"Escape Factory": developers of "The Day Before" with new game
Studio Fntastic caused a gaming scandal with "The Day Before". Now the developers are back – with a new Kickstart project.
(Image: Fntastic)
They have reformed: the developers from studio Fntastic are back with a new game after the scandals surrounding their zombie masterpiece "The Day Before". In a manifesto, they refer to themselves as "Fntastic 2.0" and vow to establish honesty, transparency and professionalism as the pillars of their future activities.
In the Fntastic manifesto (PDF), the developers promise, for example, to communicate more openly in future, not to exaggerate in marketing and to no longer rely on volunteers for QA tests. All of these promises are linked to Fntastic's new game: "Escape Factory" looks like a mixture of "Fall Guys" and "Party Animals" in an industrial setting. The game is to be financed via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform.
Return only if Kickstarter is successful
Funding the game is obviously of existential importance to the studio: "If the Escape Factory Kickstarter campaign does not reach its funding goal, we will unfortunately not be able to return," the developers write in an FAQ. In this case, the promised crowdfunding sums will be refunded, as is customary with Kickstarter.
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With a target donation amount of 14,000 euros, the Kickstarter project for "Escape Factory" is not particularly ambitious. So far, 38 supporters have pledged 2,000 euros. There are still 26 days left. Fntastic has also defined further stretch goals if the crowdfunding sum exceeds the minimum value. If the team raises 50,000 US dollars, the game will be optimized for the Steam Deck. A Switch version is available from 200,000 US dollars.
Fool me once...
In order to have at least a slight chance of success with the Kickstarter project "Escape Factory", Fntastic has to make amends for previous missteps. "Everyone deserves a second chance", the studio postulates on its website. Fnatic's most recent title, the online zombie game "The Day Before", was shut down just a few days after its release. According to the studio, it lacked the money to continue operating the shooter.
Even during its development, "The Day Before" had already attracted a great deal of controversy –, from reports of unpaid testers to trademark disputes. Marketing material promised an exciting AAA-level online shooter – but the release version of the title was practically unplayable. The studio claims not to have made any money with "The Day Before". All buyers are said to have received their money back in full.
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"Valuable lesson"
"We have analyzed the factors that led to the unsuccessful launch of 'The Day Before'," Fntastic now writes on its website. "These included overly ambitious goals with a low indie budget, a team with no AAA experience and bloated marketing, which we deeply regret." The studio speaks of a "valuable lesson".
In fact, Fntastic seems to have learned something: "Escape Factory" is a much more down-to-earth game concept compared to an open-world MMO, which can also be realistically created by a smaller team. If you want, you can also download a free demo on Steam as a taste test.
Meanwhile, skeptical players have discovered that Fntastic has used external game assets and public Unity code to create the demo of "Escape Factory". This in itself is not reprehensible – , but the fact that the studio has removed such references from the Steam forums does not cast a particularly good light on an already questionable development studio.
(dahe)
