The Day Before developer Fntastic has cancelled its failing Kickstarter for one game and announced another in the same breath.
Fntastic, who released the utterly disastrous The Day Before in December 2023 before pretending to shut down, resurfaced in September asking for money for a new game: the physics based multiplayer game Escape Factory.
It has now cancelled this project, however, after it reached just 15.73% of its Kickstarter goal with $3,146 raised of a $20,000 goal. “Our campaign on Kickstarter is unlikely to reach our goal,” Fntastic said in a statement published to X/Twitter announcing another game.
“After careful analysis and discussion with the team, we have decided that our Escape Factory project has not generated enough interest,” it said. The Kickstarter reached the 15.73% mark after four weeks. “With this in mind, we have decided to temporarily suspend work on Escape Factory and postpone it until a more appropriate time.”
After careful analysis and discussion with the team, we have decided that our Escape Factory project has not generated enough interest.
Fntastic is now allegedly working on Items, an action horror prop hunt game. “Your wishes are very important to us,” it said. “This is exactly what many of you have been waiting for.”
No Kickstarter was announced but Fntastic said it may return to the crowdfunding route “or explore other options” once a demo for the game is made. Development will “require significant resources” so Fntastic has “decided to release mobile games” to support the process.
“All funds generated from these apps will go directly into development,” it said. “We believe this will help us create the game of your dreams.”
The term “dream” was often used in Fntastic’s marketing for The Day Before. “We hope that after the game’s success, we’ll give people faith that in this life, if you persevere toward a dream, it will come true, despite all the obstacles and doubts,” Fntastic told IGN in January 2023.
The Day Before launched to an almost impossibly rare 1/10 in IGN’s review and its shutdown was announced just four days after it launched in Early Access. It was one of the most controversial and catastrophic game launches in recent memory (now joined by PlayStation 5’s Concord) as what was touted as the “next generation of post-apocalyptic MMO open-world survival games” was released as a barebones and broken extraction shooter.
Once Steam’s most wishlisted game, suspicion mounted around The Day Before and Fntastic as time went on. It announced delay after delay amid revelations the studio used unpaid workers to develop its games, then a trademark dispute caused more issues.
Allegations the entire game was a scam then emerged from the disgruntled fanbase, made worse by the myriad copycat accusations against Fntastic. Shots in its trailers and screenshots lined up almost perfectly with other games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Cyberpunk 2077, and Grand Theft Auto 5.
For example, a trailer for The Day Before used the phrase: “Welcome to the next generation of post-apocalyptic MMO open-world survival games like never before. Immerse yourself in The Day Before.” Alongside not making grammatical English sense, Cyberpunk 2077’s Official Gameplay Trailer, published years earlier in 2020, used the very similar phrasing: “Welcome to the next-generation of open-world adventure. Immerse yourself in Cyberpunk 2077.”
Red Dead Redemption 2’s Official Gameplay Video, published even further back, used the phrases “…to make combat deep and engaging at all times. Each weapon has unique characteristics, with realistic reload and recoil.” A trailer for The Day Before used: “…to ensure that combat remains deep and engaging at all times. Each weapon boasts unique characteristics, as well as realistic reload and recoil mechanics.”
These are just two examples of myriad accusations with similar weight, but Fntastic denied any wrongdoing, leaned on the “fake news” defence, and implied the accusations were just an attempt at attention seeking. “We all live in a time of disinformation and lack of fact-checking,” it said following the second wave of accusations. “Anyone can say anything for views, and everyone will believe it,” it said. “Disinformation needs to be dealt with.”
Fntastic has put out plenty of disinformation and blatant lies of its own, however, like saying the aforementioned trademark dispute caused a delay when one was planned all along, and saying the studio was shutting down before announcing another game just months later. “S**t happens,” it told fans who were frustrated with the misleading information and failure of The Day Before.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
