The Day Before studio returns with new game and Kickstarter campaign

One of the biggest gaming stories of 2023 was The Day Before incident. A small studio known as Fntastic had made grand promises about their in-development survival game, but within days of release, the game was taken down and the studio shut its doors. Now, Fntastic is hoping to make a comeback, starting with a Kickstarter campaign. 

As The Day Before was largely viewed by gamers as an elaborate scam, the idea that ‘Fntastic 2.0' could exist seems ridiculous. The fact that the reformed studio wants the community to crowdfund its next project is the cherry on top.

In its return to social media, Fntastic opens up by saying “everyone deserves a second chance”. The company apologises for letting gamers down with The Day Before, and points to a new ‘Fntastic 2.0' PDF document to outline its plan to “regain trust”. This includes more direct and honest communication, which is a little odd, because direct communication wasn't really the issue with The Day Before, but the lack of honesty around the game and the state of development certainly was a sticking point.

Going along with its honesty policy, Fntastic also says that moving forward it will operate professionally, ditching its volunteer-based approach to development, although the words “job”, “hiring” and “pay” all are absent from the statement, so it is unclear if Fntastic has secured funding to actually pay people.

The remainder of the PDF document focuses on a rebranding effort, including new logos.

For anyone actually interested, Escape Factory is Fntastic's new game, a four to eight player co-op game, in which players must evade deadly threats to complete levels. Fntastic says that while some VFX assets have been acquired to aid in putting the demo together, all art assets were created in-house.

Currently, the Kickstarter campaign for Escape Factory has been backed by just 41 people, pledging a total of £1,733. The project still hgas 26 days to hit its funding goal of £11,668.

KitGuru Says: So far, it doesn't look like Escape Factory will hit its funding goal, but that could change over the next few weeks. It is a shame too, as Escape Factory looks to be more in-line with the studio's projects prior to The Day Before, like Prop Night. Prop Night wasn't a particularly polished game, but it was fun with friends and very cheap. Perhaps that is the niche Fntastic should have stuck with before chasing dreams of creating the most overhyped survival game ever announced. 

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