The Day Before studio is back to its old tricks. It asks people to design maps in a contest, where the lucky winner will receive their work in a video game, a copy for free, and no money at all.

Fntastic, the disgraced studio responsible for the self immolation of Steam's former most-wishlisted title, is back to its old tricks. The studio, which resurrected itself a month ago by promising to base its marketing and development on the principle "from now on" of honesty, is once again asking for people to develop their games for free. (via TheGamer).

Fntastic announced last week that it was working on Items, a multiplayer hunt for props. This announcement came immediately after the company cancelled a Kickstarter campaign which raised only $3k out of a $20k goal. It just needs someone to make it. You could be that someone! You could be the lucky one if you sign-up for a contest that the studio announced on its official Discord.

The announcement from the server's chief moderator stated that "this contest is an opportunity for you to unleash creativity by designing a card that will, if it won, be added to the future updates of the game." Fans are invited to submit a map in any style, be it a 2D drawing or 3D model. "Be sure to describe the map's layout, balance considerations and any other important detail."

The vast majority of maps will be thrown into the dustbin and the people who submitted them won't receive any compensation. The lucky winner will see their map "fully-designed and playable in game" with their name "somewhere," as well as a free copy if Items is ever released. Will there be any compensation for the work? 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. The Day Before was one of the worst videogame launches of last year. Before we found out that the developers of the game were reportedly forced to pay fines to their studio for work they deemed unsatisfactory and before the same bosses went missing after the launch, critics of the studio's use of "volunteer workers" were rife.

When the studio called for "Part-time Volunteers [who] can offer unique skills to improve or create new special features, the response from the outside was clear: "Don't Work for Free."

Fntastic has returned, but despite its "honesty" and "rebirth", it is almost immediately calling for a few lucky individuals to do the work that they should be paying for? It suggests that the studio may not have learned anything. But, as its CEO said, "shit happens."