The Day Before developer, Fntastic just doesn't know when to call it quits. If you recall, The Day Before promised a lot of things that it never delivered on. Its development was a mess of delays for one reason or another. Then, when the game launched into Early Access in December 2023 it was nothing like any of the promotional materials made it out to be. It went from an open-world zombie survival game to an extraction shooter that was, to put it mildly, broken as fuck.
Fntastic announced that they were going to shutdown the servers mere days after the game entered Early Access.
Fntastic then proceeded to blame everyone else for their false marketing, broken promises, and apparent scam of a game. They really had it out for bloggers and content creators that "made huge money creating false content" about The Day Before.
Well guess what? Fntastic is back and is once again begging for your hard earned cash. They say they have reformed and turned over a new leaf, a "Fntastic 2.0" as they claim. So pretty please, won't you give Fntastic a second chance to scam you out of your money?
Their Tweet on the cesspool formerly known as Twitter links to a website that lays out plans for Fntastic's next potential moves. The site includes an FAQ, a "recovery plan" PDF, contact information, a link to a merch page, a Discord server link, and more. Furthermore, their website links to an upcoming co-op multiplayer game on Steam, Escape Factory.
Naturally, Fntastic is straight up asking you to help them fund development of their game on none other than Kickstarter. The studio is asking for a bit over $15,000 to reach their funding goal. As of this news going live, they have already lured 27 backers in that have donated nearly $10,000. The Kickstarter still has 28 days left to go.
Fntastic says that if Escape Factory doesn't reach its fundraising goal, Fntastic won't be able to return. The studio, as part of their site's FAQ, does offer a deep apology to everyone for what happened with The Day Before.
After the closure, we reflected on our past mistakes and initiated significant internal changes to drive radical improvement.
We've discontinued the practice of involving external volunteers and are now fully committed to a more professional approach.
Honesty, transparency, and community engagement have become our top priorities.(...)
Over time, we’ve analyzed the factors that led to The Day Before's unsuccessful launch.
These included overly ambitious goals on a low indie budget, a team without AAA tech experience, and embellished marketing, which we deeply regret.
We take full responsibility for what happened, and this experience has taught us a valuable lesson.
We've discontinued the practice of involving external volunteers and are now fully committed to a more professional approach.
Honesty, transparency, and community engagement have become our top priorities.(...)
Over time, we’ve analyzed the factors that led to The Day Before's unsuccessful launch.
These included overly ambitious goals on a low indie budget, a team without AAA tech experience, and embellished marketing, which we deeply regret.
We take full responsibility for what happened, and this experience has taught us a valuable lesson.
It is interesting to note that on the Fntastic website, their About Us section does not include any mention of the studio founders Eduard Gotovtsev and Aisen Gotovtsev. That page does at least remind us that prior to The Day Before, Fntastic actually did make a few games that weren't scams. Those games being The Wild Eight and Propnight, the latter being shut down in January 2024.
While everything from this new announcement appears to be legitimate, there are sever people (media included) that have their doubts about this "Fntastic 2.0" venture. Obviously, several people are still rather upset about The Day Before scam and have stated they will never support the studio again. Others aren't even sure that this really is the same Fntastic or just a very elaborate ruse by someone else.
Reverse goal!