the day before was an even bigger
disaster than you thought devs
reportedly made to pay fines for bad
work learned it was an MMO from the
trailers and no one's sure where the
bosses
are imagine if you had to pay fines for
for bugs like we're all devs here that's
crazy I would I would get paid negative
dollars it don't matter about how much
Fang money you got I get Negative
dollars
all right anyways all right a new
documentary from a German game site game
two in Gamestar has shed some more light
on the disastrous development of the day
before and boy howdy it's worse than you
thought game two says it spoke to 16
former uh fantastic employees and one of
its former volunteers and seven staff
the day before publisher uh Mont Montana
monton the picture they paint is
staggering do we get a percentage of the
company Revenue if we pay for bugs
that's a great question I think that's a
I you know what I think that's a good
proposal I will pay for my bugs if I get
a percentage of your Revenue I think
that's perfectly Fair because that means
I've taken on risk right we make devs
pay for bugs they don't get any billable
work until they fix the bugs in their
work wait what I'm not going to lie to
you I don't think that's good at all
they also get paid more if they get more
done I don't know if I I don't I don't
think I like that the reason being is
the reason why I don't like that is that
the reality is is that we have small
perspectives and how things are used in
production versus when they're used here
uh I just don't I I I I don't I mean
you're saying it's been done for eight
years I don't think it makes that better
right there's plenty of things that have
been done for a long time that doesn't
make it good or bad duration of things
being done right I you know the Lindy
effect right they love it no turnover
doubt I'm doubting hard doubting right
now okay anyways speaking anonymously
game 2's source alleges that working at
Fantastic the day before now defunct
development study was Pier megal Medical
Megalo maniacal uh chaos as they tell it
the gamees developer was development was
constantly buffeted by the changing
whims of the go got gov Brothers the
Studio's Founders and the scope and
style of the game would change whenever
one of them got their hands on whatever
the big game of the month
was that's like this is like software
development
101 you got to like come up with what
you want to
build and build the thing like I mean I
understand pivots are important and
there are times you want to
Pivot but man every time you pivot you
should just consider that the likelihood
of your project being successful just
like got cut in half agile do
so agile do say so I mean this sounds
very agile right they're they're
planning they were planning two weeks at
a time you know what I mean imagine the
abstractions dude it would get crazy
it'd get crazy it would get crazy sounds
like the development of JS yeah coming
to work on a shooter one day the next
day a mobile game all of a sudden next
day it's an MMO boys we got MMO Elden
rig I want Dodge mechanics sources
alleged that the game's character
creator had to be overhauled multiple
times to keep up with GTA online then
Hogwarts Legacy then balers Gate 3 while
the game settings a smoky oppressive
City had to be dramatically altered to
become brighter and friendlier after one
of the brothers played Spider-Man 2
imagine just for a second everybody
imagine you're just sweating and you're
designing for just weeks and months and
crunch time and just getting after it
and [ __ ] Toby Maguire Spider-Man
comes rolling into your office and
they're just like we got to change
everything we got to
change everything because this just
ain't qu dude I don't know if you know
this I don't know if you know about my
boy Toby over here I know Toby McGuire's
not in Spider-Man anymore but it's just
funny it's just funny to think Toby okay
oh my goodness it's just too funny this
is
just it's
crazy one former Dev said they only
learned the game was supposed to be an
MMO when they saw a trailer for
it I mean that's a genre like how do you
not even know what the genre is but that
pales in comparison to the reports about
how the game staff were treated a
fantastic has already drawn criticism
for its use of volunteer workers on its
project what how do you get someone to
volunteer but some of the details
alleged by former staff are mindboggling
fantastic is said to have made use of a
great deal of young inexperienced labor
drawn from its home base of
Yakutsk uh as well as other countries in
the former USSR very USSR Behavior right
here going on uh like uh Kazakhstan and
uh uh Armenia workers in other words
with no other
options
dang sources says there was a great deal
of voluntary unpaid overtime and months
of crunch one says they found myself
begging for a few hours break just to
find time for a shower or a meal I
mean the game industry has historically
been known as being one of the hardest
you know Industries to really be a part
of
but I'm a little bit surprised or I
guess I I shouldn't be surprised that uh
former
USSR somehow made it worse um this is
actually wild
that I can't imagine being in a
situation where I'm V and told to do
things and like I have no options
especially if they had to move like
cities or countries to get somewhere and
they're like stuck in a place in which
they don't maybe they don't even speak
the native language of the place that
they're in uh you know like this is a
effectively technical slavery of some
sort I mean I don't like
to toss out such foul accusations easily
but I don't see how any other ways to do
this that's crazy never work for a rusi
never work for a ruski man one claim
backed up by several game 2 sources says
that the employees were made to pay
fines uh to the company for turning in
sub uh substandard work with uh some
reportedly forced to pay $1,900 for poor
quality uh poor quality voice recordings
others were kept on their toes by a
company policy of spontaneous
termination one what spontaneous
termination is that a medical disease
what what is spontan a spontaneously
terminated uh one of the day's five
testers was apparently fired from the
company just before release after one of
the uh gotv encountered a bug I feel
like uh the go-to brothers considered
harmful of course uh you know there's
some there's something magical about the
fact that they have the word goto in
their
name and they also being a disaster
but it sounds
like I feel like the only just
punishment is that they have to learn to
program and do it voluntarily and then
have to get fined and they have to do it
and they have to beg for showers I feel
like like how are these people held
accountable for anything because let's
just say all this is true right do they
like are these people in some sort
of are they actually going to get in
some sort of trouble I don't know I
don't know the story of of of the the
founders but this is just wild like
imagine that you actually you have to
kind of think about this that I I think
everybody's capable of of quite a bit of
evil right um you know and I always
worry about like the people that I
really really look up to and what what
happens when what they're doing gets
exposed like right now like the doc
right he's building a a game studio
right now the thing that I just don't
want to hear and I'm I'm just hoping it
never happens is that the doc comes out
and it turns out he's like just a
horrifying boss and he and he runs a
terrible studio right like that's
honestly I know that sounds crazy but I
think about that kind of stuff like
because I I want him to be awesome I
want
not the doc man I know I I I I just want
to believe he PE sitting down okay
that's rude that's rude let's not just
make unabashed claims like that um never
meet your Heroes kids I know but you
just have to think about like what does
it take for somebody to get into this
position right what does it
take for you to become this person
because you had to you had to think that
these people didn't start
off like this right like and what do you
do that is leading you down this
path does that make
sense because how many people how many
people as they you know as you start
Rising you start doing all these things
your expectations of people kind of rise
with your
ability you know I think I think it's
very easy to look at somebody and just
see the evil in them and to pretend like
you got none of it yourself you know
what I
mean I don't know uh as for the the goto
themselves uh it seems no one quite
knows where they've ended up in the
aftermath of Fantastics closure the pair
went awall around the game's launch a
fact that several staff attribute to for
knowledge that the game was in a dire
State the only and only reappeared to
shudder the studio via Microsoft teams
several of game 2 sources believe that
the pair has started from scratch a new
new studio making mobile games but it
remains unclear which one if that's even
the case dang uh the day before was one
of the last uh year's most uh utterly
chaotic launches managing as it did to
build anticipation and get a huge number
of pre-orders on the back of the footage
and promises that we know uh we now know
we're hiding the true state of the game
you know like I remember you know before
I went to Netflix I worked at a place
called Web filings that's now known as
where ke and the team I was
on it was fairly chaotic I was doing
like 70 hours every single
week flying out to Arizona monthly doing
code jams right and it was
hard and it was like not a like it was
not like I look back on it still fondly
in the sense that it was one of the
times that I grew the most as a as as a
developer and it really enabled me to be
more successful but I still at the exact
same time think about that as like how
do I want to say this because these
people got forced into a situation
whereas I got to opt into it now if you
get to opt into something you get paid
well enough you get paid to a price that
you agree to and you have to do some
hard work for a little bit I will say
that it's one of the most beneficial
things I've ever done for me personally
in my career um you know I agreed to the
work I did the work and when I was tired
of doing it I did find a different job
and and and and moved on with my life uh
but it was extremely beneficial for me
but 70 hours that's 14 hours a day uh
hours a weekday yeah well I worked on
the weekends too but it didn't suck that
much right yeah it didn't suck that much
the thing is is that I had you know it
was also a pleasant you know there's a
lot of things that were pleasant about
it um I definitely wasn't paid that well
for sure uh for the work I was doing I
definitely wasn't paid that well but at
the end of the day you know it it really
made me the developer I am so when I
hear you know when I hear people being
allergic to having to work really hard
you know I think that you also miss out
on some things that just can only come
with experience and it's really hard to
get experience if you're just not
putting in entirely too many hours right
uh you work a weekend for Netflix no I
don't I mean I there there's been times
I have right but these people's
situations obviously eff up I mean
volunt volunt holding somebody and
effectively what sounds like some form
of weird like slavery of being in a city
they may not speak even the language of
and being forced to do things that I
mean that's crazy uh do 70 hours a week
on building site that's uh that's hard
work it is it it's hard work uh before
the launch the game faced uh severe
delays after baffling argument with a
calendar app and didn't do much to
assage anyone's fears when it first uh
when its first gameplay demo looked
almost uh determinedly generic when it
launched it met predictable mockery and
Scorn only for fantastic to close its
doors 4 days later the game itself has
now been extricated uh or ex extracted
from existence the remains of the
studios's management have since blamed
its poor performance on hate campaign
aign by
bloggers classic really it's really the
Blogger fault that it's it's that that's
really what caused the problem if if
that sounds astonishing you haven't
heard half of it it's worth going and
checking out the game 2's full
documentary on YouTube it's in German
but has English subtitles to get the
full picture of just how messy and
chaotic last year's messiest most
chaotic game really
was
I knew Game Dev has a lot of problems
but that's wild I've never heard of
anything like this what
game the day
before it was
depressing I just have a hard like I I I
have the problem I have is I just have a
hard
time I just have like a hard time of
putting my M like my my head in this
mindset where you'd want to do that to
anybody or where you would see that's
the only way to progress forward in
something I mean it just sounds like I
mean I feel bad for anybody that has you
know like in some sense a lot of people
experience some very extremely mild
version of this if you've ever worked
for any product manager compan that
constantly changes which direction
you're
going I mean that alone is just so
difficult I don't know if you've ever
been
in in a scope change uh scope change
place but it's really really hard and
it's
not and it's not just hard because like
the problem isn't that you're just
working on new stuff it's just that you
can never actually build anything right
everything's just like rebuilding
constantly without actually ever getting
anywhere I hate having to wait for
corporations to write games and software
because the little guy won't get out of
bed
what I don't I don't there must be some
sort of joke that I'm missing on the
other end of this
one play something Saxman uh hey that's
why we're
agile uh you need to finish something or
else you'll feel like dooo yeah constant
refactors are a grind yeah dude I am not
a fan of refactoring like generally I
try to stay away from it if I can uh
just because it
is it is really hard I think indie games
uh doing better is a sign people don't
want expensive uh sightseing interactive
movies they just want simple fun ones
yeah I think I mean that's probably true
uh the little guys are too busy racing
neovim to make games I think the other
problem is is that people are also
um the problem with AAA games is that
there's an Ever larger and growing
desire right uh for more and more
fantastic whereas with Indie Games that
same expect is just not
there you know like when you play an
indie game when I download a when I
download a simple game I just don't I
don't have nearly the same expectations
that I do of a AAA
game like if I'm going to go play
another like
RPG like kind of like an offline RPG
like I'm coming in there with with Elden
ring
expectations like I'm gonna need a
finished ass game that's
absolutely incredible and if it's not
incredible I'm just going to be like ah
this game this doesn't even feel cool at
all right like even if like go play even
like even some of the older Halos don't
feel as
good Bowlers Gate 3 was
incredible but I just you know like when
I go play turo turro was a AAA game of
the most amazing game category and now
it feels feel like
clunky like H you know what I mean yeah
but if like even this even Halo 1 go
play through the Halo 1 campaign and it
starts to get kind of like really
repetitive you know and that's perfect
dark Perfect Dark was so dang much fun I
played thousands of multiplayers of
perfect
Arc and that was one of the biggest
games out there and yet that you know
like that's the problem about triaa
games is that they they age
differently you know they just they do
truly just age differently and maybe
it's just the 3D nature of the whole
thing I don't know Perfect Dark was just
a reskin of gold ey too it was a reskin
of gold ey but it was more there was a
lot more to it games made by ID still
hold up yeah ID's really good I don't
know if I don't know if triaa games
aren't games anymore they're still very
much so games it's just that now the
requirement to be able to tell a story
has grown so much I mean but at the end
of the day games are no games or story
or no Story the day before was the
greatest fumble of all time people want
a zombie RPG shooter dark city feel like
that would be fun that would be a lot of
fun to play I think a lot of people
would enjoy such an
experience but
man it just I mean this also just goes
to show how much does management
like f these things if you don't have a
clear vision of what you're building
because I know a lot of you are trying
to start do startups and all that I know
a lot of you want to be able to build
your own company and all that this
should be the greatest and most clearest
indicator of come up with a direction
make sure you think the directions the
right
direction and like commit to it long
enough to see something
through you know because if you're if if
you're inspiration changes by the wind
of every new product that's coming out
you're
not you're never going to be
successful now you may never turn into
this you may do this to yourself in some
sort of sense where you're just
programming non-stop to try to keep on
you know keep on pushing through
everything but at the end of the day
you're never going to be successful you
just can't do that I don't want a
company I want to write code well at
some point you got to do something with
your
code
you know what I mean you still got to do
something with your
code I'm working on a sass yeah all
right anyways I thought this was really
interesting I feel really bad for all
the developers involved in this and
everybody involved with this and I sure
hope that the uh that the the go-to
brothers uh that I I I surely hope that
they somehow find themselves in a good
oldfashioned uh prison for for such
things um and it also just really goes
to show that I think a lot of us you
know America has obviously really great
software and Dev culture if you will and
I know you know the pay is very good and
then as you go to other places around
the world the pay is not as good but
still it's it's it's it's fine I guess
uh but man it can get really bad you
know even the things that we enjoy the
the Hobbies we get to enjoy uh the
programming programming is literally a
hobby that we get get to get paid for it
can be terrible so if you if you're not
in this you know just remember you know
I know that remember somebody else has
it worse is always like not a really
great way to be motivated but it is I
mean for me it's it it kind of puts a
sobriety in my head that there
is that when I'm not feeling thankful I
got to remember just how good I do have
it and try to like recount the things
that I think are actually really good
and be happy about
it you know what I
mean and even though it's it's not easy
to
do
there's a lot of some good stuff out
there and you got to you
know it's good to it's good it's good to
be able to remember the blessings you
have and to count them because I mean
you could be someone that's in a a
country you're not from not being able
to speak the language you're speaking
and begging just to have enough time to
eat and take a
shower
that's effed
up a Jen