It's been a while since I posted anything on Gamejolt, mainly for personal reasons; holiday season, stress, etc.

I'm making this post as a personal send off for this series. I know I'll probably never feel truly satisfied with where it ended, rather I'll merely be complacent and later forget about it entirely. So before that happens, I'd like to put out my final thoughts, and hopefully, some future plans.

First, some history.

Lucky47 was a collaborative Youtube channel between myself, my brother Edward, our cousin Josh, and our friend Lucas. We envisioned it as a multiplayer-gaming channel, with multiple 'let's plays' running at the same time. You can still find both versions of the Lucky47 channel on Youtube; one with a Mario Party 2 LP, and the other with a Mario Party 5 LP.

Neither channel ever really went anywhere though. Beyond the premise of running a Youtube channel, I found actually recording and editing 'let's plays' to be rather tedious, and never had the motivation, or even a good enough computer, to do it. Since then, each of us have moved on with our lives, and the only person of those three whom I still have a close relationship with is my brother, who I am currently living with.

The 'Five Nights at Lucky47' series was made more as a joke; a quick concept I drummed up in my head one day. In coming up with ideas for it though, I found out about Clickteam Fusion, and was enamored enough with the concept of making my own games that I gave it a shot. I put several hours into making each and every one of those games, and I loved just about every second of it; Math, problem solving, and creative expression, three of my favorite activities all rolled up into one package.

Despite all that though, I left each of these games with quite a few drawbacks. There was never any interconnected story planned for these games beforehand, and even when I did try to string one together, I chose to not only be as ambiguous as possible, I poorly explained it within the games, and I can say with confidence that the three games feature an incoherent story between all three of them. I made these games with the intention of exploring game design, not writing. I'm still glad I made them, but I know they have problems.

Even as early as the first game, I was coming up with concepts for a fourth entry; 'FNAF 4' had recently come out, and it kinda turned the whole franchise on it's head with how it stood out for its unique gameplay. I wanted to harness that fear, that true terror the fourth game managed to bring out.

But I never did, and I never will.

Why is that? There's a few reasons.

One: I haven't spoken to either Lucas or Josh in several months; Both of them have moved on with their lives, and neither have expressed any interest in 'Lucky47,' nor do they ever even remark about it. I don't find it appropriate to make a game that features characters explicitly based on real life people without their permission, especially ones who I hold a personal connection with.

Two: I'm 23 years old now, and in the past few years since I started making these games, I've gone to college, and have jumped between three separate jobs. Even though I still look into game development, and play around with Clickteam Fusion in my spare time, there's other things that get in the way of spending the majority of my time on making games. Whenever I pictured the fourth game, I always imagined it as the most ambitious and polished game in the series, and my lack of experience has kept me from achieving that goal in any reasonable time frame.

And Three: I've never had the motivation. Even when I did have large stretches of free time, I never had much interest in sitting down and actually making the game. Whether it was me telling myself that I should be doing something more worthwhile in my spare time, or that I couldn't make the game good enough to even warrant it existing, I couldn't bring myself to make the game. In my mind, I view it as a sign that concerning myself over a fourth game just isn't worth it. I know there are a few people who would like to see it happen, but for the most part, these are rather small, barely noticed games, and I don't feel any personal obligation to anyone to continue.

With that said, I don't want to come across as so negative. What this series did for me back in 2015 and 2016 is something I will cherish for the rest of my life. Getting to meet new faces online and discuss Clickteam and FNaF with people was an early step to breaking out of my enclosed mindset, and to see anyone online playing these games, and talking about them in any manner warms my heart. I can't express how thankful I am for all of that.

So with all that said, here's what I had in mind for a fourth game:

You would take on the role of Edward, between the events of the first and second minigames in the third game. My idea for this was after Edward and Lucas had escaped the Lucky47 facility, Cinos had latched onto Edward's mind, slowly taking over control of his mind until he was a mere puppet, as punishment for Edward trying to prematurely escape the facility before Cinos allowed him.

Each of the nights would take place in a maze, where you moved along a grid, indicated on a minimap in the bottom right. The entire maze would be dark, and you would need to use a flashlight to see in front of you. You would need to survive until 6 a.m, while nightmare forms of the main cast would attack you.

Lucas and Josh would roam the maze on a grid, just like you. You would have to listen for their footsteps and breathing to get an indication on where they were at. If you ran into them, you would get jumpscared.

John would constantly follow behind you, using the John-heads to observe you from a distance. You would need to occasionally turn around to scare them off.

Cinos would appear randomly in the maze through a portal whose position would be indicated on the map by a small fire. You would have had to shine your light on the portal to extinguish it. Ignore it for too long, and the fire would burn your map, leaving you to navigate the maze with little direction. On top of that, Cinos would then roam the maze, and would make a beeline towards you if you entered his line of sight.

On Night 5, Edward would appear in nightmare form, as a hulking beast. He would move quickly and loudly through the maze, and would sprint towards you if he saw you. You would need to avoid him by listening for his footsteps, and shining your light on him quickly when noticed.

In between each night, minigames would occur showing Edward being forced into demented scenarios conjured up by Cinos.

I never made it very far with the conceptual development; This is about all I have for artwork I made for the game:

Title Screen:

Map 1 (A recreation of the first minigame map in the third game):

Lucky 47 Office (This is part of a larger recreation of the map from the first game. Most of the rooms are empty and are of no interest):

Edward Sprite:

And the first in game map:

Most of the other images are just testing graphics and text objects, and aren't really interesting to look at.

And with all that said, I'm ready to move away from the Lucky47 series. I'll still be willing to answer questions about the games, but I have no intentions on continuing this series.

As for future plans, I have no idea. My current computer doesn't seem to work well with Clickteam Fusion, and I've been meaning to get a new PC anyway, so I'll have to save all that for another update.

Once again, thank you all so much for the memories these past few years. They really mean a lot to me.