The Return To Freddy's 5 - Future Plans and Thoughts

Hey people, Foxa speaking today!

So, you may remember that around 2-3 months ago, my fan remake of The Return To Freddy's 5 was cancelled due to some private problems, development problems, and mental/physical health problems. This was back in around November. However, since then some stuff has happened, I've been doing some things, and I've been thinking a lot. So, I thought I'd compile my thoughts, plans, and potential future plans in regards to TRTF5 and TRTF as a whole in this one blog post before the big Q/A I have planned tomorrow. So, how about we start with that last part, the Q/A.

The Q/A Session

Tomorrow, I have plans for a Q/A Live Stream, which I estimate will last from 2-3 hours, if not more. During this live stream, I will answer viewer submitted questions, along with some questions sent in by some friends of mine. I will answer any questions you guys have, while in the meanwhile, recreating the old menu customization feature I had planned for TRTF5 before its cancellation! I can confirm as well the time this will occur is 7PM CST! This means the stream will be happening Sunday, January 29th, 2023 at 7PM CST! I hope to see you there! Feel free to drop some questions before or swing by and ask questions in the chat! Anyways, hows about we get onto the good stuff now, shall we? Starting with...

Why was TRTF5 cancelled?

The Return To Freddy's 5 was a very ambitious game, and my remake wasn't gonna change that. Not one bit. There were many ideas and plans I had to enhance the experience and make it like no other TRTF5 remake. Ultimately though, with these plans came a lot of problems. At the time I had developed the game in a way that made adding in new features a chore. If I wanted to add something, I basically had to re-add it to every level. This was a dumb move and heavily impacted development. As well as this, I began to have major episodes around mid 2021, which only got worse as development continued. These episodes made me miss school, meaning I needed to do make up work, which of course meant taking time away from development.

After a while, and after a drama that occurred in Early 2022 that related to a few transphobic people in the TRTF Community, I left with a feeling of disgust when it came to the fandom. This impacted me so much in fact, that it hurt my motivation to even work on TRTF5. So, I originally decided to move it to another developer. I found another suitable dev, however, after a few months of introducing them to the code, the out of nowhere decided they didn't want to be apart of the project, and completely dipped.

Now this wasn't what killed development completely, I made some reconciliations in October 2022 and in November 2022, I rejoined the community, and began genuinely wanting to work on TRTF5 again!... Only to have a stupid drama occur again because some people don't like me. I won't say who, I won't say why, and I won't even dare mention shit about what the drama was about or what they did, but it hurt me and many other people involved. This killed TRTF5 completely, and I was done, at least, for the moment.

The Engine

Saying it straight up, right now, TRTF Tool, or as its now called, The Rabbit Tool, is going to be worked on still, and I am actually still making it! I'm even using TRTF5 as a base to work off of for this tool, and my hope is at some point I could use this as a tool for fans to make their own games, whether it be fan-games, or even original ones! I wanna see beginners take this engine and make their first games and get used to Unreal Engine, and that is what I am hoping will come out of this tool! The Rabbit Tool is continuing development!

File Releases?

I in the past released some renders for characters, environments, animations, and more! I even released my remake of Torture Nightbrid I made for the game! So, with the cancellation? Will more Re file releases happen? There are some issues with it, primarily with how messy my files are, but if enough people request it, I'd be fully willing to release anything the community would like! So basically, if enough people want it! Yes, expect some file releases!

Future Plans and Ideas

Currently, I've been having thoughts on what to do with TRTF5. To be honest, I really wanna make this game come to life and release, however, I'm uncertain as to if that'll happen or not. I've in the past (and still am) considered releasing a tech demo to show a snipbit of what was planned, but would that even do it justice? I will say this, yes, I am considering on trying again with TRTF5, but really, I'm not certain as to what will happen with this. I so badly want to do this game, but whether I can do, I'm really uncertain. A choice will be made by April, but for now, uncertainty stays in the air.

Well, anything else?

Honestly, I don't think I got anything else to write. If I am forgetting something I'll probably discuss it in the Q/A Livestream. I'm extremely excited to to see what happens, and I hope you guys are too! I am hoping the stream will turn out awesome!

For now though, this has been Foxa, signing off. I'll see you guys on the Q/A Stream! Love you guys! Stay safe out there!

~Foxa/Jasmine Matthews.