Open world survival game The Day Before bombed when it released late last year, and developer Fntastic shut its doors just four days later. "The Day Before has failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue," the studio said at the time, but Fntastic has now returned, saying it's going to do things differently this time and asking gamers to fund its next project on Kickstarter.
Given its reputation, the reanimated studio (which also made the once popular, now defunct Propnight) might have a hard time reaching even its modest $15,535 goal for Escape Factory, a "physics-based multiplayer co-op escape game." Kickstarter users once pledged $55,492 to fund a potato salad, though, so anything's possible.
The multi-year saga that concluded with Fntastic's closure began in 2021 with a slick-looking announcement trailer for The Day Before. If there's one thing PC gamers flock to, it's open world survival games, and The Day Before shot to the top of Steam's most wishlisted chart with the expectation that it'd be a zombie MMO with The Last of Us-like graphics.
After a series of delays, the audience grew skeptical that The Day Before would really be the game they were imagining, and when it finally released in 2023, it turned out to be a janky, generic extraction shooter that did not meet most people's definition of an "MMO." I think that's the outcome a lot of people truly expected at that point—they showed up for a trainwreck, and got one—and as we observed after playing The Day Before ourselves, the game didn't actually look all that different from what we saw in the trailers. It was just, y'know, bad.
"We apologize if we didn't meet your expectations," the studio said after the launch. "We did everything within our power, but unfortunately, we miscalculated our capabilities. Creating games is an incredibly challenging endeavor."
The Day Before purchases were refunded, and that seemed to be the definite end of Fntastic, especially after it was alleged that the studio's two founders, Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev, had been using volunteer labor and bizarrely fining their own employees for subpar work. The pair reportedly became non-communicative when The Day Before launched, reappearing only long enough to close the studio over a conference call.
The new Fntastic 2.0, which is smaller but "still consists of the same people" who made The Day Before and Propnight, is going to be different, say its leaders. For one thing, they claim they've "discontinued the practice of involving external volunteers and are now fully committed to a more professional approach," although they seem to contradict themselves later in the same FAQ when they say that "some team members are helping out on a goodwill basis."
The developer's analysis of what went wrong with The Day Before points to "overly ambitious goals on a low indie budget, a team without AAA tech experience, and embellished marketing," something they say they "deeply regret."
"From now on, our development and marketing will be based on the principle of honesty," reads a document on Fntastic's "plan for recovery."
If Escape Factory is funded, Fntastic says it'll also pursue a new prop hunt game as a successor to Propnight. If the Kickstarter fails, the studio will return to the void.
"We're asking for a second chance, and we believe that with your support, we can create your future favorite games," says the company.
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