The release of Tyke and Sons (and its inspiration)

Tyke and Sons Lumber Co is a Fnaf fan game developed by Mixlas, which was publically released on October 26th 2019. Tyke and Sons was inspired by Chipper and Sons, an indie game released by former Fnaf owner Scott Cawthon. Chipper and Sons was initially a small indie game Scott created. However, after getting torn to shreds by critics for the “disturbing character designs”, Scott made Fnaf. And now we have Tyke and Sons. Hooray for sensitive critics who actually thought Chipper and Sons was disturbing.

Main story and gameplay

Okay, I have learned from the last time I tried to explain an entire plot in detail, and we’re not doing that again. The basic plot beats of Tyke and Sons are that you play as Mike, son of Tyke and grandchild of Chipper. As Tyke is growing older, he wants Mike to start preparing to take over the business. So, in order to do that, Tyke sends you out on various quests in order to progress the game, these range from collecting wood, to building machines and even getting a coffee from your mother to give back to Tyke.

The gameplay is rather simple. You plant trees and spam W to use your watering can to make them grow faster. As well as building machines and other items in order to lessen the grind. On the first day, things are kept limited to only one area and a few tasks so as to not overwhelm the player with some massive area.

Day two opens with a boss fight. While not incredibly challenging, it is a nice change of pace from the grind and very unexpected from the game. As well as that, Tyke and Sons also includes mini-games that further serve to break from the grindy aspect of the game. The rest of the game continues on with not much else to talk about…except for the night sections.

The night sections are a FAR cry from the daytime sections, while the day sections play like Chipper and Sons, the night sections play like Fnaf, with my best comparison being Fnaf 4, at a stretch. Basically, you, as Mike, must ward off a band of robots from getting into your house, building up enough sleep assurance to be able to finish the night. “Wait a minute” I hear you cry. “Robots? What robots?” well, remember when I mentioned building machines is a part of the game? The machine you build on the first day is a robot called Chipomat 1.0. And it’s the robot that comes to attack you. Yeah. You’re building your own adversaries at some points during the game. 

To run through what each animatronic does, Chipomat 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0  all hide at one of the two windows, and you will hear a knocking sound if they are there, if you find someone at the window, shut the curtain until you are sure that the animatronic is gone.

Springcrab (Gee I wonder who that’s referencing-), and Nightmare Chipper will both appear at the window, in order to get rid of them, you must flash your flashlight back on forth between the two areas until they leave, Nightmare Chipper also has another special mechanic that we’ll talk about in a bit.

Seabill.exe will say a voice line when he spawns, in order to not get jump scared by him, you must shut off the main light in the living room near the windows and door (with you also having a small window of time to make sure nothing is there  once he arrives), with the light’s turned off, there is also a small chance Phantom Chipomat will appear and jumpscare you, draining part of your battery.

Going back to an earlier statement halfway through the night, the game will warn you that something has broken into the house. When this message pops up, it enables a chance for Nightmare Chipper to appear on your bed. If he is there, run back downstairs and back upstairs to make sure he’s gone. Be careful though, as all the other animatronics still need to be dealt with even if your sleep assurance is full.

Character and background design + music

The Tyke and Sons character designs are really good. They’re not mind-blowing or super memorable, but they capture Scott’s style so well, sometimes you forget you’re playing a Fnaf fan game, and think you’re playing an actual sequel. It’s just that good.

The design of Tyke, Mike and all the other wacky characters running around feel like they belong in an official sequel to Chipper and Son’s. The robot designs are also fantastic, with them feeling like actual designs Scott could have come up with, especially Seabill.exe.

However, that is not meant to take away from Mixlas’ character designs, as all credit should go to him for making the models look so incredible. The backgrounds are immediately a bit of a mixed bag. Nothing is inherently bad, but the backdrops are probably the weakest part of the game. But as I said, they aren’t bad, just mediocre.

The music is decent as well, nothing absolutely mind-blowing, but the mixture of stock + original compositions makes for some nice-sounding music.

Conclusion

It makes me sad that most people overlook this game because it’s so different and is inherently based on Chipper and Sons. However, I hope this article has made at least one person think about trying out the game for themselves. If you do, then the game is currently on Gamejolt completely for free under Mixlas’ name. Absolutely go download it for yourself, and give Mixlas a follow as his other games are also fantastically well done. Thanks for reading and have a good day.