Thoughts on the Return of Fntastic Studios
A few weeks ago, the people behind Fntastic Studios, developers of the extraction shooter The Day Before, resurfaced after a hiatus lasting most of 2024. The vehicle of their return was a new Kickstarter, asking for crowdfunding for a new game called Escape Vehicle.
As of this morning, they’d cancelled the Kickstarter after getting around 15% of their modest goal in pledges.
Anyone who’s followed the story of The Day Before can probably take a wild leaping guess as to why their newest venture failed, but to bring everyone up to speed - especially those few who might be considering voicing support for Fntastic or interest for their products as they return…
The Day Before is one of the most spectacular failure stories in the annals of the video gaming industry. First advertised in January 2021 as (take note here) an MMORPG, The Day Before grabbed the attention of major gaming news outlets with a legitimately dazzling gameplay trailer, converting the hype into an accomplishment that would leave it in a singular place in gaming lore: becoming the most wishlisted game in Steam history. The trailer showed a jaw-droppingly realistic environment boasting all the genre mechanics and immersive details that even the most fervent, demanding zombie survival game enthusiast could dream up. It was everything.
And then, it was everything bad. Over the next three years, The Day Before lurched slowly but deliberately into disgrace without turning to the right or left. And it wasn’t just the unexplained delays, the disappearing features, or the fact that it finally launched on Steam as a buggy, boring, hopelessly poorly-performing extraction shooter - yes, an extraction shooter, not an MMORPG as in its original pitch; The Day Before’s long and tortured development history eventually displayed or was revealed to have sported all the following:
*Bait-and-switch tactics, false quotes, and other deceptive marketing
*Ripping off multiple other games in their trailers and promo material
*Terrible project direction that changed on whims and repeatedly changed the game’s look and mechanics from the original pitch;
*Wiping websites and channels to hide embarrassing information
*Holding announcement livestreams that they couldn't get working
*Changing game engines mid-development
*Forgetting to trademark their game and nearly losing the rights to the name
*Lying about why their Steam page was taken down due to above trademark issue
*Unprofessional blowback and deflection of criticism
…and finally, in the end, being revealed by journalists to have spent years fostering a toxic work environment in their studio, including public criticism, opinion suppression, “failure fees”, mandatory crunch*, intimidation, and volunteer labor to complete the project.
I mean…most stories of bad game studios only feature two or three of these big-ticket items. These galaxy brains managed to tick every box.
Finally launching in late 2023, Fntastic sold copies of their horrendously low-quality game for a few days, endured ruthless reviews, and then promptly closed sales, a move accompanied by another wave of irresponsible fist-waving and excuse-making towards an angry community in response.
And then, a few weeks ago, after ten months of having been who knows where, they came out with a Kickstarter - asking the public for money for a new game - all the while making much of a muchness about their newfound commitments to integrity, transparency, and professionalism.
Look, I’m no stranger to a video game being more to bite off than one can chew. Shade Hunters has taught us that, and it’s an RPGMaker game. But to ask for new crowdfunding after this much of an abject failure is beyond audacity. You simply cannot convince me that the founders of Fntastic have overcome that much character deficiency, that much incompetence, that much ignorance about the process, in just a few months. It’s too big of a ship to tack. I believe in second chances. Fntastic are on their seventh.
In the end, despite my lack of enthusiasm for dogpiling and negative press, I find I have to warn people about these folks. For the sake of anyone I know who might be considering sinking money into products from this tainted developer, please know I strongly advise against. If you’re looking for more information and have some time to burn, I recommend this feature-length documentary on The Day Before (this channel also has shorter videos on the subject if you have less time). There’s very little gain to be foreseen in giving these people money; the only real gain from The Day Before’s existence has been gleaning what not to do as a game developer, and perhaps, learning the immense ability of a trailer to mislead.