still alot of details we don’t know yet
Quick hello neighbour lore The main character went to the neighbours basement because as you know the neighbour kidnapped someone. (It’s his child) Then once the main character gets out he hallucinates that there’s a big wall around the house and pipes everywhere. Once he gets out fast forward to the future the main character has his own apartment but he got evicted since he doesn’t have any money so he decides to go back to his old house. He falls asleep and in his dreams he starts facing his nightmare about Theodore (the neighbour) torturing him. At the last act he finally seals his nightmares away in this house inside the main characters mind. The neighbours name: Theodore The main characters name: Nick or Nicky I might’ve forgotten. The guest game is the neighbour in a costume kidnapping children and putting them inside his house. He makes you think that he’s kidnapped but he’s trying to trick you. He eventually gets arrested in the second game as his house has been in investigation by the police. Anyways DDLC rocks
the thing with the newer fnaf games lore is that nothing makes sense after pizzeria simulator. a lot of fans, including me, ignore the games after that in terms of lore. I loved Help Wanted, it had some good scares and the lore was interesting, but it genuinely made no sense, especially after Henry’s speech in PS. I think Scottt, or whoever took over the games at that point, tried really hard to continue making an interesting story, but I really feel like it got to a point where everything feels like it’s just… there. it doesn’t feel like some things mean anything anymore. especially SB, I enjoyed the game, some of the easter eggs were interesting and the character designs were very appealing to me, but from a lore standpoint, it just doesn’t make sense. If they wanted to go with the William Ai bit from Help Wanted they should’ve continued on that path, scraptrap just really doesn’t make much sense. and yeah, HW leaned into the Vanny reveal, but it still doesn’t explain scraptrap. the William ai would’ve made sense in terms of the animatronics going haywire, but if they wanted to go with that, what was the point ofVannyy? what purpose would she serve other than “creepily” wandering around the pizzaplex? but even with all that said, William’s fate was him suffering for eternity in Ultimate Custom Night, at least that’s how it felt to me, and that felt like a very sound ending to that storyline. a child murderer finally paying for his years and years of heinous crimes, then in HW he pops up like “haha jk i’m an ai now” like?
Exactly what you said Make the game fun and interesting, show players you care etc, then you will have a playerbase and community and if you have additional hidden lore theres a reason for it to exist because some people might want more but if the normal playerbase isnt interested wheres the point in adding additional stuff. Make a game that can be enjoyed without knowing or caring about the lore and some parts of the community might never care but some will care naturally bc they really like your game
im agree with you, specially in here: 12:20 – 13:52 and its like, a very easy thing to do, just end your game in some point, and create other no canon stuff to tell the other parts, OR JUST DONT TELL and dot, like, a big example of ”mascot horror” is Baldi Basics, because it trys to do something different, not the same or with forced confused lore like FNAF, for now the story is not complete, but its 1 billion better than FNAF lore who is absolutly sucks and confused just for make the public looks like a clown and theory Youtubers make a article about it lol anyways, good article, one more sub, hope you website grows up more 😉
This is why i was so upset that the game i am making was going to end up being a mascot horror game, I was so scared that people would immediately hate on it and it wouldnt go anywhere that i didnt even want to make it, but i need to make it to pass my final college exam so here we are writing out the entire plot and sub plot to figure out if its too complex or too simple or too weird or too touchy or too fourth wall reliant or too strange or “too much like a furry game”
Do like Corpse Party blood covered, you get the main lore but just playing the game. But if you wanna know what happened to some characters, you’ll have to play the extra chapters, get name tags, maybe some wrong ends and using a bit of your imagination. Ultimately, I think that’s the best way to create a sub lore
I really want to make my fnaf fangame called “Mat & Doug’s: The midnight show”, the story will be slowly told thru minigames, or maybe thru cutscenes I dunno, I just know that the story is divided in 2 chapters that I call “Brother’s rivarly” and “the daughter”, both will be told in their separete games
This is probably a really random and dumb comparison, but this honestly made me think about the Total Drama Reboot and its characters. While anyone can watch the show and understand what’s happening, grasp a character’s traits and comprehend their reactions to situations, the show also leaves a lot of hints into WHY the characters are the way they are. My favorite example is probably Scary Girl, as she’s very much sociopath coded and paired with what we know about her obsession with death/violence and the fact that she lives in a funeral home, we can easily come up with the theory that she faced somethinf really rough in her childhood (I like to think she faced neglect from her parents) and since death was familiar to her (funeral home) she used that as a sense of comfort. Now, that comfort has gotten so bad that it’s turned into an obsession, and we get to witness the effects as she takes sadistic pleasure in hurting people (not to mention she has twice connected romance to whom she hurts, further highlighting just how much her childhood has affected her). Apologies if this makes literally no sense, but I just wanted to share my thoughts and personal analysis on the silly reality show cartoon
I feel like people just try to make hidden lore but that doesn’t make the story… good… like just hiding something and making it obscure isn’t enough to actually elevate the writing. A lot of horror can get away with having vague/confusing stories (and even elevate the horror through them) because they’re written WELL. For example Little Nightmares (not mascot horror) has a lot of confusing elements, but this just makes it stronger because it’s all contributing to a fear of the unknown. Nothing is thrown in randomly or just to get a cheap shock out of the player. Or Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared (which is a mascot horror webseries and not a game but still applies) is inherently nonsensical and not made to be understood but it still ties together cohesively, it’s like looking at the world through a child’s perspective and not understanding the way things are. I feel that horror that focuses too much on having esoteric lore can cheapen the experience because it tries to replicate the success of horror that uses it well without understanding what actually makes the writing work.
I do think it’s OK for a game (any genre) to have mysteries that are left unsolved even if you play through everything in the game, but there should be enough to follow the plot. Additionally, you shouldn’t be so occupied with expanding and adding new things to your world that you forget the original point of the story. Ex 1: FNaF 1, if played all the way through on every night, lets you figure out that the animatronics are possessed by murdered children and that the killer is still running loose. We don’t know who the children or the killer is, how they died, why the killer is doping this, or how Golden Freddy is twice as supernatural as everyone else, but the basic, central plot point that will drive the FNaF’s series overarching plotline – that there is a serial killer on the loose who is responsible for multiple animatronics becoming haunted – has been set up. We have the basic framework, and the lens by which everything else in the story is understood. Even now, the basic framework for the plot of FNaF is that a serial killer is hunting children, and their killings are having massive ripple effects on everyone and everything around them. Ex 2: Garten of BanBan starts off being a story about a parent trying to find their missing children, but quickly goes off the rails from there, adding more and more characters, givanium experiments, a mascot revolution, and having us descend deeper and deeper into the abyss that is the kindergarten, but we still have no idea what happened to our children, where they are, and there’s no indication that we’re any closer to finding them than we were at the beginning.
Naw hello neighbor inflicted my fear of faceless mannequins, also tadc friggin jump scared me with a faceless mannequin 😂 also a game called stray isn’t really horror game, but freaked me out with like rusty human shaped things which hole (I’m looking at u B8 smthn I forgot ur name) and now tadc is making me look at an isolated creepy computer…. WHY
I think another problem with mascot horror is that so many of the plots are just the same. I mean, MatPat was making jokes about the similarities between Fnaf and… well, a lot of indie horror games. But Tom recently covered Shipwrecked64 and he mentioned a developer with a sick loved one and I was like “oh, here we go, another game where the developers took their sick loved one and uploaded their consciousness into a article game and maybe there’s a demonic entity involved.” Now, that’s not where the Shipwrecked64 theory went, but the fact that I immediately drew such an immediate and specific conclusion says something I think.
Mat Pat made theories to make guessing fun. The people who made Hello Neighbor ruined their game by continually changing things to keep him guessing(making me guess his first theory was correct and it made them mad he figured it out), only for even him to get tired of it(if I remember correctly, he made a article about it, but I could be wrong).
Tbh I think only fnaf 1-6 are canon lore, I just preffer to see it this way because otherwise it gets too messy. Pizzeria Simulator had a good enough ending, not leaving anything unsolved and the new lore has just become too messy, with characters from the books now being canon, wich were seemingly not canon before (as far as I know) also sorry if this sounds messy I’m tired 😛
I personally don’t give a crap about mascot horror, I’ve found better more interesting horror in stuff like Fear And Hunger which I find way better at doing everything than the average mascot horror could dream to do. I’ve even found better horror in stuff that isn’t even horror related, in theory I personally think mascot horror is just stupid and childish and would rather put attention to something actually scary and actually interesting.
honestly, this article makes sense. you as a developer know what your story has and where it’ll go, but just try to play it as a person playing your game for the first time. Hell, you can even have someone or a few people play your game before you release it to see what they find based on how they play. The average players will see stuff at base value, while tryhards may try to push further, and theorist even further than that.
Poppy playtime chapter 1-2 is a complete rip off of batim.Huggy wuggy has the same head shape as bendy and both games make it so that the main villain barely appears.Both games have a character who makes you do tasks.Both games have the villains be created.Both games have the villains angry at you for abandoning them.Hell,Both games even have a character who is on your side but gets killed! And rainbow friends is a rip off of PP and garten of ban ban is a rip off of both of those games,In my opinion.We need to stop with the same ideas and the same stories.At this point it’s starting to be that mascot horror is just throwing weird characters into a game and adding some stupid lore and calling it a day.Mascot horror now a days is just copy after copy after copy.Nothings original anymore.
Okay ima give a rating for some mascot horror games, just to give you an average of what everyone thinks about these games. Fnaf now-7.9/10, the lore got way to complex and its starting to get harder and harder and not simpler. Poppy playtime- 8.4, the lore is there, the blood and gore is a nice thing, a very detailed game that took almost 2 years for chapter 3 and the dark theme of children being turned into toys is disturbing and just so much more. Bendy- 9/10, an amazing game and honestly has some very cool moments and is a very interesting concept just like freddies and poppy playtime, Indigo park- 8/10, somehow (mostly) 1 person created a mascot horror game that is WAY BETTER then garten of banban and has a similar story like poppy (based on the new game theory) Hello neighbor- 4/10, this makes absolutely no sense and its just so dumb since its just a normal insane person. And just so weird. Garten of banban- 2.1/10 this game is just so bad and its ridiculous how its at the same level as so many other good games like poppy playtime and bendy which those games have CRAZY GOOD GRAPHICS even though garten of banban looks like it was made in less then a week which the drama for this game is so dumb and i dont even wanna know the lore since its just Poppy Playtime but worse. (Yea give me the world record of the yapping 🗣️🔥)
I feel like you should make the main game first, and then start adding in the lore eliminates. I bet people are doing the lore first because it’s the most exciting or they want people to make theories. But for a good game, they should make the main game first, so then people can actually know the surface of what’s going on. Like “a guy works at a store, but then they learn there is a secret room. But then they’re locked in and they have to find clues and get out” the lore elements can be who made the room, why it was made, and if something happened in there, but you don’t need to know that in order to have fun playing the game. Edit: I’m just gonna used this for a game now
Hmm now it makes me wonder.. is Little nightmares 2 main lore good? Because, LM2 has a good story and doesnt have notes, secret descriptions or anything except the game! I definitely respect your opinion and i love that you didnt do “oh its not scary so it aint good” i bet someone has said that but still good
I am just sooooo burnt out on indy horror. It’s so saturated with kid-friendly mascot games, that it’s pushing out everything else, and even the non-mascot, decidedly-not-kid-friendly horror games are just whatever anymore. Slay the Princess was cool and really stands out as a good game, and I guess it’s technically a horror game, but it almost doesn’t feel like it because of what “horror” has become lately. I looked back over the Game Theorists website and of their last twenty articles, only five have not been about indy mascot horror, and going back farther, half the website was dedicated to FNAF. I just wanted MatPat to give up on FNAF or hold off his theories for a while because it was like every week there would be some new crap they put out, and he tried to cover ALL of it! Like dude, give it like, three months, it’s not going anywhere and you’ll have a bigger picture by then anyway. Then you got the games that are all made in the same low-rez, low-poly, PS1-era style that just all look exactly the same. Everyone’s trying to copy everyone else, and as a result, everything FEELS the same. Just my opinion.
The reason I feel FNAF doesn’t have a cohesive story is due to Scott Cawthon not writing the newer parts of the story with the original plot points in mind. Even as a long time fan since between fnaf world update 2 and Sister Location, I still find myself confused about certain parts of the story since I choose to only look into the games. To be honest the most favorable ending to fnaf in my opinion should have been Pizzeria Simulator. despite wanting it to end there and have Scott work on a new game idea, I don’t mind seeing new ideas of what they can interpret into the game (the only problem is not even fans who have been in it since fnaf 1 know what is happening. MatPat makes lore articles that are seemingly accurate or mostly accurate, only for them to be debunked when a new edition to the franchise comes out). Building a story as you go isn’t a bad thing, but Scott just didn’t put other parts of the story into consideration
I think horror game can have a little plot but be good at story telling, like silent Hill 2 with plot being literally “Guy killed his wife and now suffers from it” in a nutshell, but it’s still interesting to follow the story and it’s basically great So I don’t understand why little devs are trying to make lore a 50 tonn pile of non-game text, and games aren’t usually even good by themselves. And lore is literally “ooooo, these toys/videogame/pc is possessed by dead kid or dead guy, it’s so unique” in 99% of the time
To explain fnaf lore would become a swamp of arguments and way too long to explain. The main lore I understand is the DCA lore. Also I learned that originally Scott wanted to finish the fnaf series at fnaf 4 but people not liking the actual lore ending and demanded more that’s when I think things start to spiral.
I’m about to say something that’s gonna sound super stupid but there’s a lot of truth to it. Garten of ban ban is the skibidi toilet of mascot horror. It started as a joke then it got popular. And the creator started taking it more seriously while still keeping that goofy charm that brought everyone in.
just something I felt had to be pointed out, all of the games you compared mascot horror franchises to (except hello neighbour cuz that IS a single game) have been single games without many-if ANY-expansions whereas most mascot horror franchises (again, except hello neighbour) are chapter based/episodic and still follow the same storyline. And not every mascot horror dev is ready with a story like poppy has and even then poppy probably has had stuff changed over the years. What I’m trying to say is single games are BUILT to outline their plot into one single game whereas most mascot horror is made to be strung across multiple chapters, it’s why banban went from ‘search for your lost child’ to ‘help the big jellyfish get out’, it’s because these games follow the same character(s) in different points of their journey (sorta)
honestly fnaf has 3 stages of lore: the two you talked about, main and sub, but add a third: external, main lore would be playing all the games, 1,2,3,4,5,6, world and UCN, but not the VR duo or security breach or those fundraiser/aprilfools games and the lore you get just from the main games themselves, info from the phone guys and newspapers and the dialogue from 5 and 6, sub would be the same games but instead of sub being all media its the secret stuff, the hidden minigames, custom nights, pizza sims harder endings, the hidden endings of UCN and sister locations, and finally: external, external would be EVERYTHING not covered by main and sub, so the books, the vr duo and security breach and the bonus games ALL of it, cause realize the moment fnaf lore went off the rails was when things like remnant and illusion discs were added, fnaf lore if you look at it as just the main and sub content of fnaf 1-6 world and ucn is pretty nice, it doesnt outright tell you everything but its good to piece together, and it stills leaves some questions unanswered for you to theorize about such as “whats up with the FNAF 3 minigames?” and of course “whats in the box?” now add the external stuff and it becomes a shitshow thanks for comming to my tedtalk on why fnaf lore and fnaf lore after UCN came out should be regarded as two different things
I miss the old horror games Fnaf from 1 to 3 was a great example, fnaf 4 is just one of the most horrific games ever as it exactly knew how to scare them, volume features, jumpscares quick enough and perfectly made Fnaf 5 is to be discussed but still a great horror game, fnaf 6 a meh game and the other ones created by woolstudios… VR made a lot of bugs and expected screamers, security breach was just a ripoff that focused more on quality rather than gameplay or lore, with barely any new mechanics and just doing the same and same spot to spot with barely any minigame, and if there was a minigame it was annoying or easy to do, no in between. Hello neighbor wasn’t really a “horror” game but it sure had it’s challenges balanced, yeah some bugs, but beta build is 100 times better than… this lore thing Then games like ddlc that were scary, had it’s scary times and they did it well, and some others like baldi which weren’t horror games, but the devs themselves said that it wasn’t supposed to be one, and just more of a joke, which was received well by the community. – Actuality: Security breach, garden of banban, Hello Neighbor, all self-proclaimed “horror” games, and to be honest almost every game nowadays is just either a ripoff of each other (garden of banban with security breach) going for a kids public, which to be honest, WHY WOULD A HORROR GAME EVEN WANT AS PUBLIC “KIDS”. Probably they do it just to get their attention and as their minds are brainrotted by too much instagram, tiktok or any platform that has satisfactory vids and family guy edits.
I know my opinion doesn’t matter but after fnaf 6 (the books weren’t really THAT relavant) is when the story fell apart. Don’t get me wrong I like the first vr game but the implications of lore with that one I don’t appreciate the direction there going. However fnaf 1-6 or pizza simulator had major basic events known by the whole community even if it was muffled through some sub lore. NOW ever since the importance of “books” and “The vr games tying into them” came along you can’t play the game and try to figure out what the GAMES story is. You have to go look at books and the absolute MINOOT details now it seems.
On a side note making the lore interesting and making a polite twist makes it even more interesting (sometimes if used correctly) like fnaf always has polite twists and STILL is a popular franchise with weird interesting lore (but complicated at the same time and hard to understand even if you there from the beginning 🥲)
some of my favorite semi-recent horror games that arent really mascot horror games, but fall along the lines of the whole “confusing lore” trend mascot horror tends to have, are little nightmares and little nightmares 2. i think those games work because while they are very much games that have you play through the whole thing, watch the ending, and then go “what the fuck just happened”, the lack of information isnt so insanely frustrating as it with, say…fnaf. it follows the continuous progress of, really, one character, being six. she is in every ending of every game, she shows up in everything little nightmares. it always comes back to her. and while theres a lot left to ponder about her, we know enough to put a few things together. and we know far more about her than we do about anyone else. whats cool though is it doesnt make you feel like you need everything in the franchise (and especially outside it) to understand the story, or the characters. stuff like the other games, comics, and dlcs add on to it, certainly. but if you dont want scrounge through a 5 hour article trying to put together a timeline literally no one can generally agree on, you dont have to. it manages a good balance of answering questions while it makes you ask new ones, and it feels a bit more genuine than stuff like hello neighbor, where the infamous “begging matpat for theories on twitter” happened. it told its story and then it was done, and for all its confusion, the conclusions always felt satisfying to me.
6:34 How to enjoy FNaF: Watch (Markiplier, Dawko, or other fans) play throughs of 1-6, maybe Help Wanted, watch MatPat’s (Err, GameTheory’s) articles on the first few FNaF games, maybe spend a little bit of money on the actually games, watch articles on how to article secret tips in games like FNaF 3, watch the old FNaF Gacha vids if you’d like. Basically, in my opinion, FNaF was ruined because the games are now just trying to be fun for the younger generations, since FNaF came out a DECADE ago, and the plots gotten kind of… wonky. In my opinion, the only way to enjoy (and catch up) to FNaF is to start 10 years ago.
My personal favorite Mascot Horror game in the Bendy franchise! Sure, it’s gotten bad, but it has a big place in my heart TvT BATIM The main plot is: You’re playing as Henry who is stuck in the studio you used to own with your old co-creator Joey Drew of an animation studio. There are monsters stuck in the studio with you along with audio logs. You realize when you meet Sammy you realize Joey has been turning his employees into his cartoons (Sadly we never know why other than maybe Bendyland?) At the end of the game after you defeat Bendy you realize you are stuck in a loop. Sub lore: DCTL and TLOs explain to you what it was like working at JDS. It’s sub lore most definitely. TheMeatley said it himself (Mike Mood then had to come in and say they weren’t canon and the fandom got pissed af. I say Adrienne Kress (the writer of the books) should replace him lol) You learn who Buddy Boris actually was, but it was never important to the plot or story. You learn how Sammy Lawrence became Sammy and about the audio log characters while creating new characters that are good characters but not important to know for the lore! Plus the books are really well written and when they conflict with the lore you are supposed to put the games first. BATDR Main Lore: You are Audrey and the janitor at the new studio for JDS that was created by Joey’s old friend Nathen (He was mentioned the TIOL irl book) The creepy janitor wants you to come with him and he puts Audrey in the machine! And boom we learn that the Ink World is most definitely in the machine!
I kinda disagree that Fnaf fell into this Pit of incomprehensibility after the third game, to me it truly fell into that pit during and after Security breach came out (Killing pretty much everything Help wanted built up for the potential reboot of the series where NONE of the previous entries were canon, a new page, a new world) im under the belief the series should have ended after Fnaf pizza sim, with UCN being a fun bonus game with little subplot (similarly to actual custom knights) it would have also made thematic sense 5 Mainline games (5 mainline nights) 6th game makes main lore reveals provided you’ve followed the sub story of the mainline 5 and finishes off the series (6th night that exists purely to add more sub lore and finishes off the canon part of the game) 7th bonus game that is custom night of all the previous characters for the ultimate challenge, just for funsies, not canon, barely any sublore (7th bonus custom night of all the characters youve faced in that game, just for funsies, not canon, barely any sublore) and it could have ended at that we did have Help wanted but that was there to build up to a complete reboot of the series, which i was all in for until security breach came out and ruined everything, even the fact it was supposed to be a complete reboot you could get through all of the main 6 games with both a mainlore understanding and a sublore understanding and still enjoy yourself! 7th aswell but everything else…yeah no
Honestly? If you had posted this just a handful of months or a year ago, I would completely agree. But now?… Actually, not so much. At least regarding the games In the thumbnail. I never considered garten of ban ban to be a game in the first place (seriously do NOT understand how or why it got popularity, it’s hilariously awful), hello neighbor… Ok, that one’s true, but hello neighbor has also just been a rotting corpse ever since it left its early alpha stages. I don’t know the one In the bottom left. But Fnaf and Poppy? Those are outliers for weirdly enough complete opposite reasons. Fnaf as a whole has been mostly really good, but has kinda stumbled recently. Meanwhile Poppy was pretty dang bad for its earlier chapters, but has slowly risen in quality with each one, and the most recent chapter I would call: actually kinda good. For Fnaf though, there’s a perfectly good reason why it’s most recent main line game, security breach, was a pitfall: it was an attempt to mix things up. Steel wool wanted to try something vastly different from the previous franchises entries in order to make something fresh and unique, not accounting for the fact that their only major game in the franchise that they had made was help wanted (which, granted, is VERY good). They tried to go a BIT too experimental, a BIT too fast. The result was the buggy mess that is security breach. But it’s not some death curse for the rest of the franchise. It was a stumble that came from deviating from the formula too much when steel wool was too new to making FNAF games, they have SHOWN they are capable and willing to make a good game with help wanted.
I like games. I make games. I’m not the best at lore, but I try 😀 – I do… sometimes… break things and then lose confidence in making the game and then be unable to publish anything related to it because of the lore not functioning and looping through itself creating spaces of time where two things that happened before and after each other are also happening- Basically, I break my game concepts and can’t make the game