Key Takeaways
- Fntastic lacks originality, resorting to community-created content for new game, Items.
- The studio is criticized for using ChatGPT to help write character bios, indicating laziness.
- Fntastic’s newest game development strategy suggests a reluctance to complete work independently.
Things are already starting to feel very familiar with The Day Before studio Fntastic’s new game, Items. Less than a year after the studio shut down due to The Day Before’s disastrous launch and unpaid debts, the team returned from the dead, asking for more money to help fund a brand-new project. That project was swiftly shut down after Fntastic failed to meet its crowdfunding goals, but never fear, as they got to work on another new game straight away.
Fntastic didn’t seem to learn any lessons from The Day Before’s mistakes, though. Although its original game was accused of using others’ work, they still decided to ask fans to create maps for the new title, Items, offering no monetary payment in return.
Related
The Day Before Devs Blame Game Failure On “Excessive Marketing”
The Day Before developer Fntastic is back, and is blaming the game’s failure on “excessive marketing” and “overly ambitious goals”.
Now, in another seemingly workshy move, the company has admitted to using ChatGPT when writing its character bios to “expand and improve” its ideas.
Fntastic Is Using ChatGPT To Help Write Its New Game
Over the last few days, Fntastic has been getting members of its Discord server to do more work for it in a thinly veiled attempt at ‘community building.’
The studio first released a poll asking players to choose the name of its new killer, with Bobby winning out over Kentucky Butcher, Sir Chops-a-Lot, and Maximilien. Then, it asked them to choose a weapon from a Saw, Axe, Machete, Cleaver, or Pickaxe. After the community decided on a cleaver, Fntastic posted a bio for Bobby.
“Bobby was a quiet, diligent, and responsive person. He lived in a small industrial town where everyone knew each other, and working at the local factory was the only way to earn a living. That’s why he valued this job and took on everything he could to support his family: welding, electrical work, heavy lifting, even furnace cleaning—the list could go on forever. For his humility and willingness to do any work, he often became the object of ridicule and bullying from his colleagues. They considered him weak and invisible, and those around him were unashamed to take advantage of it,” the bio reads.
After sharing more details of the game’s first Killer, which ends with “Bobby’s suffering transformed into an insatiable thirst for justice. Now, filled with rage, shame, pain, and a desire for revenge, he roams this world, hunting down and destroying anyone who unwittingly crosses his path,” one Fntastic developer shares that “ChatGPT was used to expand and improve my ideas.“
ChatGPT was used to expand and improve my ideas.
It’s the studio’s latest move, which seems to indicate that it doesn’t actually want to do any of its work alone.
The Day Before offers players a uniquely reimagined journey into post-apocalyptic open-world MMO survival set in the present day on the US East Coast following a deadly pandemic.
SURVIVE AT ALL COSTS
Fight other players for survival. Survive against the deadly infected. Collect valuable loot.
DISCOVER THE NEW POST-PANDEMIC WORLD
Explore the beautiful and richly detailed New Fortune City. Enter tall skyscrapers, business centers, massive malls, grand stadiums, and more. Uncover distant surroundings of New Fortune City on stunningly detailed vehicles.
REBUILD SOCIETY
Join the Woodberry survivor colony on its mission to rebuild society. Trade items in Woodberry and save your wealth in a personal storage room. Build your own home in the safe zone.