Steam's Most-Wishlisted Game Is Being Developed By Unpaid Volunteers

The Day Before, an ambitious open-world shooter/survival game from developer Fntastic, is being developed by unpaid volunteers, it has emerged.

The upcoming game, which fuses together survival and MMO elements, has been described as a cross between The Last Of Us and the The Division. It's proven massively popular since being revealed last year, and has since made its way to the top of Steam's most wishlisted games chart.

In a revelation that has since raised eyebrows, it turns out that many of the staff at Fntastic do not get paid. In fact, it looks as if even the paid staff at the company are labelled as volunteers because the company's "culture is based on the idea of volunteering". Yikes.

Fntastic's approach to staffing was originally spotted by News.com.au, who noticed that the studio's website claims that "anyone can be a part-time volunteer to contribute to the Fntastic community".

At this point you might understandably be wondering what incentives Fntastic offer unpaid, part-time volunteers to work on a game of the supposed size and scale of The Day Before. According to the website, staff will be given "cool rewards, participation certificates, and free codes" in exchange for helping with various activities that range from translation to community moderation.

Participation certificates. I'm just mentioning that one again to make sure it sinks in.

Considering Fntastic has released multiple games and The Day Before is aiming for AAA-level quality, the company really shouldn't be relying on unpaid staff for anything.

The Day Before was previously supposed to have launched last week (June 21), but has been delayed by nearly a year. Back in May, Fntastic announced that the game would now launch March 1, 2023 so that the team can switch from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5.