After his fiasco with The day beforeDeveloper Fntastic assured fans that it would embark on a path of redemption and righteousness. Well, I’m not so sure, looking at his latest post on his Discord community. The studio is currently working on a new project called Items, and despite criticism for using volunteers to help put out The Day Before, it seems the path to redemption and righteousness doesn’t include eliminating free labor. It just launched a contest urging fans to design a new map for the game, and in exchange you’ll get, ahem, a free copy of the game.

From The day before was unceremoniously deleted from Steam After less than a week, Fntastic has announced two new games, one that has since it has been archived after failing to reach their fundraising goal, and this new Items project which is described as a multiplayer game with “action horror props hunting” vibes. This will be Fntastic’s second chance at a props-finding game: although its servers are no longer online, it created Propnight before embarking on The Day Before, and Items definitely looks like a spiritual successor.

After the closing of your survival gamethe study exposed its “Fantastic 2.0” Plan for repairing their reputation, avoiding any more The Day Before-style disasters, and generally making games the right way in the future. It says it will now focus on core principles like honesty, transparency, and professionalism, but the reveal of its new competition gives me the feeling that Fntastic is still leaning toward its old ways.

“This contest is an opportunity for you to unleash your creativity by designing a map card that, if you win, will be added to the game in future updates!” he says in a Discord post. Map designs can be submitted as 2D drawings, 3D models, or any other medium fans like.

The winner of the competition will have their map “fully designed and playable in-game,” their name will be displayed “somewhere” on the map, and they will be sent a free copy of the game, should it ever be released. While the latter may somewhat resemble compensation for someone’s work, the fact that there is no other financial reward simply seems like Fntastic is taking advantage. If the game was already established and already had dozens of maps designed by the studio, maybe this wouldn’t feel so predatory. But so early in the development of Items? It just sucks.

As mentioned above, we know that during the development of The Day Before, Fntastic recruited many volunteers to help build the game or perform other tasks such as Discord moderation, some The volunteers made some pretty damning statements. about the study too. While I’d like to give Fntastic the benefit of the doubt and say that this competition is a bit misjudged, their track record makes it difficult to do so.

For more party games like Items that you can play right now, head over to our best cooperative games list. Alternatively, if you want some spooky experiences, our best horror games The guide is the place to be.

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