The Day Before, which has been a big event with its release since November, was removed from sale and refunded to those who bought it. The developer’s explanation was as simple as ‘we failed’. The Day Before developers made a statement. It seems that the situation was not that simple.
The Day Before developers were working at least 16 hours a day
Investigating the chaos behind the scenes, journalists interviewed 16 former employees of The Day Before developer Fntastic, one volunteer and seven employees of publisher Mytona to get to the truth. The Day Before developers spoke about how inhumane their working environment was. Full of brutal shifts, unrealistic deadlines and management practices that bordered on mobbing.
Originally conceived as a small-scale survival game with a winter theme and cartoonish visuals, The Day Before has undergone a drastic transformation. The development team, satisfied with the initial original plan, couldn’t keep up with the sudden changes of managers who demanded more realistic visuals and larger spaces. They were not even given the necessary time.
The evolution of the game was dictated by a monkey’s appetite, with on-the-fly changes influenced by industry trends and other game releases. Developers were instructed to mimic features of popular games such as Baldur’s Gate 3, Grand Theft Auto Online and Hogwarts Legacy, resulting in three completely different versions of The Day Before during the development process.
Much of the pressure and unreasonable demands were reportedly directed by Fntastic founders and siblings Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev. Despite referring to the team as a “big family”, the company’s management created a bad working environment by using firing as a form of motivation. Unrealistic deadlines and excessive promises added to the stress, while sources also revealed that employees faced fines for minor mistakes, such as turning in “low-quality” audio recordings.
The Day Before developers worked no less than 16 hours a day. Some employees couldn’t take months off, and one employee couldn’t take a Saturday off for more than 1.5 years. At some point, it got to the point of begging for a few hours to take a shower or a few hours to eat.
After such a painful process, the game was released unfinished on December 7, 2023, and a week later, the studio was shut down and those who had purchased the game were refunded. The studio simply said, ‘This was our first big experience. These things happen’ and tried to get away with it.
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