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The Animatronic – Part 1: Bonnie

Not long ago, game developer Scott Cawthon released Ultimate Custom Night, an upexpected new game in the Five Night’s at Freddy’s franchise. While watching Markiplier play through it as best he could, he mentioned that Scott Cawthon didn’t think anyone would be able to beat 20/20/20/20 mode in the original game, until Twitch streamer BigBugz and Markiplier did so on August 21, 2014. He thought it was humanly impossible. This sparked a thought.

“What if it wasn’t a human playing?”

Excited by this idea, I got to work.

Dubbed the Animatronic, this is a Java-written piece of software that does two things: Analyzes areas on the monitor and assume control over the cursor. Technically speaking, this is all I wanted it to be able to do.

I’ve seen that video where an AI tries to play Super Mario Bros. While it’s cool, it uses the games hexadecimal data to parse out what it’s doing. While that’s quite fascinating, it’s not something a person can do. I wanted the Animatronic to have the same limitations we as the player had. All it can do is look and react. Though it is deaf, I suppose.

When Activated, the Animatronic will “look at” certain sections of the screen. What it sees will determine how it will react. Does it see Bonnie in the doorway? Better close the door. Is there a shadow in the window? Better keep the door closed.

I’m starting with the first Five Nights at Freddy’s game as a proof of concept. And with Bonnie first. While I’d love to try against Ultimate Custom Night, I figure it’s better to crawl before I start breakdancing.

Development will be slow as well. I work a lot, after all.

Next up, Part 2: Chica

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9 thoughts on “The Animatronic – Part 1: Bonnie

  1. Maybe I read this wrong, but 4/20 mode was beaten by Markiplier and others. That anictode was his thoughts on the matter before he attempted it

  2. My bad, I was vague.
    I meant to say that Scott Cawthon didn’t think it could be humanly beaten until BigBugz and Markiplier did so on August 21, 2014.
    I’ll correct this in the original post.

  3. Do you not mean 50/20 mode? It says 20/20/20/20…

    Markiplier is an animation Confirmed.

  4. Love the process and the video! The concept appears to work tremendously well!

    I did notice a couple “hiccups” like when the bot appears to accidentally leave the light on or doesn’t close the door when Bonnie is clearly visible. Do you plan to clean this up going forward?

    Also It looks like the night ended with only 10% battery remaining. Broadly, how do you plan to conserve energy when all four animatronics are active?

  5. Ive noticed that light issue, and currently have it “check for lights” at the end of the loop.
    It also will sometimes just not see Bonnie.
    I’m not sure what’s causing them, but I do hope to fix them.

    As for the battery, I plan on gradually reducing how long it waits before performing each action. Right now it takes about 1/10th of a second before moving on to the next action. I think this can be reduced even more. This would mean less “lights on to check time” and less wasted door time.

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