Another interesting news came for The Day Before, about which we hear different things every day and which is called a stalemate, a dead end. The production, which has become Steam’s most anticipated game, is developing a team of part-time volunteers with developer Fntastic’s “volunteering policy”.
The Day Before: Steam’s most anticipated game is being developed by volunteers!
If you remember, The Day Before release date was postponed in May. Now, the news is of a kind that we are not used to in the game industry. The game is developed by part-time, unpaid volunteers. This is based on the idea of a “culture of volunteerism” by the developer company Fntastic. So much so that even the personnel working in the company for wages are considered volunteers. In fact, we can say that this is like the company sees its employees as a big family. But there are also cases where this is disadvantageous.
The Day Before, which became Steam’s most anticipated game after the gameplay video shown, was the most added game to the wish list on the platform. The survival game, which we can describe as a mixture of The Division and The Last of Us, has been added to the wish list by over 100,000 people. In fact, a release date was recently announced, but as of May, it was postponed to 2023.
Now, as the developers have posted on their website, talented people who want to help develop the game can voluntarily join the project. The company treats volunteering in two different ways. As News.com.au describes very well, we can say that the approach of “Some animals are more equal than others” is exhibited. Full-time volunteers are hired for a certain salary, while part-time volunteers help develop the project for free. Fntastic does not need full-time volunteers at the moment. Not surprisingly. Fntastic says it will give part-time volunteers great prizes, participation certificates and free codes for their work.
At the moment, part-time volunteers are also working on The Day Before, and this is not a good environment for the development of a video game. While there is already confusion even in the studios where full-time salaried employees are present in the highly anticipated games in the sector, we will see together how right it is to entrust the future of the project to part-time volunteer employees.