10 Things You Won't Believe Inspired Iconic Video Games

10. Five Nights At Freddy's Was Inspired By A Kid's Game About Beavers

In 2014, Scott Cawthon released a very simple horror game that revolves around a night guard surviving five nights while being hunted by evil animatronics. (Okay, it doesn’t sound simple when I put it like that but the game is pretty short.)

Five Nights was an instant hit and spawned sequels, novels, spin-offs, merchandise, and a VR game on the way. This is astounding considering Cawthon was so poor while making Five Nights that he couldn’t afford game testers and so, had his kids play the game to find glitches and bugs.

Despite the fact Five Nights is one of the most iconic horror game series, Cawthon had no experience making horror. Ten years earlier, he was working on Christian-themed animations like A Christmas Journey and The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Everything changed when he developed the game, Chipper and Sons Lumber Co., in 2007. This game’s lead character was meant to be a cute little beaver but he was criticised for looking like a creepy animatronic. Although the developer was devastated by the game’s failure, he took the “creepy animatronic idea” and ran with it for Five Nights at Freddy’s.