We Happy Few - Welcome to Wellington Wells, you Saucy Minx
Created by Compulsion Games
A game of paranoia and survival, in a drugged-out, dystopian English city in 1964. From the studio that brought you Contrast.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Update #108 - Travelling Fast
almost 9 years ago
– Fri, May 19, 2017 at 04:10:56 PM
Hey everyone,
Nothing major to announce this week except that the team is working hard towards the next update. We also had a call with [REDACTED] for the soundtrack for We Happy Few and we couldn’t be more excited! Any guesses?
Art Team
Marc-André
This week, I have been doing a bunch of fixes here and there. Visual gameplay issues, material tweaks, etc.
I am in the process of improving the first two garden district islands, adding variation to the building shapes and materials. The goal is to make them feel less repetitive and uniform.
I have also started to tweak the buildings that will later appear in a new biome - the often rumoured Parade District! I added decorators to them and fixed the most glaring material issues.
Near the end of the week, I did a sign integration pass for the two underground construction levels. I also fixed footstep sound issues for the majority of the next update's encounters.
Carylitz
This week was all about fixing things, so the first task was to add some Joy booths in some parks and art them up. I also created the material for the buttons of the Jubilator, and made some bug fixing in the bridges, again. After all that I had some time to start on my first location! But this I will show next week (:
Narrative Team
Alex
Every now and then we tear ourselves away from the day-to-day of building encounters to tear down and rebuild one of the playthroughs. These past few weeks, it’s been Miss Thigh Highs.
I think it’s fair to say our cutscenes are fairly complex and cinematic for video game cutscenes. I don’t know how much carnage other teams have, but I suspect most dev teams don’t iterate as much on the cutscenes as they do on gameplay. We’re iterating on both.
So I’m rewriting almost every single script in the playthrough.
Naturally this means a flock of new recording sessions coming up. We also felt that one of our character voices wasn’t as charismatic or as menacing as we wanted. So I proposed recasting. That meant looking at about 200 submissions from Britain, listening to 70 demos, sending 15 actors an audition text to record, doing a directed callback with seven actors, all in order to pick the guy we thought was the best.
I’m pretty sure most dev teams don’t recast. It’s expensive. But why not take advantage of the iterative nature of videogame development in the story as well as the gameplay? If someone’s not bringing it, why leave the results in the game?
Every game teaches you how to make that game. If we ever have to make exactly this game again, it will be super easy.
As soon as I’ve re-recorded and re-cut all these scenes, it will be up to the animators to block (and in some cases re-block) the scenes. It’s a lot of extra work, but I hope you’ll be pleased with the results.
Design Team
Hayden
Hello folks,
This week my focus was on realization for two of our encounters (and a third to follow next week!); though most of the work fell onto our animators, artists and programmers—who have done such an awesome job at complementing our design vision.
To explain it a little better; let’s assume we already have the idea for the encounter squared away, the narrative is in place and the level is built, all the basics are there (I won’t speak for everyone, as a lot of folks here can nail their shit down on the first attempt; for me, it’s a totally iterative process—sweet, sweet layers of “cool, that works!” and fixed mistakes).
During this realization phase, we lean on the animators and artists to help bring in the bells and whistles, the sparkly bits and bedazzle beads that help create a cohesive vision.
In this case, I’m fortunate to be working with these guys; as they not only have these amazing artistic chops, but they also bring a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo to the table—totally helpful. Let’s put it this way, there is no doubt in the world, the combined ability of this outfit can construct anything your video game brains can think of – it’s just a matter of time.
With that said… A lot of my week was talking with artists and animators, prepping and repairing script for placement of matinees and conversations, fixing bugs here and there, reworking previous ideas that fell short, and to put it simply, keeping my head above water and completing these levels—as a friend of mine from Beijing once said when asked how his day was going, “Work is many!”. It’s true, work on this project is many… But so fucking worth it.
Adam
Long week. But a good one: I started on the final character's playthrough!
Eric
Ditto’ Adam’s long week comment. Getting near finished on the underground level I am working on, and making a pretty crazy playable sequence that I’m sure we’ll show something from it soon. Making it work has been easy, making it work and look perfect has been a strange challenge. It should be pretty wicked when it’s done though. I’m pretty happy with it so far. Next week should start back on some fixes for some of the old encounters to sneak in a few more fixes for the next update.
Programming Team
Michael
I have started working on a new gameplay system, Fast Travel.
Now that our procedural worlds are getting so big it makes sense to give the players a way to cut down the amount of playtime they spend traversing across the islands when they are heading somewhere specific. The fast travel in the game will make sense within the world, and will even explain more about the functioning of Wellington Wells.
To start I have built on top of the current respawn code, which already moves the player to certain points in the world. I have also added a little interface on top of the map menu which lists out the locations that the player can currently travel to.
It won't be possible to just open a menu and move anywhere in the world; Fast travel will be possible only between a discrete locations that the designers have placed in the world.
It’s early stages, but it should be very cool and add a lot when it’s finished.
Thanks for tuning in!
Compulsion Team
Update #107 - Nothing to see here...
almost 9 years ago
– Fri, May 12, 2017 at 11:36:59 PM
Hey all,
We are sure you are all wondering when the next update is going to drop. Well, wonder no more! E3 is coming up in the middle of June (we are attending but not showing anything) and so as not to overlap with it, the next update will likely be coming end of June, or early July. Remember when we had our Kickstarter at the same time as E3 in 2015 and almost didn’t meet our goal? HA HA HA Good times.
Animation Team
J.R.
Hi guys! This week was more of the same encounters for me; a lot of fun and a good amount of polish. The little teaser from last week especially turned into something pretty neat! What I can say is that it was a cool challenge to animate something completely new. For me but also for the game. As Arthur, a Jubilator gets a little bit out of control... turns out these things don't brake too well. It's a super fun cutscene, but we'll keep it as a surprise for the next update :)
What I will show you however is a conversation I’ve animated this week. We usually don’t show many conversations, but this one is different. There have been encounters in the past, Remi’s Johnny Bolton for instance, where the conversation system alone didn’t cut it. When the dialogue tells a story that’s more specific, or when there’s more action going on, conversation assets have their limits. In that situation, we use the same talking animation bank but we import them directly into Motionbuilder, our animation software. From there, once we’re happy with the dialogue, we can add layers of details, corrections or even straight up “from scratch” animation sequences.
In this scene, we show a lady reporter making a scene at two rather unimpressed doctors, using the techniques I wrote about. See if you notice the difference with animations you might be familiar with!
Vincent
Following on last week, encounter animation continues. In one of them, reporters frantically write insightful articles (about the new Joy coconut flavour apparently, can’t blame them, coconut rocks, especially with pineapple and rum... don’t drink and drive). They have a few variations, transitions and they sometime stop to drink a cup of well deserved coffee! Here’s a peek:
Apart from this delightful adventure I went through some conversations between two terrible heirs (that you can spy on through windows), as well as others between Arthur and an old dying soldier. Also prepared some scenes for our new remote animator Mark to start working soon, and continued on the giant robot I showed you last week. Busy busy.
Design Team
Adam
I have been “working” on the story mode, which I can’t say much about. But I can say it’s going a lot smoother than we were originally anticipating. I’ve blocked in 3 quests so far this week. I’ve also been fixing some bugs and plugging in new stuff for the underground encounters.
Eric
Woo, back on making new stuff this sprint. Last month was all bug fixing old encounters. Old encounters in which I may or may not have stuffed in some secrets or new things. We’ll see. You never know. :o
Blocked in a test encounter for something I don’t think I can talk about, but the rest of my week has been working on the first underground level with Guillaume, and JR. Unnngghh... the animation JR made was so sexy. Just wait. Think it’s going to be pretty sweet when it’s done. In the meantime you might want to practice throwing corpses until it ships. :)
Art Team
Marc-André
This week, I've yet again been working on a lot of different things. Monday, I created a new backlit panel with light bulbs to indicate the underground stations. Tuesday, I did some cloth simulation, added flower paintings to the reporter's house, created a crate variant that is painted red for lootable objects, did some level adjustments for animation and started adding decorators to the street arches in the village. For the rest of the week, I put all my efforts into creating the 2nd old soldier's house. To do a house in a roughly two days is quite a challenge, but I was surprised with what I was able to come up with with the little time I had.
Programming Team
Michael
[Note to editor: sorry, it’s a rambling mess]
This week we added some animations into the inventory screen to continue trying to make it the most exciting part of the game. In the future, people will use “too busy having fun playing with We Happy Few’s inventory screen” as an excuse for missing work, and it will be accepted, and they will be given a raise.
Anyway, it’s really starting to look good now. Now that it is fully functional, I’ve been playing through the game with it to try and find improvements that can be added and bugs that can be fixed.
Here’s what my testbed looks like. It’s messy, but I spend so much time there it’s like home. Sometimes I’m sure Mrs. Stokes is looking at me:
[Ed response: Can’t see any difference =D Also, [redacted] ]
Thanks for tuning in!
Compulsion Team
Update #106 - Pretty, pretty, pretty good update
almost 9 years ago
– Fri, May 05, 2017 at 05:27:28 PM
Hi everyone,
We have a pretty fun and compact Journal for you this week. Python like machines, human sacrifices, fashion shows, these are a few of our favourite things!
Before we get into it, here is our third and final episode of our series on “Building story inside encounters”.
Narrative Team
Lisa
It’s May, but I’m still thinking about Easter eggs – the game variety, that is. We Narrative Few give a lot of thought to small things you find in the game. For instance, this week I was asked to write nameplates for each reporter’s desk in the Hamlyn newspaper office. That meant the reporters all needed names. So here’s what I came up with:
Currer Bell, Nuptials
Charles Dodgson, Tea Parties
Eric Blair, Television Critic
Clive Hamilton, Chronicler
Mary Ann Evans, Ladies’ Page
Mary Westmacott, Crime
Players who enjoy literature or Googling will realize they’re all British novelists with pen names. Our television critic is famously not fond of telescreens. Mary Westmacott likes to solve mysterious deaths in the Village. And so on.
I also mulled topics for new Uncle Jack shows this week, and realized that they could have Wellington Wells sponsors. So you may eventually hear ads for things like “Summerisle Matches -- great for birthday cakes and other celebrations!” (If you haven’t seen The Wicker Man, Summerisle is a town that enjoys burning human sacrifices.)
So, yeah, that’s where my brain is.
Alex and I hope someone somewhere might get a laugh out of these homages. But even if names and signs are just viewed as background, we believe that using real British names helps make the world of Wellington Wells feel rich and real.
Art Team
Marc-André
This week I did a bunch of small stuff:
-Monday: Kept working on level art for the Butcher’s house. I added lights and progressed staging some areas that hadn’t been completed yet. Added new missing elements in the scene, such as clothes/rags to preserve the georgian-styled walls from many blood stains. I fixed a few Jira bugs (visual & sfx). I also did some cleanup (level merging and moving actors to their proper layers).
-Tuesday: I arted up the speaker's corners' community billboards (3 levels), which are now full of Sarah’s illustrations. These will be scattered across one of the village islands. There will also be an alternate way to initiate some of the quests.
-Wednesday & Thursday: I spent most of those days doing the 2D Art / Environmental narrative pass for the newspaper office and the reporter's house. I optimised, imported and laid out a lot of signs and notes from Sarah. I created some 2D art of my own (awards, labels, etc.) for the newspaper office. After that, I created various pieces of meat with the most intricate shapes. They will show their purpose soon enough.
-Friday: Spent the day doing the 2D Art / Environmental narrative pass for the Butcher’s house. Also improved staging & lighting (it’s never good enough) throughout the level. Rewired the material to support button colors for additional gameplay feedback.
Guillaume
Hi!
Same as last week, I kept working on the underground, adding a new area.
Carylitz
More props and maps! It has been a really busy week (a lot of work to do before flying away for a week) so I have been helping and supporting the team with some props for their encounters and making some art passes to some maps.
Design Team
Adam
I have been working on Arthur’s last shelter: the Parade District Shelter. This one is a fun one. It involves a fashion show. It’s in pretty early stages, so the art isn’t all pretty yet… but it will be.
Programming Team
Michael
This week has been a bit less focused for me than the previous two. I’ve been going round cleaning up tasks that have been building up while the inventory screen was taking up my time.
We had an issue where all the glorious writing that was going into the game for the encounter objectives was regularly getting deleted by our editing tools, so that seemed like a good thing to fix. Also an improvement to the merging tools our artists use to optimise levels. So two things that don’t actually affect the game, but help us make it.
The inventory screen continues to improve with new features and fixes. This week we were thinking about the feedback we want to give the player when they are in the shop screens, particularly when the shopkeeper doesn’t want something you have. Here’s my inspiration:
Maybe too much.
Clara
Back on UI this week again. We are getting closer and closer to something efficient that looks like... something. It’s still very shaggy but it’s definitely going somewhere. My main focus this week was building and adjusting the shop screen based on Sarah’s design.
Not quite done yet as we are missing description panel for the objects, but you’ll be happy to know that stacking is a bit more effective now (thanks to some coding magic from Michael):
Before
After
500 rocks, 200 carrots and 100 shovels. That was my week.
Animation Team
Rémi
This week, the whole team shifted back to gameplay/encounters. This means I had to start the month by rigging a few machines. Because obviously, we need the machines rigged before we can animate them! Mechanical rigging is usually easier, since we don’t have to deal with all these organic parts. We just bind the skin so it follows certain bones at 100% and it’s done. I’d say that the most important part for mechanical rigging is the planning. Make sure you know what the machine will be used for and what kind of movement it will have to do. Ideally, you get to sit with the modeler and level designer before you create the model, so you can make sure everyone’s on the same page.
These machines are very… interesting! I’ll let you guys try and guess what they are used for.
If you think you’ve guessed right, let us know in the comments.
J.R.
Hello again ! Like Remi said, we are again focusing on gameplay and encounters this month. On my end, that meant working with the level designers to get the scenes set up with all the actors, new animations and new conversations.
I also had a lot of fun playing with the Jubilator™ recently. A very intriguing vehicle to say the least! I started by polishing the existing animations, basic locomotion mostly. Then I started doing some more fun stuff. I mean you have to wonder, what is this machine for really...? Here's a video to give you a peek at the Jubilator's™ most important role in the respectable districts of Wellington Wells.
Vincent
The week started by rigging duty on the big construct (err… robot, looks like I played too much Torment lately) that Cary showed you some time ago. I did a little test animation to make sure everything works well :
There was a few tricky details in the model like pistons and wires, they added a bit of work but they help give some believability to it…
Next step along with Ben is having this baby animate well, it needs a proper Animation Blueprint and co.
On the side I also did some quick tests to see how the Jubilators could ‘vacuum clean’ the streets of corpses. Yes. That is weird. Playing around with rag dolls would avoid having to align properly the Jubilator to the characters. Of course, that could also introduce some bugs. But who really hates rag doll bugs ? They’re always entertaining to say the least.
Thanks for reading!
- Team Compulsion
Update #105 - UI visuals and new quickslot system!
almost 9 years ago
– Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 02:50:54 PM
Hi everyone,
Short update this week as a lot of people are working on the story. We now have a full playable story walkthrough in the game! We will be talking about this more towards the end of early access, but we just wanted to keep you updated. It still needs a lot of tweaking but it is an exciting step forward.
Programming Team
Michael
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When the team gives you a great design for a new inventory menu, start building the new inventory menu, and buy some lemonade because it’s going to be a lot of work.
Based on our new weight-based inventory system that I showed last week, Eric (one of our designers, not the runner) has gone through and given each item in the game a weight, which is exciting! Did you know that a ‘Head Knocker’ weighs 6kg? I do now.
As a result, the inventory screen is in the game now for testing, along with something else I’ve been working on: the new quick slots system.
We decided to rework both the inventory and the quick slots so that you spend less time managing your stuff, and more time in the game itself. So, the new system for quick slots doesn’t require assignment (like the current one does, where you have to assign an item to a slot before you can use it), but instead allows you to scroll through usable items outside of the player menu - aka, when you’re running around, in game.
We’ll also be assigning healing items to an always active quick slot, so that you have quick access to it whenever you’re in a spot of bother (you won’t have to scroll through all your items just to find a healing balm).
Clara
I’m a programmer this week! Sort of. While Michael works on the functionality, I’ve been using his system to upgrade the UI art. This is where I’m up to:
Before
After
We’re using Unreal’s built in UMG system, which has meant lots of time spent learning a new system. This is my experience with Unreal so far:
Art Team
Guillaume
Hi people!
This past week I’ve continued working on adding more details to the undergrounds and lighting that will give more personality to each room.
Carylitz
For this week I got to work on textures. I got the chance to work on a character that we have in game. We needed him to be not alive or sick, but something different… it was quite an experience, and it required some really interesting research. I also worked on a rusty iron chest, a board for one of the new quests and a pink box. When the props were done I had some time to go over some park maps to update them, and I will be working on this for the next week too.
Marc-André
This week I worked on one thing: the butcher's creepy house. I finished the blocking of the main stairs and started to lay out the props and do a lighting pass. I laid out his machines throughout the house. I also worked on his cooler room and laid out the base for his cellar. I created a few additional props such as a victorian bed, ventilator and protective sheets.
I believe that, when it's completed, it will be one of the most iconic encounters of the game. I'd give more details (and show screenshots) but I don't want to spoil the surprise!
<no picture this week, since they’d really spoil the encounter>
Design Team
Adam
Mostly been working on story stuff this week, but I did get a chance to update
bits and pieces of the Jubilator Attacks level. We now have a functioning car wash (jubilator wash).
A fun fact: we now have a completely “playable” story walkthrough, front to back.
The rest of the design team has been fixing up bugs from older encounters, while we wait on art to finish up with the new stuff.
Animation Team
Vincent
Hola! This month has been all about cinematics animation, but brace yourselves, for next month, we finally start adding animations to new encounters the LDs have been milling though during this sprint!
Wish us luck.
Thanks for tuning in!
Compulsion Games
Update #104 - UI and AI progress!
almost 9 years ago
– Fri, Apr 21, 2017 at 08:58:52 PM
Hi all,
It has been a week now since we’ve released the hotfix for the Maidenholm Update on PC and released the Maidenholm update on Xbox One! We love getting your feedback on it, so keep it coming! In the meantime, work continues full steam ahead on our next update, and as always, on the main story.
This week we also released part 2 of our Youtube segment “Building story inside encounters”. This episode is focused on the design process of encounters. Stay tuned for next week’s episode on the polish process!
Animation Team
Remi
Hey everyone! This week, most of the animation team is still working on cinematics. For me, I worked on finalizing and polishing one of the cinematics, and started on the first pass animation of the final ending scene of one of our 3 playable characters.
In the meantime, here’s a gif where you see Adam doing one of the Simon Says animations.
Art Team
Carylitz
I finished it! Can't tell you much of this giant robot... I will let you guys use your imagination, but I can tell you a little bit about the whole process. It was super interesting because I had to do a lot of research on robotic parts and how mechanical joints work.
The park was pretty straight forward, I tried to include some trees but they were not working that great so I removed them.
And for the broche, I followed the concept of David (which was really clear), changed few stuff to make it work in 3D and voila.
Marcos-André
This week has been equally split into two parts. First, I finished up the first pass on the reporter's house. That included getting feedback from Whitney on a few things, doing the corrections and doing the light pass. Enjoy a few pictures of the new lighting :)
After that, I started doing the blockout for the butcher's house, where a very special encounter is to come. I've been working closely with David and Ben to validate the blockout and am now ready to add all the objects, textures and lighting that will make this space feel bloody special.
Guillaume
As promised last week, here are some screenshots of what I’ve been working on.
Again these are really WIP screenshots, as the lighting will change and I’ll add more objects to it, but the architectural structure is in place.
See you next week.
Programming Team
Michael
I’ve been continuing on the UI systems work this week. Feedback on the new inventory menu setup is coming in from the team which is exciting. Plenty more work to do. Here’s a screenshot of the revisions - it’s very ugly (I’m a programmer, not an artist) - but it should show you that we are moving to a weight-based system, instead of the fixed grid inventory we have now. No more inventory tetris!
This way we can have larger more readable icons for all your little toys, rather than limited to their space allotment. We still want players to be making the tough decisions over what they need to be carrying, but the design of the new menu should give you all the information you need to make these choices at a glance, and there will be quick ways to sort everything too. If there is any frustration in deciding what to drop it should be the emotion of saying goodbye to all those syringes you’re sure you’ll need in the future, not in trying to find out what it is that’s really weighing down your backpack, and what item is going to make you the next wasteland millionaire.
Also, the weather in Montreal has gone crazy, sometimes it thinks it’s summer and so we’ve had a chance to get back to nature and eat lunch outside. The weather has realised its mistake and is now providing plenty of rain to chase us back inside. Anyway, nothing a British person likes to do more, than talk about the weather.
Serge
In the last weeks, I've been working on the revamp of the A.I. so they become more predictable. You might remember my first post a few months ago where I was talking about moving away from simulation driven NPCs (non-playable characters) to a gameplay rules based approach.
The first aspect of that effort has been the stealth detection which rapidly lead to the search pattern! This is that last part, the search, that has strongly benefitted from that refactoring, as shown in this video:
If a Bobby is chasing you and you go hiding into a house, they will visit each floor before they quit the chase. That's the same behavior that is triggered by a home alarm. We can achieve that by using hand placed metadata on each floor of an encounter that is discovered by the code and then used to build a sequence of search positions for each agent.
Switching to the new system will happen within the next weeks and there will be a lot of regressions for me to handle! That's for the best and I can't wait to show you all the end result.
But before then, there's a second aspect that will change a lot and this is the conformity rules; and that will be for a next update so be patient :)
(ed note: regressions mean things that used to work, but are now broken thanks to new features.)
Design Team
Adam the Dance Machine
Well, I’m still working on story, and will for the rest of the game. I’ve been working on 2 major locations for Arthur to explore, as well as 1 or 2 medium sized ones.
Antoine
Oh hey ! I’ve been working on story. Some of the locations include the very ominous Doctor HQ located in the Parade District. I love working on gloomy creepy levels.
Eric the Spoony Bard
Nothing much to say really for this week. The last 3 weeks I’ve been on bug fixes. This week saw some fixes for Hallucinogenic Salad, Crazy Legs, Plague Bridge, Mystery Chest (which again decided to not spawn again), Haute Cuisine, and some other random stuff around the game.
Hayden the Remote
Hey folks,
This week I finished up some re-work on Speaker’s Corner as well as some work on bugs…
But that’s not important…
I also had a task to reconfigure a level that easily could have been an issue with our world generation, not to mention the dead end it caused along one of the main roads.
That level is Blood in the Streets, or as we call it, BITS.
The task seems simple on the surface; take the level, cut it in half, flip the back end around 90 degrees, reconnect everything and place it in a nice square package… Well, kinda square, at least. Problem is, there are so many little things to account for; from triggers located around the encounter that communicate with the gameplay script, to preserving the art that was already in place, to adjusting the spawning of the encounter. It was a lot more to it that just cutting it up and flipping it around--a common surgery, but risky.
With BITS on my mind all week, I began to feel nostalgic, so I put together a photo tour of her history. Dim the lights and bring the music on down, everybody be quiet…
Here we have BITS when she was just a little baby… you’ll notice an early prototype of the spanker, silly dev thought those police barricades would be enough to block all you crafty players.
As BITS grew older, it was decided that she should move out on her own and protect an important area of the game. At this point BITS had prototype spankers, and the length of the level was growing like a weed.
BITS soon found a home, but this new home would require a 90 degree spin and steel walls to block players instead of barricades--its network of spankers increased and everything was looking good.
Time went by, BITS was slowly maturing and new systems were coming online to help with the overall experience… But little did we know, she would once again become anxious for greener pastures.
BITS eventually moved to the Village. She wanted a new start; more security, stronger walls, and new friends. She had outgrown the Wastrels she knew before, her new friends in the Village were introducing her to more intense spankers that fed her appetite for blood.
It was as though BITS finally found it’s place in the Wellington Wells, she had purpose, and with that as her inspiration, she began to blossom into the level you guys play today.
Here we see the level just before Art was given the task to make it pretty! (Sorry BITS, fwiw, I thought you were beautiful) This would eventually become the version you guys are playing today. But nothing lasts forever, right?
BITS outgrew herself once again, she recently began to present potential problems with our world generation and she had a nasty habit of blocking the flow of traffic due to the addition of the police station at the rear of the encounter… Something had to be done, and that brings us back to the task I had this week…
The new BITS, ready for an art pass and hopefully her final resting place… And configuration.
As you can see, I chopped her in half, flipped her around and stitched her back together again.
She’s a little ugly now, but everything is there; all the parts that made this level from the first iteration are still present, the gameplay is similar, and there may even be a few new surprises.
All in all, BITS is alive, doing well and is expected to make a full recovery.