Delayed Steam pre-order hit The Day Before developer defends use of unpaid volunteers

UPDATE 29/06/22: Following Monday’s story regarding volunteers at Fntastic, the developer has provided a new update to Eurogamer.

“Essentially, the word ‘volunteer’ comes from the Latin word ‘voluntarius’, meaning ‘willing’ or ‘of one’s own choice’,” it explained.

“Anyone who is open to life can become a volunteer with Fntastic, and there are two types of volunteers. Today we have over 100 full-time internal volunteers (employees) from Singapore, Russia, the Netherlands, Thailand, Ukraine, Finland, Kazakhstan, and Belarus who work as engineers, artists, HR professionals, etc. We also have 40 external US and worldwide volunteers (supporters) who help with testing and reviewing our products at a very early stage.”

Fntastic additionally gave more insight into what its volunteers do, saying: “In addition to tests, external volunteers (supporters) help localise products into different languages.

“Last year, we ordered localisation for Propnight from a well-known large studio specialising in translations. As practice has shown, the result of their work was not so perfect. Most of it had to be redone with the help of our enthusiastic volunteers (supporters). In Propnight, together with these supporters, we found bugs, dealt with cheaters, and even organised our Discord communities.”