The Day Before has to be one of the wildest rides the gaming industry has ever seen. It flew to the top of the Steam wishlist charts, saw a lengthy development period, then was released for a grand total of four days before developer Fntastic announced its closure with the game similarly being scrubbed from the platform. Less than a month after launch, The Day Before was gone but now its developer is attempting to make a return.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, The Day Before developer has posted a manifesto-esque plan along with a link to a Kickstarter campaign, looking to recapture some of the success it had with its former zombie game project. “Everyone deserves a second chance. We deeply apologize to everyone for The Day Before and take full responsibility for what happened,” the developer posts. “Check out our plan, Fntastic 2.0, where we share how we’ll fix our past mistakes and are preparing to return better.”
The plan concerns itself with a few different core goals for the reanimated company. First of which is principles, with honesty, transparency, and professionalism all called out. Strategic objectives for 2024 and 2025 are mentioned, which all focus around the above principles. There’s talk of rebuilding the brand and a new mission and vision for the company, the former of which states that Fntastic wishes to “create games that will be loved for decades.” A lofty ambition indeed.
Away from the plan, Fntastic has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its new title, Escape Factory, which appears to be an industrial take on the physics-based multiplayer chaos of games like Fall Guys. Four to eight players attempt to escape levels filled with mechanical traps, strange monsters, and puzzles. At the time of writing, while there are 29 days left to go on the campaign, it has attracted one backer. Unfortunately for the developer, it states that “if the Escape Factory Kickstarter campaign doesn’t reach its funding goal, unfortunately, we won’t be able to return.“
If you’ve been hoping for the return of games like Propnight or The Day Before, however, an FAQ posted by the developer answers that and it’s not good news. “We lost all legal rights to Propnight and The Day Before,” the dev writes, though it does mention elsewhere on its website that after Escape Factory, it will be working on an announced game set in the prop hunt genre.
For those worrying that stepping into this Kickstarter would be interfering with an ongoing legal battle, then fear not as the developer has also addressed that. “We’re not in conflict with anyone and are ready to start from scratch,” it writes in its FAQ.
While there is no Escape Factory release date just yet, you can play a free demo on Steam. Head over to the game’s store page to check it out for yourself, and decide if Fntastic is deserving of a second chance. If you would like to check out the plan, Kickstarter, and the FAQ posted by the developer, you can do so over on its website.
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