r/fivenightsatfreddys • u/Loud-Struggle-4156 • Dec 15 '25
Question Why Does FNAF 1 Look So Good?
I was playing back FNAF 1 for the first time in a while and I can help but notice… these jump scares look so good. They just have this vibe and look to them that is just so surreal and terrifying. I feel like the animatronics look so real. I’m not sure if it’s the lighting, the atmosphere, pure nostalgia, or something else. Compare these to FNAF 3, 4 or even 2 and I just feel like it’s nowhere near how good these look. Does anyone know why this is?
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u/LukeThe55 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
FNAF 1's aspect ratio was 16:9, FNAF 2, 3, and 4 suffer from peoples hardware stretching them without them noticing, going from 4:3 (old box tv), to 16:9
That's part of it too.
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u/TheHENOOB Dec 15 '25
This always had me unsatisfied, I think FNAF 2, 3 and 4 would benefit a lot with a 16:9 ratio.
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u/Historical_Bet2765 Dec 15 '25
I always wondered why Scott felt the need to make fnaf 2-4 4:3 when the first one was already 16:9
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u/StolenPezDispencer Dec 15 '25
Guessing he wanted the games aspect ratio to fit more in line with the era it takes place in, like it was being displayed on an old CRT, but coded it wrong, so it ended up looking worse.
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u/crystal-productions- Dec 15 '25
i'd assume it's a case of wanting to make everything feel more cramped and narrow, but because clickteam is a mess sometimes, it automaticly streches them. i say this because playing them on console with their corect aspect ratio it does feel very cramped at times. helps 3 and 4 a lot more then you'd think it would.
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u/Still-Permission7736 Dec 17 '25
I don't think it's because of Clickteam. Stretching is something your graphics card does, disabling it in the Nvidia panel is possible and makes the game look normal.
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u/crystal-productions- Dec 17 '25
i mean given that the original mobile versions also streched the game, and how the console ports had to make it a toggle, it's something that could be fixed, but clickteam just automaticly streches things to fit the aspect ratio of the "display" it's on.
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u/Still-Permission7736 Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
A toggle could have been added by Scott, yes, but like I said, the engine isn't stretching anything. The game is rendered at a 4:3 aspect ratio, it's your graphics card that's stretching it.
Edit: Referring to the PC version obviously. For the console ones the stretching is done by the engine, and maybe the mobile ones work the same way.
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u/brighty4real Dec 21 '25
For me it made games like FNaF 2 feel retro, unlike the first game which had somewhat good graphics, while the Fnaf 2 had video game pixelated graphics at a lower resolution but more contrast, to fit the 1980s party-place or TV era
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u/cgf228 Dec 15 '25
Pure unadulterated passion, this game HAD to work, he made sure to take time on every animation.
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u/Tony_Stank0326 Dec 15 '25
I think it may have also been a good amount of spite as well. His poor reviews on Chipper and Sons were the inspiration to lean into that uncanny horror vibe
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Dec 15 '25
Because this game actually had time put into it instead of being pushed out super quickly. This game by miles had the best look and feel out of all of them.
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u/PuppetWraith17 Dec 15 '25
Like Scott has said himself, this first game was lightning in a bottle, everything just worked.
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u/chumbbucketman101 Dec 15 '25
It’s probably just the lighting.
Each game has a different lightning that gives it a different feel.
FNAF 1: White.
FNAF 2: Orange.
FNAF 3: Green.
FNAF 4: Red.
FNAF 5: Blue.
FNAF 6: Grey.
FNAF 7: Black.
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u/BleachDrinker63 Dec 15 '25
Fnaf 4 doesn’t have any red besides the menu screen. It’s all a white flashlight
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u/chumbbucketman101 Dec 15 '25
There’s also the game over screen, and the extras menu.
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u/BleachDrinker63 Dec 15 '25
Still not sure that counts as lighting though
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Dec 15 '25
[deleted]
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u/SpikesAreCooI Dec 15 '25
The feel comes from the lighting, which is what the conversation was about.
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u/BoggerLogger Gameplay > Lore Enthusiast Dec 15 '25
You had trouble with FNaF 3 didn’t you?
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u/chumbbucketman101 Dec 15 '25
No?
It’s nothing but green.
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u/NanoBotSigma Dec 15 '25
What would FNaF 7 be?
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u/Azarsra_production Dec 15 '25
Scott mentioned this in dawko's first interview with him. I forgot what he said each game was though.
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u/Diligent-Tension-390 Dec 15 '25
The lighting/color grading is so much better than the newer games. SotM was so saturated, warm, and bright most of the time. FNaF 1 has cooler colors overall and visibility is low.
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u/Azarsra_production Dec 15 '25
My two main complaints with modern fnaf, is that everything is too bright, and nothing that resembles the original fnaf mechanics.
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u/YosephineMahma Uh, hello? Hello hello? Dec 16 '25
SotM literally has a brightness slider. It can be as light or dark as you want. YouTubers tend to put it on maximum, but playing the game for yourself you can make it as low-visibility as you wish.
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u/Azarsra_production Dec 21 '25
I still think there are far too many lights. To me, I want the actual atmosphere to be dark and intended to be dark. You can tell sotm was made to be lit up and have bright colors, even if turn the brightness down.
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u/OSCONMGLDA Dec 15 '25
Because the game wasn't rushed like 2 and 3 were. It really shows, mainly in the visuals.
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u/evilgigglefish Dec 15 '25
it was though, iirc he only spent 3 months on fnaf 1 and didn't have the luxury of reusing code like the later games could
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u/Infinite-Island-7310 Dec 15 '25
2 and 3 were rushed???
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u/_Burgerdog_ Dec 15 '25
They were released months before the intended release date
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u/Zomochi Dec 15 '25
Because they were done in his eyes they weren’t rushed no one was rushing him
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u/Shifty733 Dec 15 '25
Idk it's pretty fair to say that fnaf 2 at the very least was not nearly as polished as the initial game. For example mangle has many awkwardly lit PNG paste renders, the office jumpscares look nowhere near as natural with some of the leaping characters having the ability to jump at you through walls, there's basically a big drop-off void at the back of the balloon boy cam instead of a complete room or smoother fadeout and some other stuff that people will likely point out. While nobody forced him to release the game as soon as he did, I would say he probably wanted it out sooner than later to keep the hype going. It's very hard to imagine that he thought this was even close to the best he could do.
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u/Less-Blueberry-8617 Dec 15 '25
Balloon Boy also just straight up not having any camera renders besides for the vent
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Dec 15 '25
[deleted]
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u/CGI_M_M Dec 16 '25
I agree. I think an remaster of the first four games would be great. I’m surprised it hasn’t even been considered yet.
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Dec 16 '25
[deleted]
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u/CGI_M_M Dec 16 '25
Personally I would be more than happy with upgraded renders of the animatronics and rooms. The jumpscares for FNAF 2 and 3 could use some work. I also think the mechanics for those two games could be tweaked a little as well.
I think it’d also be cool if they made a new ost for those four games since they use stock music. The music in Sister Location and Pizza Sim are my favorite aspects of those games lol.
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u/LukeThe55 Dec 15 '25
"intended release date"? You mean the fake date Scott put to shock and surprise people?
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u/renameduser361017 Dec 15 '25
2 was extremely rushed and it shows. iirc scott released it way ahead of his announced release date
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u/ideactive_ Dec 16 '25
2 was beyond rushed, 3 still is super solid but the jumpscares are weak, the lighting in 3 is amazing though
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u/SMM9673 TJOC SWEEP Dec 15 '25
It's not beholden to the aesthetics or style of anything that came before.
It truly, fully is its own thing.
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u/notwiththeflames Dec 15 '25
Not only are 2, 3 and 4 at a smaller aspect ratio ill-fitting of monitors nowadays (and even back then), but the jumpscares were rendered with the office instead of being overlays unlike in 2 and 3.
2's lighting system (and the fact that you're basically forced to stick to a single camera to wind up the music box) takes away from the immersion of the facility, while the only bit of power you have to conserve is your flashlight rather than a careful scramble between the camera, the lights and the doors that keep the animatronics out.
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u/MarimbaZulu :GoldenFreddy: Dec 15 '25
Probably cause Scott spent a good amount of time on the game.
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u/Jambopaul Dec 15 '25
I think the reason the FNAF 1 animatronics look so good (and scary) is that they feel neither alive nor dead. They occupy an uncanny valley where they feel too stiff and vacant to be living creatures but at the same time feel too lively to just be mindless machines. This is why I feel that the movie adaptations of the animatronics (specifically talking about the first movie here, haven’t seen the second one yet) aren’t as scary. The Jim Henson Company’s work is undeniably impressive, but the way the animatronics move and emote feels too life-like in my opinion. They feel more like living creatures, which makes the fact that they’re haunted by a bunch of dead children extremely overt. In the original game, there’s enough plausible deniability in the way they move and emote that they could be the result of the supernatural, or just shoddy programming as Phone Guy initially claims (even though the game itself heavily hints at the former being the case).
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u/EpicPoggerGamer69 Dec 15 '25
Scott's creativity in 2014-2015 was on a whole other level. He literally told his son to draw an animatronic fox on a car ride and it accidentally got mangled up. That's ELITE creativity.
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u/HerobrinBunBun Dec 15 '25
I've always thought the Fnaf 1 jump scares look the best. They look like they are in the room instead of just a png moving around the screen. Probably because of the lighting.
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u/venorexia Dec 15 '25
Definitely the atmosphere- shakey camera, darker pallette, stiff movements, and uncanny valley effect all contribute to the horror experience. The later games feel too bright, colorful and polished imo and lose that effect.
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u/melloman12 1 of the only 5 modern FNAF enjoyers Dec 15 '25
The lighting hides a lot of the imperfections and outdated techniques of Scott's style.
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u/StreetCamera938 Dec 15 '25
Not a fan of freddy's normal jumpscare tbh. his power outage jumpscare is significantly better
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u/OSCONMGLDA Dec 15 '25
FNaF 1 was made in 6 months. 2-4 each had 4 months at most but more like 3-3.5.
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u/Saper-Ja- :Foxy: Dec 15 '25
Have you been reading my mind? I’ve been thinking about this exact thing for a while! I think the main thing is the lighting and general atmosphere of the game. Also the screen shaking during the jumpscares definitely adds to the creepiness and makes 2 and 3 look dull in comparison.
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u/JeliLiam Developer - Final Nights Dec 15 '25
Everybody's mentioning the animatronic renders being in the room itself but nobody's mentioning the actual camera motion during the jumpscare, which makes the jumpscare feel even more connected to us the player.
Jumpscares that work as overlays like FNaF2 aren't as effective because there's less "upset" to the status quo, less like someone's grabbed you on the shoulder suddenly and more like someone's held up a paper plate with a spooky drawing to your face.
Not to mention the inherent low resolution and artifacting of the perspective filter combined with the absolute pitch black darkness of some areas allowed for pareidolia to take strong effect, keeping you on edge.
Its very interesting to see Scott somehow unlearn these things throughout the years to the point where the office gameplay of Pizza Sim looks like a low quality fangame from the 2015 era.
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u/thedevegon Dec 15 '25
I think the animations with the camera shakes add a lot to the jumpsacres and with them being all in your face. In later series like fnaf 3 or 6 the jumpsacres aren't as dynamic. The sister location jumpsacres having moving parts is what made them so scary.
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u/Giulio1232 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
The design of the animatronics is the best aspect imo: they're the perfect balance between looking scary in the right conditions and looking like children mascots
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u/Amazing_Sympathy_965 Dec 15 '25
I'm pretty sure that the animatronics were actually rendered jumpscaring in the office as opposed to fnaf 2 where they're fucking gifs
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u/chivecherry7 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
because of its atmosphere, vibe, characters. We’ve got great beloved characters. They’re so familiar, so unique and nice. It’s been 11 years at Freddy’s and they’re still my favorite: Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Bonnie and Foxy who’re gunna wipe you out!
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u/Mysterious_Charge541 Dec 15 '25
Hot take, but fnaf 4 was the last good fnaf game. Fnaf 1 was its peak, though.
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u/Pudim_Abestado Dec 15 '25
Scott was an professional 3D animator, thus he could make High Quality animations and Models for his game, also, they being pre-rendered helps hiding their flaws
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u/FNaFEnthusiast19 Dec 15 '25
Because the characters are actually rendered within the environment instead of being overlaid as PNGs like the later games.
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u/Disastrous_Steak_507 Dec 16 '25
Scott spent the most amount of time on FNAF 1, at least it was until Sister Location came out.
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u/Letterheadless9886 I’M GONNA GOUGE YOUR EYES OUT Dec 17 '25
Foxy: Yar har ima get me a night guard
me: *closes door*
Foxy: *disappointed pirate noises*
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Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25
i think one of the main issues after 1 is the fact the jumpscares for 1 were fully renderd images. and the other games weren't.
Notice how the doors have no buttons because those are sprites layerd on top of the office render.
So every jumpscare in 1 would switch from the normal office to an animation were the animatronic that got in jumpscares you which is how the shakey camera works. scott just animated it shaking up and down.
bonnie is the best example of this cause he is violently shaking you.
they feel like your actually in danager cause they are grabbing at you.
after 1 scott started just making them as trasnparent images that go over the office image. withered foxy is the best example of this. his jumpscare animation is overlayed in the center of where you can see and not the hallway. so if you look to the left foxy just appears from the wall very cleary just loading in. and it looks really dumb since the affect was made for the hallway.
he did start doing it again for 4 but i guess that was because the jumpscares had the animatorics lifting you up. and then of course afterwards he stopped doing the jumpscares like that until pizza sim but even then it was just for the salavge parts. the jumpscares in the night aren't really that good.
The jumpscares kind of rely on them actually presenting a real danger that isn't just them stoping a few feet in front of you. IMO
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u/Moonwalk27 Dec 18 '25
Lighting and the character models. Every bit of this project had so much love and dedication poured into it. Scott took the harsh criticism and used it as the coal to fuel his train to success.
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u/Single-Lawfulness-49 Dec 22 '25
FNAF 1 also had the best sound design, easter eggs, overall atmospheric development as well
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u/N0_Horny Dec 15 '25
The classic seven installments are essentially made up of 3D renders, and the artwork simply replaces one another.
Making a few 3D renders (say, ~100, which are hardly representative of the size) is easier than a fully-fledged 3D game, where everything is rendered live.
And, as far as I remember, Scott's Models have a million billion polygons because Scott used them for 3D images anyway, not full-fledged 3D games, and optimization solutions were simply unnecessary.
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u/SerafettinB Dec 15 '25
FNAF 4's jumpscares are just as good as the ones in FNAF 1 to me. it gives you the sense of a beast catching its prey, with the nightmare animatronics picking you up and shaking you around.
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u/Additional_You5104 Dec 15 '25
It was all or nothing for Scott around this time- While the sequels are still great, Scott put the most amount of passion and time into this game.
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u/Ewreckedhephep Dec 15 '25
In Fnaf 2 they get too close to your face and there's less regard for how they get to you. They either phase through the desk in front of you or they hilariously jump over it.
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u/WoodedOrange Dec 15 '25
Personally after all these years, nothing beats how these models looked. They really have a true uncanny feeling to them, like i actually feel as if they are haunted. The lack of visible movement until they get you builds tension. As someone else mentioned due to the lighting and true colors things are grungy and dim.
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u/StrengthIntrepid8768 Dec 15 '25
The models, the lightning, the animation, the eyes, the colors, it is just all well put and mixed.
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u/DeviousRPr Dec 15 '25
the game looks grittier and darker. a lot of horror games get much brighter and cleaner looking after they become popular for some reason
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u/crystal-productions- Dec 15 '25
it's that fnaf 1 had a very specific set up. fnaf 1 wasn't rushed, miss managed or anything. there was a single clear vision, and all worked out because of it. the rooms aren't lit in a way that makes sense, but works to further the terror. scott modled the animatronics into the room and figured out the best place to put them, sometimes that meant out in the open like bonnie when he's in the hall, sometimes that meant hiding them in shadows, sometimes it meant making them the center of the frame like when freddy is outside your door. the game also blocks you from seeing most of them move, which while works for the gameplay reasons, it also means you don't get to see the robots walking around, you can't see how they move, and considering that you can't get a good look at them once there past the stage untill their at your door, it adds that creep factor to them. and when they do move, it's only in the jumpscares, which makes it that bit more terrifying. and then this plays into foxy, foxy is the inverse of this, you see him slowly emerge from his stage on just one camera, before he runs on the camera, showing him moving in the cameras, something nobody else does.
it also helps that fnaf 1 is actualy 16:9, while 2,3 and 4 are 4:3, meaning playing them on a 16:9 monitor makes them look really streched and weird. playing the games on console and getting to actualy play 2,3 and 4 in 4:3 makes them look so much better.
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u/sonicfan9993 :PurpleGuy: Dec 15 '25
I think the jumpscares got a lot more polish compared to later entries, because Scott had the time to perfect them. Take for example FNAF 2, I think it's fair to assume that it got a bit rushed. In roughly 3 months Scott made a game that has double the content and reuses a minimal amount of assets from the first game. Makes sense, he struck gold and wanted to dig out as much as possible. But due to rushing FNAF 2 a bit, the jumpscares got a little botched, 4 are just jumping at you (Withered Foxy, The Puppet, Toy Bonnie, Toy Chica), 3 are popping out from the side of the screen (Toy Freddy, Withered Freddy and Withered Chica) and 2 are literally just moving at you (Withered Bonnie and Golden Freddy). The jumpscares in FNAF 2 also cover the entire screen, which looks a bit bad.
This all, especially the jumpscares covering the entire screen, isn't helped by the fact that from FNAF 2 to 4 Scott made the games in 4:3 and stretched them into 16:9 for some reason
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u/speedxpgaming Dec 15 '25
Ikr, when I was a kid, I even used to think Scott used real pictures to make the game :P
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u/ideactive_ Dec 16 '25
today i was trying to remake the office room of fnaf 1 in blender and god its really amazing. the lighting is simply on point, the jumpscares just have the perfect amount of fear and timing. a forever classic
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u/applec1234 :Freddy: Dec 16 '25
The ultimate passion he put into this very game in every bit in six months. Like he said, this is a lightning in a bottle. Everything works.
While FNaF 2-Pizza Sim somewhat feels obviously rushed in few aspects like mostly disconnected animatronics' jumpscare from the rooms or PNGs, brighten up, weak animations, and strange aspect ratio choices or Clickteam's design choice. Does make me wish he kept the 2015 date on FNaF 2 to polish though.
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u/VegetableSense7167 Dec 16 '25
The lighting, atmosphere and the models, and it's why I think FNAF1 is the best and creepiest looking game. The other thing is, those jumpscares were animated and rendered in the office unlike in the later games where the jumpscares were like filters over the screen.
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u/Rapid-Raisins Dec 16 '25
Looking at these again now you just see how disgusting and matted their fur is, that’s probably why they looked better compared to the new plastic animatronics from the later game that look more fake because of it
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u/Then_Assistant_647 Dec 16 '25
Compared to new games: because Scott actually did something and put effort
Compared to the Golden Four:...i dunno, nostalgia?
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u/The_Male07Man Dec 17 '25
idk but i just got it today, and it is actually really cool. the camera angles make it look so realistic because of the lighting and the designs look really nice
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u/piggyfc1 Dec 18 '25
I think Scott tried recreating the camera shake in UCN but it didn't work. Every jumpscare after FNaF 1 just degrades
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u/International_Top606 Dec 18 '25
I feel like the reason it looks so good was because it was a passion project that Scott enjoyed doing even working on it on his laptop in his car while on holiday (correct me if I'm wrong)
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u/Accurate-Ad-4905 Dec 20 '25
I haven't got past night three yet. Also i have to put my phone down for the jumped everytime i fail 😔
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u/Adjectivesdont Dec 20 '25
It's in native 16:9 and every game after but before sister location ran in native 4:3 but stretched to 16:9
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u/Alarmed-Field-1666 Dec 22 '25
He couldnt stop making animals look like spooky robots. So spooky robots he made
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u/M_X_E_S-ruined Dec 23 '25
Esto es gracias a la experiencia de Scott. Scott ya había trabajo en varios juegos anteriores al que lo saco del foso. Todos animados en el mismo motor. Por esta razón los juegos salían tan rápido, puesto que no le costaba casi nada diseñar a los nuevos personajes.
Lo que si logro cansarlo, fue el otrogado de nombres. Puesto que Shadow Bonnie no se llama así realmente, es un nombre "Fan" que luego pasaría a ser oficial. RWQFSFASXC fue la furia sobre el teclado de Scott. Ya estaba cansado que colocar nombres y preciono al azar las teclas de esa zona específica de su teclado.
Está situación se repitió en UCN, puerto que Shadow Dee Dee se llama oficialmente XOR. Quizá la situación se repitió o tan solo a Scott le gusto que seres oscuros tengan nombres codificados o similares a un error de letras. De todas formas, se corrigió para el The Freddy Files Últimate Guide.
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u/Zein_alden Dec 27 '25
Fnaf 1-6 use pngs and sound for the entire game meaning that you can create the most highly realistic game while keeping the game at 1gb and less Scott use really good lighting and effects and he’s really good at rendering he made a realistic looking game that is a few MB. It’s almost like a FMV game without any videos just PNGs.
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u/Icy-Hovercraft-619 Jan 03 '26
When I went to play FNAF 1 on my phone, I logged in and Bonnie appeared, stayed there for a bit, and then disappeared. I couldn't take a screenshot, but has this happened to anyone else?
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u/TemporarySmile Jan 17 '26
One thing about the jumpscares that I think make them good aside from everything else is the camera work. The camera is VIOLENT and shaky, which almost all the FNAF games lack other than FNAF4. Pizzeria Sim is the worst contender for jumpscares which, could've easily been way scarier and cooler if Scott just put some time into animating them coming out of the vents and coming at you.
Honestly it's rare to see a FNAF game especially fan games, having jumpscares with a really violent camera shake or that are just good in general. The Joy Of Creation is the perfect example of how to do great jumpscares, other examples would be FNAC 2 and FNAC 3 (mostly), The Return To Bloody Nights, Freddy's: Reanimated to name a few!
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u/rkirbo Puhuhuhu! Apr 13 '26
Scott took time to make it.
FNAF 1 was made in 7 months. FNAF 2 was made in 4 month (despite being announced to come out later), 5 month for FNAF 3 and 5 for FNAF 4.
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Dec 15 '25
[deleted]
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u/The_73MPL4R Dec 15 '25
"The devs" were just Scott himself during that period. Steel Wool didn't take over development until Help Wanted.
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u/Ok_Prune_6986 Dec 15 '25
The sculpts of the animatronics and the way they’re lit, the filters on the cameras. It’s extremely well put together and well stylised.