Remember The Day Before? If anything, the blandness of its name might have caused the clown-car series of scandals surrounding it last holiday season to fade from memory. But the zombie survival MMO’s sudden collapse and closure is back on our radar thanks to its developer Fntastic, who is rather boldly taking to Kickstarter to try to fund a new game.
During 2022, in-development project The Day Before achieved something small developers dream of: Steam hype. By the end of that year, squillions of PC gamers were frothing in anticipation of playing an online survival sim with heavy The Last of Us vibes, the game by then one of the most wishlisted on Valve’s store. But then in January 2023, out of nowhere, it was temporarily pulled from Steam. Something to do with a trademark issue, they claimed. One so serious it would delay the game by a planned nine months. It all smelt very odd.
A since-deleted tweet from Fntastic stated, “Right before the release, Steam blocked our game page at the request of a private individual, because of the name The Day Before.” Which didn’t really line up with the accompanying news that they would also not be releasing a much-hyped gameplay video, and the announcement of a new, incredibly specific release date of November 10, 2023.
While the trademark was real, it seemed unlikely it would take nine months to change the game’s name, and a lot of people began speculating that perhaps the game was less…finished…than had previously been implied.
So almost a year later, it was perhaps less of a surprise that the game’s launch would be a complete and total disaster. Released December 7, 2023, it was dreadful, derivative and technically incompetent—and it wasn’t an MMO, either. In fact, it was nothing like the promised game. Rumors suggested that of the 200,000 copies that were sold, almost half were immediately refunded.
Just four days later on December 11, instead of announcing a plan to release patches and updates and get the game into a fit state, Fntastic instead just…cleared out. The game was removed from Steam entirely—again—and Fntastic began deleting all of their online presence. YouTube and Twitter accounts were wiped, and it was announced that the scandal-ridden developer had shut its doors.
By January 22, 2024, the game’s servers were switched off entirely, and then two days later the not-quite-dead-enough company issued a statement to their X account explaining that the whole thing was actually the fault of “bloggers.” You know, how when people write about all the dodgy shit someone’s up to, and then that causes the dodgy shit to have come into existence in the past, just so the blogger can write about it.
And Fntastic now has a Kickstarter for their new game! Who’s backing?!
Escape Factory looks to be a combination of Fall Guys and the current trend for factory sims, where you play in co-op to control a bunch of cartoony people as they attempt to escape a trap-laden factory. Which, you know, sounds like a thing that would be popular as a Fortnite game mode. It’s likely not helped by the declaration that they need our funding support AND that it’s out this Halloween. Yeeeeaaahhhh.
Incredibly, the Russian developer has put out an appeal entitled, “Help Fntastic Return,” which seems a touch optimistic. In order to achieve this noble goal, we must support their Kickstarter campaign, join their Discord, follow their new social media accounts, and buy their merch. I swear to God, they have merch.
Accompanying this, on their newly re-registered website, there’s a post entitled, “Everyone Deserves a Second Chance.” (Which, as it happens, isn’t actually true. Babysitters that eat your children don’t deserve second chances, for instance. “Well darling, yes, he did eat Samantha, but he promises he won’t even take a nibble of Kevin.”) You’ll be comforted to learn, however, that they are owning their mistakes.
“We deeply apologize to everyone for The Day Before,” the site says, “and take full responsibility for what happened.” Which is nice, because bloggers can finally take that weight of guilt from their shoulders.
They have a plan, and you know it’s a good one because it’s in a pdf. In it the company explains its intentions to “raise development standards” and “expand professionalism.” No, stop laughing, you’re being rude. It goes on,
The new Fntastic brand, embodied by its vibrant blue logo and bold geometric design, represents more than a mere visual update—it signifies the company’s renewed commitment to transparency and honesty.
Honestly, everything about this is just brilliant. It’s accompanied by a new mission and vision, which are, in turn:
Our mission is to create games that will be loved for decades.
and
Our vision is to become one of the most loved game companies by creating fantastic, innovative, and emotionally engaging experiences.
So, that’s all good, isn’t it! And with a goal of $20,000, Fntastic is well on its way with a total of $635 pledged when I started writing this article. Just let me refresh the page…It’s now $635.
There genuinely is a demo for the game on Steam, and Fntastic are hard at work, deleting every negative discussion thread that gets posted to the game’s Store page. Apparently it’s also bad when people link to the asset packs the game is using.
But look, let’s not be unfair. While the $20,000 goal to make a game in a month (it’s TBA on Steam, but it definitely says “THIS HALLOWEEN” right at the start of the Kickstarter video!) might seem ambitious, the team are aiming higher. For instance, if they hit $50,000, they plan to make a Steam Deck version of the game!
At $100k it’ll come to PS5, and for $200k they’ll finally have enough to make the notoriously expensive Nintendo Switch version. Slap on another $50,000 and you’ll get a “unique soundtrack” for each location! But double up to half a million dollars, and get this: they’ll include “New Mode.” For real.
It’s just so wonderfully terrible in every regard, and I’m going to be watching every second of it.
But before I go, let me just refresh that Kickstarter one more time. $638! It’s taking off!
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