I will spare you a pointless introduction and jump straight into it.
It all started in 2021 when it was just beginning. On the Five Nights at Freddy’s Amino community, Joseph and his friend, Saturn3034, were publicly planning to make a fangame based on the series. This game eventually became Five Nights at Prototype Fredbear’s (often abbreviated as FNaPF).
You see, there’s a reason why the first game wasn’t made until January 27, 2022. Joseph and Saturn were essentially stuck in development hell. It was a complete nightmare, and I can confirm that because I was on Amino at the time.
Many people were there. The only progress Joseph made was an official preview posted on January 20, 2021—the same day the series was planned. Now, I want you to think about something real quick: why do you think an official demo for the first game was never released? I know many of you might point to the “click-roam” version of the classic game, but that’s not what we’re talking about.
In the preview, it stated: “Five Nights at Prototype Fredbear’s 1 Demo.” Interesting, isn’t it? What made it even more interesting was the presence of the number “1,” as if the series had been planned from the very beginning. As it turns out, that was the case. Older members of the JTS server, who were there before the original server got deleted due to drama involving an old friend of Joseph, revealed that both Joseph and Saturn were very ambitious about the series.
Now, this may sound promising, as it showed they had a strong desire to succeed with the series. But notice how the game kept getting delayed—this happened with every release. It happened with Five Nights at Prototype Fredbear’s 1 and 2, and it’s likely going to happen again with the recently announced third game (which is still being worked on as I’m writing this). Many believe the two were simply overwhelmed by the series and their real-life responsibilities.
This is understandable, right? However, some people started to form rather depressing conclusions. They speculated that Joseph kept hyping up the series while failing to release it. This caused many people, including some of his friends—you know who you are—to lose interest in the game.
This might explain why Joseph stopped working on the series, and many people noticed strange things happening behind the scenes. One notable rumor involves the existence of a supposed lost episode from one of his projects, specifically Joseph’s World. This episode, known as “Joseph’s Schoolday,” interestingly uses some audio from the game. Now, I know this may seem off-topic, but it could be a clue.
With that said, there were plenty of rumors. One anonymous user claimed that Joseph and Saturn were having strange dreams and visions of Prototype Fredbear taunting them, begging them to finish the series. Others claimed that an urban legend had formed around the game, suggesting that Prototype Fredbear could break into players’ homes and kill their pets, most often cats.
Regardless of these rumors, here’s the real reason you’ll never see the demo online again, and why Joseph never made it playable. A user on the internet found a link to Google Drive and accessed the MFA file for the demo. They leaked it onto the internet, and eventually, someone with access to Clickteam got hold of the code.
The game was then submitted to Game Jolt, where it became playable for everyone. This made it one of the most underrated, yet disturbing, events in Game Jolt’s history.
I was able to play the game before it was ultimately deleted. Here’s my story: the game started immediately with the title screen, without the warning screen present in the final version. It displayed the title of the game with a PNG image resembling Prototype Fredbear in the background, completely pitch black with static in the foreground. There were no options besides “New Game,” so I pressed it to start.
It played the museum theme from Final Nights 4 on a loop in the background. I ignored it and clicked “New Game.” It took me to a loading screen that read, “Loading… Night One.” The next thing I knew, I was in the office. Unlike the final version, which had a door and vent, this one only had doors on either side, but no buttons to close them. There were also no buttons to turn on the lights unless they were mapped to the keyboard. From what I remember, the preview didn’t show how the office functioned, likely because Joseph hadn’t finished coding the game.
I clicked the button on my right, which took me to the camera. The only available camera was the stage, showing a single animatronic—Prototype Fredbear. From the looks of it, this was the same PNG used in the main menu.
The game didn’t display a timer, battery level, or night counter, so I had to guess if Prototype Fredbear would come to my office. It wasn’t long before I heard faint moans that sounded like they were recorded by a person, similar to the ambient noises in the final game.
I watched as Prototype Fredbear appeared at the door. I say “watched” because there was nothing I could do—just like many game betas, this one wasn’t as fun or complete as the final version.
As the screen faded to black, I saw a close-up of Prototype Fredbear staring directly at me. His pupils were small, his jaw was open, and his teeth had been edited to look sharp. The audio was even worse—it was so loud that it broke my computer’s speakers. I’m not exaggerating; as I write this, I’ve tested my speakers with music, and they’re no longer working.
After this, the game crashed, giving me an error screen before my computer blue-screened. Now, you might be wondering how I’m writing this if my computer is fried. I’m using a different device. There’s nothing more to explain.
I don’t have much else to say, except for those still curious about playing this beta, I urge you to respect Joseph’s wishes and refrain from playing it. Just be careful with what you decide to play in general.
Credited to TobyBlogger.