The bizarre tale of The Day Before studio Fntastic continues, as it cancels the Kickstarter that was supposed to fund its comeback game, and promptly announces yet another new game.
The Day Before was, frankly, a disaster. It launched last December, became one of Steam's worst-reviewed games, and developer Fntastic announced its closure just four days later, saying it didn't have "the funding to continue the work." After that, the game was removed from sale and refunds were offered to everyone who'd parted with their hard-earned cash. "Shit happens," the studio said, which may have been a slight understatement.
Anyway, last month, Fntastic returned, asking for a "second chance" – proclaiming it's operating under new policies of professionalism, honesty, and transparency – all while launching a Kickstarter campaign for a new, physics-based co-op game called Escape Factory. Since then, it managed to raise around $2,384 of its $15,153 goal, but the studio has now "decided that our Escape Factory project has not generated enough interest," with the chance of actually hitting its Kickstarter goal looking more and more unlikely. "No funds have been collected," it clarifies.
That doesn't mean that the studio is giving up, though. If anything, it's the opposite. Not only is Escape Factory itself not actually canceled (the devs say they will "postpone it until a more appropriate time"), but work on what "many of you have been waiting for" has begun. Development is underway on "a new action-horror prop hunt game called ITEMS!"
pic.twitter.com/BtsCVCbylDOctober 23, 2024
The "many of you" that Fntastic is referring to come from a survey conducted by the studio. Earlier this month, it shared some results on Twitter, which show that, apparently, 1,303 people said they'd "definitely" support a Kickstarter campaign for a prop hunt game. That doesn't really seem like that many, although if it's to be believed, only 7.8% of participants at the time said "no."
Fntastic says the development of ITEMS will "require significant resources," so "we have decided to release mobile games in parallel to support the process." The same statement says another Kickstarter might be launched, but regardless, it's "important to us that our players get the chance to play and test the game in advance" of its release.
Considering the studio's recent track record, we'll just have to watch this space to see how much of this grand plan actually comes to fruition. It's frankly impossible to forget the catastrophe that happened less than a year ago, which is going to make it very hard for anyone to trust the developers going forward. Responding to one wary Twitter user, Fntastic claims: "We know our decisions and projects might not be for everyone, but we're working hard to create a game that our supporters will like and enjoy."
