u/InfinityxDragon

I think it's way better this way. I know the main argument against it is that you can't be shocked by Granny sneaking up on you anymore, but it was a major complaint since day one how there were no sound cues to let you know she was behind you. For some, this made the game more frustrating than anything else. I mean, heck, could you imagine now, if Granny was able to snipe you from the foyer while you were in one of the upstairs rooms without you knowing, especially in extreme mode?

Aside from making the game fairer, if not a bit easier, I think chase music was something that this game was always missing. I mean, every other DVloper game had chase music until then, and it honestly always looked a bit awkward whenever you saw Granny chase you, especially in the easier difficulties. The music gives it that well-needed intensity, and truthfully, it is pretty scary hearing it out of nowhere in extreme mode.

This is a weird question, but like, what vibe is the game going for? Granny 1, for example, had these hollow visuals, giving it a decrepit, haunted type of feel. A labyrinthine house full of secrets. Chapter 2 obviously went a more cinematic route with military motifs. Granny 3 is also cinematic, but doesn't really have the motifs of any of the previous games. I even feel like it has a bunch of clashing elements, like the Addams Family-looking house with lighting that is more pretty-looking than anything, and the cinematic cutscenes that are deliberately humourous. It kinda just does whatever.

I'll preface this with admitting I'm a little late to be talking about this, because the focal point of this post is the community reaction to the game theme updates for Granny

The problem with this community is, and always was, that they immediately delude themselves into believing something huge was around the corner every time DV updated his games. These updates would range from medium-sized content drops to minute hotfixes that seemed to drop in the middle of nothing. Any activity sparked faith. Misplaced faith.

Misplaced faith, because the community would be disappointed upon the lack of anything groundbreaking, if anything at all. Maybe even more than disappointed. Upset. Downright angry. Such a case being the Halloween update. So much utter shit went on after its release; where do I even begin?

Three years after the last major update, 1.8, we were met with an out-of-the-blue update that didn't expand the map, didn't change anything we already had, and didn't do anything for the lore. And I've seen the outrage. People felt betrayed. Why?

You've seen it preached here and there that you're not owed an update by DV at any point in time, because he doesn't promise anything. He does what he wants, so I'll ask: If instead of the Halloween update we got, we received no content update, what difference would it have made then (because do note, DV would have updated the game regardless thanks to the Unity security update; the Halloween stuff was likely secondary to that)? I imagine then, people would again delude themselves into believing that there would've been something major around the corner, when in reality, there were no plans. There's been no plans, because it's evident DV now only updates his games to keep them up-to-date with software and on-par with each other technically, which brings me to my next point:

The game is complete. In terms of significant content, Granny is finished. Hell, a lot of people now dislike the implementation of the spider cellar, and as much as I'll die defending it, I cannot refute the fact that the game is now much more complicated for new players. What would a new major update even be about? What would it add, and how would it be implemented?

I'm sure you've been waiting for me to address the usage of AI for the content of the Halloween theme, but truthfully, I don't have much to say about it. The Halloween theme, by its nature, is such an unserious thing that I believe the usage of AI is quite inoffensive. If AI was used to make 1.8, yeah, that would've been bad (especially with how divided people already are about it), but this is just a silly game theme whose end goal isn't concerned with quality. The only problem I have with the AI stuff is simply that it does not match the aesthetic of the rest of the game. People who demonize DV for using AI (because he still does) are being ridiculous, in my opinion. He just wants to add fun things to his games and has a convenient way to get it done instantly. Call it laziness, but he might just not know why it's so looked down upon. Hey, at least the Christmas theme isn't made with AI, which really just makes me think that the Halloween theme was simply tossed together as he was pushing the update out to give the fans some content. I think the fact that the mobile version of it was then updated twice is evidence of this. It wasn't "perfect" to begin with.

Anyways, that's it. I was inspired to rant about this because I was watching videos from back then (I'm deep in my Granny phase rn), and I saw this Brazilian YouTuber, grown man, straight up whining how this mobile game created by a middle-aged solo developer hasn't evolved graphically, narratively, or content-wise in an update 3 years after the last major one. Now, I have conflicting thoughts on all these desires (especially because a true graphical overhaul could blur the visual identity the game has had for so long), but what really bothers me is how people were acting like the Halloween theme was in the works for three years. No. Like I said, it was clearly just thrown together last minute.

To close this off, I think the fact that DV has just... abandoned social media is indicative of the fact that he is not really into game development anymore. Evidently, he cares about his creations enough to not let them see total obscurity by giving them small updates here and there, but we're not getting Granny 4 or a new escape for Granny 3, the way it's looking right now.

I'll start. I don't like how the enemies in Hard mode are slightly slower than you, whereas in Extreme they are faster than you. I wish the enemy speed in Hard mode was the same as the player's. This is probably why the jump from Normal to Hard is not as big as the jump from Hard to Extreme; Granny is still slower than you, and she's still gone for a manageable amount of time.