In a move absolutely everyone could have seen coming, disgraced game studio Fntastic—the one responsible for the self-immolation of the former most-wishlisted game on Steam—is up to its old tricks. A month after resurrecting itself with a promise to base its development and marketing on the principle of honesty "from now on," the studio is once again asking people to develop its games for it for free (via TheGamer).
Fntastic announced it was working on a game, a multiplayer prop-hunt thing called Items, last week (immediately after it cancelled a Kickstarter that raised around $3k of its $20k goal). Now it just needs, uh, someone to make it. That someone could be you! That is, if you sign up for a "contest" the studio just announced in its official Discord.
"This contest is a chance for you to unleash your creativity by designing a map card that, if it wins, will be added to the game in future updates," reads the announcement by the server's head moderator. Interested fans are invited to create a map "using any method you like, whether it's a 2D drawing, 3D model, or any other style," and then submit it in a special channel on the Discord. "Be sure to explain the map’s theme, layout, balance considerations, and any other important details."
Most of the maps submitted will go straight into the dustbin of history, of course, and those responsible won't get any compensation at all. But the lucky winner will get to see their map "fully designed and playable in the game," with their name displayed "somewhere," and a free copy of Items, if and when it ever comes out. Will there be any financial compensation for the work whatsoever? No.
If I seem like I'm being harsh on what could just be a not-very-well-thought-out idea a studio community team cooked up, it's because Fntastic has fully earned it. Even before The Day Before became one of last year's worst and most risible videogame launches, even before we learned that the game's developers were apparently made to pay fines to the studio for work the bosses deemed unsatisfactory, and even before those same bosses pretty much went missing in the aftermath of the launch, the studio was criticised for its use of "volunteer" workers.
When the studio put out a call for "Part-time volunteers [who] can offer their unique skills to improve our projects or create new special features," the response from outsiders was clear-cut: "Don't work for free."
So that Fntastic is back and, despite its born-again spirit of "honesty," almost immediately putting out a call for a few lucky people to do work it should be paying people for? Well, it suggests that maybe the studio hasn't learned anything at all. But I suppose, in the words of its CEO, "shit happens."
