Gaming development hiccups and changes are nothing out of the ordinary, but ‘The Day Before’ is the stuff of legends. Recently, German gaming websites Game Two and GameStar did a video outlining the mayhem surrounding the making of this doomed game, and the details are really astounding.
Think of developing a character creator for a game, and then being asked to re-change it, again and again, to suit the latest trends: GTA Online, Hogwarts Legacy, and then finally Baldur’s Gate 3. For the development team behind ‘The Day Before’, the now-defunct studio Fntastic, this was real life. The ever-shifting scope and look of the game were at the whim of the studio founders, brothers Gotovtsev. The fact that one former developer estimated it wasn’t until he saw the game’s trailer that he realized it was an MMO speaks volumes.
Inconsistent creative direction is but one element of the development problems, though. Former workers have described horrific working conditions. One was a policy of sudden termination, where one of the five testers on the game was let go just before release when a flaw was discovered; months of extreme stress making one employee plead for a break to eat or take a shower and “voluntary” unpaid overtime. Perhaps most of those that astound the most, however, was when the workers were fined for poor performances-some workers reportedly were fined $1,930 for low-quality voice recordings.
After the conclusion of Fntastic, the Gotovtsev brothers themselves remain mysterious. Staff believe they vanished around the game’s release because they knew it was in a terrible state, and they only came back to shut down the studio using Microsoft Teams. There are little details available, but rumors indicate they might have partnered with a mobile gaming firm to launch a new project.
Based on footage and promises that, in retrospect, obscured the game’s actual state, “The Day Before” was able to generate excitement and acquire a sizable number of pre-orders. It was beset by serious setbacks, including an odd conflict with a calendar software, and its initial gameplay preview did little to boost confidence. The game was greeted with derision and derision at launch, and Fntastic shut down four days later.
‘The Day Before’ is a cautionary story about mismanagement, ambition surpassing skill, and the human cost of an industry that occasionally pursues trends at the price of its employees.It serves as a sobering reminder of the possible dangers in game development as well as the significance of having a clear, consistent vision and treating staff members with integrity.
