LogIn"Every detail is carefully crafted"? Dataminers don't think so.
Less than two days after its unexpected comeback, The Day Before developer Fntastic, infamous for its disastrous handling of the game and its reputation as one of the shadiest indie studios on the market, has managed to become a subject of yet another controversy when it was discovered by dataminers that the studio's new co-op puzzle platformer, Escape Factory, is largely an asset flip, contradicting the team's claims that "every detail is carefully crafted" and that they "put heart into designing each part, ensuring everything feels unique and full of personality."
Indie Developer Occular Malice was the one to expose Fntastic's deceptive tactics, sharing a detailed blog post on the Steam Forums that listed some of the assets the studio used for their new game. According to the post, many of Escape Factory's visual effects, as well as core elements like networking, lobby, and matchmaking mechanics, were sourced from GitHub and the Unity Asset Store, triggering flashbacks to The Day Before, which was largely composed of assets from the UE Marketplace.
Occular Malice's breakdown may have gone unnoticed if not for Fntastic's ignorance of the Streisand effect. In an attempt to suppress the criticism, the company swiftly deleted the post from the Steam Forums, inadvertently drawing more attention to it. Fortunately, Occular Malice had seemingly anticipated this and saved a copy on the Wayback Machine, ensuring people could still see the store-bought assets used in Escape Factory:
The controversy escalated further when the community noticed that the total amount pledged on Kickstarter dropped sharply after news outlets began reporting on Fntastic's use of store-bought assets for its new game. Before Occular Malice's report, the campaign had over $11,000 in pledges, but following the blog post, that number quickly shrank to around $2,000. Whether the $9,000 withdrawn were pledged by real backers or by Fntastic itself remains unknown, but as of now, the campaign stands at $2,246 – still $2,246 too much, if you ask me.
When deleting the blog post failed to quell the backlash, Fntastic took to Twitter, accusing news outlets and the gaming community of "spreading misinformation" and emphasizing that all the store-bought assets were legally acquired.
However, the community quickly picked up on the studio's attempt to strawman the argument and make it seem like they were being accused of stealing assets, and in response, a Community Note was added to the post, clarifying that Fntastic was not being criticized for stealing assets – which, as far as we know, they didn't – but for using store-bought VFX and code and at the same time claiming that every detail in Escape Factory is hand-crafted and brimming with personality.
So, what can we take away from all this controversy? I could be wrong here, but the way I see it, the primary goal of any game developer – aside from making money, of course – should be to entertain people with their product. And while Fntastic may not be able to create a good game even if its life depended on it, its antics and desperate attempts to "regain trust" are certainly entertaining, and in that sense, the studio's return can only be seen as a positive, as it's almost guaranteed they'll continue to give us something to laugh at going forward, if not with them, then at least at them. Just don't give them any money.
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