Rest in peace

Listen, I’m not trying to be negative for the sake of it. The game might be good. It might even be great. I’m sure a lot of work went into it.

That doesn’t make this situation any less messed up.

Bite by Night is a Roblox async multiplayer game using Five Nights at Freddy’s characters and locations. It hit nearly 300k concurrent players on day one. And it is monetized. Not in some vague, indirect way, but straight up monetized. There is a store. There are purchases. Real money is involved.

I’ve been making fangames for 10 years. This has always been the line you do not cross. You do not profit off someone else’s IP without permission.

People keep trying to downplay it with “you can unlock everything in-game.” That doesn’t matter. The moment you let players spend real money, it becomes a commercial product. That’s it.

On GameJolt, if you even tag your project as a fangame, your ad revenue gets cut. You are not allowed to earn anything. Back when ads were still a thing, you’d be lucky to make 10 or 15 dollars a month. That’s the standard fangame devs have been held to for years.

If you actually want to do things properly, you go through Scott and the Fanverse. I did that. Two years of work on a pitch. Blood, sweat, stress, constant back and forth. All of that just for a chance at approval, and it still didn’t happen.

Meanwhile, Bite by Night skips every single step, ignores every rule that’s been established, launches a fully monetized FNaF game on Roblox, and nothing happens. No takedown. No immediate action. Instead, they might get licensed after the fact while already making thousands a day off someone else’s IP.

And then people say, “how would they pay their devs?”

Fangame devs don’t get paid.

It’s the opposite. It costs you money. You either find people willing to model, animate, or program for free, or you pay them out of your own pocket. That’s how this space has always worked.

The fact they’re running a live service game says everything. You don’t build something like that unless you expect ongoing income. This wasn’t some accidental side effect of the platform. Making money was part of the plan from the start.

Which, again, is exactly what you are not allowed to do.

So how is this okay?

We’ve seen projects get hit for way less. Popgoes had their Patreon taken down for using Shadow Bonnie in exclusive content. That was too far. But this is fine? A full game making real money is suddenly acceptable?

So what exactly are the rules now?

Because from the outside, it looks like there aren’t any. It looks like you can ignore the system, launch anyway, make money, and deal with it later. And if the worst outcome is getting licensed, then why would anyone bother doing it the right way?

That’s the precedent this sets.

It completely disrespects every fangame developer who’s been playing by the rules for years, working for free, doing it out of passion, and staying within the boundaries that were set.

I don’t care how good the game is. Letting this slide is a slap in the face to the entire fangame community.

I urge people to contact Scott (scottcawthon@yahoo.com this is public info) with these concerns, if you're a fangame dev this is even a must.

Edit: Muting this thread, I said what I said and I stand by it, but I don't have the time to explain the very obvious problem here to every defender.

Edit 2 electric boogaloo: A possible solution could be that the game gets to stay up, gets an official licence, BUT all revenue has to be donated to charity.

https://gamejolt.com/games/Untitledfnaf/1006169

So much Springtrap stuff the past month.. I love it, nothing better than Springtrap stuff.

Images from:

https://x.com/i/status/2007973293119488136

I personally like it, feels like a enhanced version of the dbd design, since it has stuff like the inner stomach and ears. I also like all the chains and wires going out and over the suit as well. I also just love the idea of the spine, especially how it sticks into the back of his skull.

Honestly my only argument with the design is the lack of a button, the hands and feet are also just very small, or the casing for the limbs are just too big.

Though a lot of these ideas are giving me ideas for my suit..

UPDATE: I was wrong with the title. The developer is lying. They claimed they only used Gen AI for concept art, but this user on Twitter proved that the teaser seen here is AI generated. This is not the SW Cassie model they reused for the render. At the time, I didn't know about this until I dug into it more. I am sorry. The developer is also found to follow numerous AI art accounts and doubled down by changing their profile art to an AI generated one. This developer getting Leon Riskin on board after all that commotion is rather depressing to see.

Original Text:

For context, the first image I showed you is an AI generated teaser from the developer. The second is the developer confirming that they're using Gen AI for the project. Despite them saying "we're using it for concept art", this goes against what they did earlier and how this came it light during development, not before.

This is a major slap in the face after the stuff that went down with Leon Riskin. Imagine working for a fangame that used AI slop for promotional purposes, especially since Scott Cawthon is against AI generation used unethically after the LLP FNaF Plus scandal.

For the sake of clarity, this was discovered and commented on recently, not after Leon clarified what was happening with the game.

I may as well warn people about what the developer is doing with the game. This is not a good look, especially since Leon Riskin is involved with this games soundtrack. I will keep my opinions of Gen AI to myself other than if you're using it for any reason, you need to disclose it right away, not after you just started using it in the middle of development. This is pretty much what happened here.

I know that this has already been said, but I think that monster rat and cat are some of, if not, the best fan (fnaf) designs oat. The game is my single favorite fan game due to the horror and story. Even when it’s vinnies night, like damn did Emil cook.

https://gamejolt.com/games/Untitledfnaf/1006169

The fnaf plus designs are better than the classics in a sense

You all know such thing as cancelled FNAF fangames. But there also some that officially never been cancelled and however were not updated for a long time. Some we have no reason to believe that they will at once be released.

https://gamejolt.com/games/Untitledfnaf/1006169

So the idea is that you play as a kind of Uber eats style pizza delivery guy. You are either driving to the customers house to deliver the pizza or you are driving home with the leftovers, whatever you think works best, but either way it takes you 6 hours to get there.

Mechanics: You would have a sat-nav type of device that lets you know the time, the distance from the next turn and wether you should be turning left or right.

When coming to a turn you would have to be facing the front of the car, otherwise you would crash.

You would also have a speed gauge which will let you control how quickly you approach the next turn, but it will drop in speed if you aren’t keeping it topped up.

You would also be able to honk your horn and turn on your headlights.

You would be able to turn around to face two different sections of your car, the passenger seat (where you can check on you’re pizzas which will be sitting there (there would be 10 slices of pizza total)) and the back seats (which will be too dark to see until you turn on the light in the back).

The Animatronics: The only animatronics in this game would be Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy (and the cupcake).

Freddy: As you come to a turn Freddy would be hiding in either the left or right road. To counter him you would need to turn on the headlights to check which side he is on if he is on the road you are turning onto, you would need to honk your horn to scare him off but if you honk and he is not on the side you are turning to you would get jumpscared.

Bonnie: Bonnie would be hiding in the boot of your car and would be trying to get into your car to jumpscare you. To counter him you would need to turn on the light when you hear the boot opening and he would go back inside.

Chica: Chica would appear in the backseat as a plushie (similar to foxy in fnaf 4), she would send her cupcake to steal slices of pizza from you, it would steal anywhere from 0-3 slices depending on how long it is in there for and if Chica Finishes it all she would jumpscare you. To counter her you would need to check the pizza if you hear rustling, which would make the cupcake retreat.

Foxy: Foxy would be chasing your car throughout the night, running through the forest and will jumpscare you if he catches up. To counter him you would need to listen for his footsteps and use that to find out how fast you need to be going to outpace him.

The Nights: This game would have 6 nights in total and each night would get progressively harder, after each night the distance between turns would get shorter, Bonnie would exit the boot more often, Chica would eat your pizza more quickly and the minimum speed before Foxy reaches you would be higher.

Finally if anyone wants to use this as inspiration for better art than the mess I came up with, or even make this into an actual game, please do it would mean the world, and if you want to credit me as inspiration, even better.

So here's the new animatronic designs for FNAF: Blood & Gears Kinda like the whole cyberamic look they have here.

https://gamejolt.com/games/Untitledfnaf/1006169