Cancellation of Sinister Turmoil
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Sinister Turmoil was supposed to be a horror-free roam Five Nights at Freddy's fan game originally developed by UHQ_Games and later by AngusWW. The game focused on a man investigating the Fazbear and Friends, closed 29 years prior. The game was also planned to be multiplayer, making it the first 3D FNaF fan game to be multiplayer. The game initially had a troubled development, which led to the switch from UHQ_Games to AngusWW (the creator behind the FNaF fan games Lost and Found and the now-canceled Sister Location: Unreal Engine Edition), as well as the engine switch (from Unity to Unreal Engine 4). Unfortunately, after 2 years of development, the game was canceled due to the development team having other stuff to do, as well as false accusations that damaged the reputation of AngusWW. It wasn't until April 24th, 2019, when Angus announced Sinister Turmoil: Sewers, a small part of what the original game would have been.
Story
UHQ_Games
You play as an unnamed guy who was sent to this 30-year-old abandoned restaurant titled Fazbear & Friends. But the thing is, none of it is real, it's all in your mind and whenever you would go through an animatronic sequence, you would unlock a "memory".
AngusWW
After Fazbear's Fright, he wanted revenge. He wanted to show everybody the truth. Now it's time for the true nightmares of the past to be woken up and haunt everyone for an eternity. What were once things that entertained and brought happiness to children are now out to kill. This time they can't be stopped.
Development
UHQ_Games
Main page
The GameJolt's page was made back in March 2016, with a few teasers showing how the game would have been. The images show the Sinister Animatronics, which are the original FNaF animatronics with sharper teeth, as well as resembling the FNaF 2 Withered animatronics. There was also a trailer (which was later uploaded by IULITMx and FusionZGamer), with a small dialogue of the protagonist, as well as showing the animatronics and Fazbear and Friends, the original version's pizzeria. Some teasers show prototypes of the multiplayer, showing which animatronics you can play. There was also a video showing the prototype of the animatronics customization of the multiplayer counterpart.
Demos
On July 6th, 2016, IULITMx (during that time called IULITM) published a video of him playing the very first Sinister Turmoil demo. In this demo, you play as Sinister Freddy roaming around an area that is supposed to be the Fazbear and Friends. There was a control that let you zoom. Also, you couldn't see your body aside from the shadow. On July 8th, 2016, a new version of the demo was released. The demo was the same, with the new differences being the night vision added, a 2nd-floor added, and the ability to sprint. These demos are meant to be "multiplayer demos", demos that show how the multiplayer would have looked like.
Troubled development (according to TheSparky556)
On September 30th, 2016, TheSparky556, a developer of the game, published a video related to the development called "Sinister Turmoil Update". He announced that the game was temporarily suspended. He revealed that UHQ_Games was doing all the work and while TheSparky wanted to help him, he didn't know how to use Unity, he was just learning. As a result, Sparky asked people if they should continue working with Unity or switching to Unreal Engine, where they had much more knowledge of it. Many people told them to do the latter.
Switching to AngusWW
On October 2016, UHQ_Games announced that the game would switch development and that AngusWW would develop the game. He was well-known in the community for his games like Lost and Found, a well-received FNaF fan game. Multiple changes to the project were also announced: The game would not be developed in Unity and instead would be developed in Unreal Engine 4, and the game would have changed the style to a much more original one.
Fans were happy with this announcement, as they hoped it would released soon. Which sadly didn't happen.
Cancellation
Cancellation confirmed
On November 5th, 2018, Angus made a post titled "Oh boy....[IMPORTANT]". He confirmed the rumors of the game being canceled. He explained that it started back in August 2018. A lot of developers lost interest in working on the project, but they continued developing the game to support fans. But as time passed, they noticed that they stopped on working the game, mostly due to a lack of motivation. Another reason is that his hard drive died. He explained that he was working on the UE4 file before the computer went black and everything was not working. After several attempts to restore the files, he managed to restore one with barely anything. At that point, he wanted to cancel the game. So, in late September 2018, he talked to some other team members, telling them how he felt and what he thought should happen in the game. On the day when the post was made, he and Sparky spoke. They decided to put the restored UE4 file to rest. He stated that if the game restarted again, Angus would not be involved in any future version. He stated that he would not release any source code, any plot, any content, or anything, but he has shown body renders of the animatronics.
Debunking the leaks and accusations.
On November 7th, 2018, Angus made a post titled "Please read...", debunking the accusations and talking about leaks. He debunked the accusation that he planned games just to gain popularity and build fake hype. He stated that this accusation isn't true in the slightest, stating that he never makes games for self-interest. He stated that while he wanted to learn his skills in game development through his projects, he didn't consider that self-interest. He spent his own money on his games, trying to make them more professional and more polished, nearly on par with an indie title. He stated that he didn't care about fans not accepting the cancellation of the game and what he cared about was the false accusations, saying to people who are jumping to conclusions and making assumptions about him and the team to stop. Another thing he talked about is the leaks. He stated that most of the leaks were true, which led to the team taking them down. He asked to not share the leaks and to not post any pictures. He also stated that some of the leaks are fake.
Reaction to the Cancellation
The reactions to the cancellation were many, much like people's reaction to Sega becoming a third-party developer. A good portion of the fans accepted the cancellation, others didn't care about while most of the fans didn't accept the cancellation, saddened by the fact that the game was canceled, something that Angus noted on his "Please read..." post.
His blog after the game's cancellation had a mixed-to-polarizing reaction from people: Some people accepted the game's cancellation and understood him but then some people pointed out that this is his 4th canned game, and he and his team actually NEVER released a full game. This went so bad that one of the ex-moderators had to stop and calm down the drama.
Sinister Turmoil: Sewers
On April 24th, 2019, AngusWW would announce Sinister Turmoil: Sewers. The game is supposed to be a small part of what was going to be the original game. He confirmed that the game would not have multiplayer and that many elements from the canceled projects are non-existent. The game was released in January 2020.
Reception
Sinister Turmoil: Sewers was met with positive reception. Fans praised the graphics, fun gameplay, and a great dark tone, while criticism was directed towards the short length of the game.
Some people hope for a remake
Between January and March 2020, after Sewers was released, some fans were not satisfied with the experience and instead decided to make their versions of so-called "fan-made" remakes of Sinister Turmoil, promising to remake the original scrapped version by UHQ_Games. AngusWW responded to this by saying to not follow these pages.
Why It Won't Likely Be Uncancelled.
- First off, the scope of the game is ridiculously big for a fan game, as it had features that are so good to be true to the point the hype was incredibly hard to handle.
- The game is no longer ambitious and calling it like that is very old and remaking it is unnecessary since we already have other games with the same aspects like:
- The Joy of Creation: Story Mode (has decent voice acting and awesome graphics)
- Instinct: FNaF Multiplayer 3D and the FNaF Security Breach Multiplayer (fan-made) (They're multiplayer and they're really enjoyable)
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Cleanup Crew (upcoming fan game) (This game has a similar concept but done much better)
Aftermath
While it didn't officially have an impact on the fan game community, it's often remembered as a prime example of both real and fake leaks and gossip not only in the FNaF community but also in the fan game community as a whole.
Trivia
- The very first Freddy demo contained an easter egg, John Kramer (also known as Jigsaw) from the Saw franchise. It was later replaced with Sinister Foxy.