I work on Dialtown now. Statistically, almost everyone who plays DSaF does not try Dialtown out, which I know because I have access to both my GJ and Steam site-analytics. The reason why: because Dialtown is not Five Nights at Freddy's related, pretty simple. DSaF's success has literally nothing to do with any of the positive qualities of my own work: it's because it's a fangame of a very famous series that some big youtubers promoted years ago. That statement is true of most FNaF fangames and I’m 100% at peace with that fact.
The series doesn't really need to be 'kept alive'. It gets hundreds of downloads a day (despite being over for years) and has every single day since I started DT development.
I get nothing from DSaF. GJ doesn't even give me ad revenue anymore. I just host the games bc people would download them from dodgy sites and get viruses otherwise. It’s the right thing to do. There's DT ads all over the DSaF page, so, y’know, DSaF fans know where to find me. The fact they don't follow through shows that these fans aren’t interested in DT. They're uninterested because they know Dialtown isn’t another FNaF fangame, y'know? Therefore, it's a lil odd when I get questions about whether or not I'm happy whether or not the series is still alive because it doesn't have a whole lot to do with me, these people don't like my work, they like FNaF. These are Scott Cawthon's fans, not mine.
I'm still very much attached to some of the characters I made, though telling DSaF fans that my original (non-FNaF related) DSaF characters appear in DT did not attract them to DT. I like the story I told in DSaF, but telling fans that DT's story has similar themes but is WAY better executed did not attract them to DT. DSaF's success is specifically and totally... just because it's a FNaF game on GJ that people have heard of and ultimately, the same thing largely happens to other game devs when they move on from making fangames. I’m not in any way unlucky in this aspect, this is very normal.
It’s very important for me to say: I'm not a victim or anything, quite the opposite! Dialtown has done better than I ever thought it would as an independent product and it's really neat to say that DT achieved (mild) fandom status, even though the DSaF fandom broadly ignored it and most youtubers in my circles refused to touch it because it wasn't Five Nights at Freddy's related and therefore: easy clickbait. I have so many DT fans that never touched or even heard of DSaF, and that's really special to me. It shows that the game succeeded on its own merits, and that it isn't just riding on DSaF's or even FNaF’s coattails.
I love the Dialtown fandom. The amount of fantastic fanart I get is astounding, just look at what I share here and on Twitter! I have intelligent, empathetic and very supportive fans and I couldn't be HAPPIER with my current fanbase! I even get MONEY for doing DT, which is such a really nice bonus. DSaF was just something I did for free, kinda... thanklessly. The fandom was honestly really hard to handle at times, very volatile and the amount of fucking crazy people that felt entitled to vast amounts of my time was just... ho boy. I never got paid a cent to deal with any of that (save for me having a lil Patreon tipjar during 3′s development which didn’t net me a whole lot either), I just... did it out of the kindness of my heart, and in the end, it seemed pretty unappreciated, seeing how that fanbase talks about me on other sites now.
I’m not really sure how ostracizing a developer for content in a game that someone still follows/actively promotes, when the developer doesn’t stand by that content and has humbly apologized for it, but the game timelessly displays it forever makes a whole lot of sense, but hey, what do I know, right?
I’m so so glad to say: I've never had to delete DT fanfics that display minors in NSFW situations! Not as much for DSaF. I've never received a graphic (or any sort of) death-threat from a Dialtown fan. Ditto. When I mess up, my fandom helps me correct my errors and improve myself without insisting I intentionally did something wrong as soon as they have a possible argument to make.
I remember when I launched DSaF 3 and one of my artists included a very commonly used word (big internet meme at the time) that I found out was offensive later. Some DSaF fans instantly made out that I’d intentionally said something offensive and wanted to go scorched earth without even approaching me to ask first. Being seen as a human by my fanbase is so so important to me and I’m really happy to learn from and acknowledge my mistakes if people are willing to let me do so. I’m a human and I’m always up for learning how to be a better one. I don’t want to do anyone intentional harm, so if you ever see stuff in my writing that can be more sensitive to delicate social issues/marginalized groups, please (politely) let me know.
I love-love-love my current fanbase, no other way to put it. So, this isn't a sad story, but a happy one. There's content in DSaF that I outright HATE now, and DT is entirely free of it! DSaF had some ignorant (not intentionally hurtful, mind you) jokes in it (being a meme game from the last decade), and DT is free of that content as I've now learned better. I'm happy with how things have turned out.
Of course, I get that not everyone can move on from things, people on the internet like conflict, they like ostracizing others and taking other people down a peg. It’s not really about about protecting anyone or anything like that, more so just angry people wanting to bully others but wanting to phrase it like they’re doing a good deed because they can’t bear to be spoken to the way they speak to others. So, they exclusively target people they can blame for saying something ignorant in the past and will go digging for something to throw at a person they want to see others target, often finding quotes from times when people were en-masse way less socially conscious and before someone’s views evolved.
It’s different being a public figure on the internet because your social evolution is public and locked in time. To become more socially aware/sensitive, you have to first have been less socially aware and finding someone that is openly and very supportive towards marginalized groups said something ignorant without realizing that they’ve apologized + corrected isn’t really as big a thing as people think it is. Likewise: Telling someone to kill themselves, no matter what they’ve done, does not make the world a better place under any circumstances and if anyone tells you otherwise, they are not looking out for your best interests. We live in a very radical and angry age where people are looking for someone to blame for how bad things have gotten. Be kind. The world needs it.
But to circle back, DSaF is not a part of my life anymore and while the idea of going back to it one day and 'fixing' it (even still now!) is very appealing because it was my first big thing that people played and it’d be cool to do it again, but better and show off my new skills: my main priority right now are my loyal DT fans, who don't just follow my work because it's popular, but because they genuinely like it. They like my characters, my stories, it's not just a FNaF thing.
I'm so, SO grateful for my current fanbase, y'all have no idea, and if you’re a DT fan reading this, remember: that includes YOU. I really hope this helped clarify my exact position on things. I'm very very okay with how things have turned out, don’t get me wrong. I simply couldn't ask for a cooler fandom and better friends than I have now and I don’t wanna go back to how things were before.
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