Key things
- Fntastic is back and they need more money to help make the next video game.
- The team behind disastrous title The Day Before have apologized and outlined a plan to guide them as they seek to make amends.
- A Kickstarter has been set up with the goal of reaching over $15,000 and if not successful the studio will shut down again.
The team behind The Day Before, a disaster open-world MMO that was more in line with extraction shooters, is back and rebranded. Oh, and they want more money.
Fntastic shared on Twitter that it is using Kickstarter to help generate funds to bring the studio back. The link to the studio's website includes the following statement:
We deeply apologize to everyone for The Day Before and take full responsibility for what happened.
There, the team created a “plan” outlining how they would overcome their past mistakes, as well as the next game they were developing. The game is called “Escape Factory” and it's a “physical co-op multiplayer escape game set in dangerous factories for 4-8 players”.
How many times do we have to teach you this lesson?
The plan, available here, says the team will be guided by three principles – honesty, transparency and professionalism. Several “strategic goals” have also been outlined elsewhere, including a focus on community engagement, development standards and brand identity, among other goals.
The FAQ answers why the team decided to make a comeback after the previous failure.
After closing, we reflected on our past mistakes and initiated significant internal changes to achieve radical improvement.
We have ended the practice of engaging external volunteers and are now fully committed to a more professional approach.
Honesty, transparency and community engagement have become our top priorities.
After learning from our past mistakes, we developed Fntastic 2.0, a blueprint for recovery.
As part of their planned comeback, the team created a Kickstarter. If the $15,535 goal is not met within the next 29 days, then those who participate will be refunded and the studio will be closed again.
Currently, the Kickstarter has just $222 pledged, which is being split between 10 backers. To that end, the team has included several tiers of backer rewards, including a nearly $10,000 tier that grants backers a dinner with Fntastic, a Discord title, game credit recognition, a copy of the game, and a spot on the site's backer wall.
Only time will tell if this plan will be successful, although it now seems highly unlikely that it will generate the necessary funding. Then stranger things happened again.
