The Day Before is no longer available to buy on Steam, as developer Fntastic announces that it is closing down, and players are offered refunds. As the zombie game, which has been the subject of hype ever since its first trailer in 2021, seemingly disappears for good, one former The Day Before volunteer shares claims on how it was created, how volunteers were treated, and what happened after The Day Before’s turbulent launch.
The Day Before has been one of the most dramatic gaming incidents of 2023. From the initial hype, to questions about the later gameplay trailers, and the final launch, the zombie game is likely to become a cautionary tale. Fntastic says it is shutting down. The Day Before has been pulled from Steam. Myona, the game’s publisher, is offering refunds. In the middle of all of this, one former Fntastic volunteer shares their claims regarding The Day Before’s creation.
Using the online username ‘Wholf,’ the former volunteer says that they were recruited to help manage The Day Before’s Discord servers and Steam page. “I was their community manager assistant,” Wholf explains, “who had the head moderator role on their Discord which should have been a paid position to begin with but I was blinded by them.
“I was also their lead of volunteers for around a month or two before they kicked me out of that position because I was working too slowly from their point of view,” Wholf continues. “My job was to hire/accept everyone who applied to become a volunteer, where they had to sign an NDA with personal information, their social media platforms, and stuff like that. The reason why I was working too slow in their eyes is because I wanted to bring in legit people. Each person who applied took me around 30 minutes to check. Over 200+ applied. All I got was a thank you, and they removed me because I was too slow.”
Wholf alleges that development on The Day Before became “strange” when trailers and gameplay videos started to be released. According to the former volunteer, various questions were raised within Fntastic regarding the emerging footage. Wholf claims that the developer treated some volunteers “like crap.”
“For every trailer, gameplay, or video in general that was released, we all had our thoughts but nobody wanted to speak against them,” Wholf says. “Of course, we had our questions but everyone remained a bit silent on the part where it started to look strange and sus. The cinematic videos, the high amount of assets being used, the scripted gameplays etc. From that moment we all just had our thoughts but never really spoke about it.
“A lot of volunteers also had questions – very simple questions. We were told we would have tests regarding The Day Before. Never happened. There was also a test going to happen for the public, but that also never happened. I had contact with certain people who worked closely with Fntastic. These people got treated like crap. They were very tired and had to overwork.”
Wholf claims they were eventually dismissed by Fntastic owing to “being inactive, unresponsive, and exhibiting non-professional behavior.” Wholf says that they “said things as a head moderator which I shouldn’t have said,” particularly a statement that they made publicly where they questioned whether The Day Before was actually real. The former moderator now says they feel “empty and strange.”
“Two years of daily work for free with loads of passion and dedication got thrown away, basically,” Wholf says. “Turns out, everything was a lie and all I did was for nothing. For all the work I have done, all I received was Propcoins [virtual currency used in Fntastic’s game Propnight], some keys, and a thank you. I hope everyone is receiving their money back. I also hope someone will file a lawsuit or something because of all these lies.”
Another former moderator for Fntastic has also made public claims regarding The Day Before. Meanwhile, Fntastic has published a short statement regarding The Day Before, saying that “s*** happens.”
If you were looking forward to The Day Before, you might want to try some of the other best MMOs and MMORPGs instead. Alternatively, get the best survival games on PC
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