Does anyone remember Fntastic? You know, the guys who promised one of the most exciting Zombie survival games in the past decade, The Day Before, but instead released a completely different game that flopped, forcing the company to close its doors just four days after the game’s release?
The same development studio that revealed they were using volunteers to develop said Zombie survival game, free of payment, amidst multiple game launch delays, a copyright lawsuit and an apparent game engine change.
Come on, you know them. They even went ahead and re-opened their doors, begging the community that once supported them to rise and back them on Kickstarter for a new physics-based game called Escape Factory. Fntastic 2.0 promised more honesty, transparency, and professionalism but quickly shut down its Kickstarter due to a lack of interest.
Somehow, they still had another game in the works called Items, an action-horror prop hunt game.
You’d think, after all the controversy, delays, lawsuits, and complete lack of interest in anything Fntastic touches, it would have dampened the teams’ spirits. Instead, they push on, and it has now surfaced that the development team has once again reached out to their community to try and save their butts for this latest game of theirs.
As originally spotted by The Gamer, Fantastic is hosting a contest for its community. The contest requires players to design a map for Items. The map can be in any art style, from a full 3D render to a simple 2D drawing, but it must also include images or artwork for the look and feel of the map, a map name and description (obviously), the theme and the map layout. Designers must also consider balance updates for the map, as nobody likes a spawn camper.
The contest winners will not receive any monetary prize, though. All they get is a copy of Items, should it ever release, and their map added on as a DLC further down the line, with their names included on the map “somewhere.”
Luckily for Fntastic, they still have a few loyal community members, as four entries have already been received in the contest.
Unfortunately, considering Fntastic’s track record, I find it highly unlikely that the team will be able to get something out that anyone would enjoy playing unless it’s just a prop hunt game where players need to identify all the purchased assets from the Unreal Store.