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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 #63 - Important Backer Info - Please Read!
over 9 years ago – Fri, Jul 08, 2016 at 07:26:31 PM

Hey everyone, 

At only 2.5 weeks from release, things are getting pretty heated around here. We are currently finalizing the Xbox One build for certification, and so far, things are looking to be on track. Itshappening.jpg! 

This week’s update is a little more art focused as most of the programmers and level designers are mostly fixing bugs for the Early Access release! 

In case you missed it, earlier this week we were finally able to announce a few exciting things. First, the game will debut on July 26 for US$29.99 both on PC and Xbox One. We also announced some updated specs, the We Happy Few page on GOG.com, and how we will deliver Kickstarter Early Access keys (through BackerKit). If you would like to read the full blog post, check it out here! 

Important Backer info! 

Okay, backers! The time many of you have been waiting for is just around the corner. We will be distributing Steam and GOG.com (for our DRM-free backers) keys through BackerKit some time in the next two weeks. You will be able to add these keys to your account before launch (although the game will not be playable), and we should have plenty of time to sort out any account issues so you can play day 1 if you wish.

However, you must make sure that you have access to your BackerKit account. The vast majority of you have accessed our original emails, and signed up - great! 

For everyone else, or for those of you who have questions about accessing BackerKit, please email them at [email protected]. Failing that, if they cannot, please get in touch with us at [email protected] (but please, do try and contact them first, and please keep in mind that we will not be able to help with lost passwords, forgotten usernames, etc). 

Help us, to help you!

Narrative Team  

Alex  

This week I’ve been playing the game a lot. Hey, this is a fun game!  

Playing it, of course, I’m discovering various ways in which the world does not entirely make sense. For example, who is putting rotting meat in mailboxes? When that happens, I generally consult with the designers. Either I need to come up with a sensible reason for what’s going on, or we need to change what’s going on.  

It’s very important to me that everything in the game makes sense. It doesn’t have to make logical sense. Wastrels aren’t logical. Wellies aren’t logical. Human beings are rarely logical. But there is always a reason why people do things. Wastrels aren’t randomly crazy; they’re driven mad by guilt and sorrow, and whatever Joy has done to their memories. Wellies live in denial; their happiness is a veneer over the things they are trying so hard not to remember. Things they do should be revelatory of these themes.  

I’ve also been rewriting journal entries. If you go into Arthur’s journal, you will now find many things he has to say about what’s going on. Some of these things may be actually useful to solving the your problems in the game. Some of them will fill you in on Arthur’s past. Take the time to read them, when you’re in a quiet, safe place!  

Oh, and, letters. I’m not entirely clear who’s delivering the mail, but someone seems to be. At any rate, Wastrels and Wellies are writing to each other. Some of these letters will tell you about the people around you. Some of them will warn you about things you’re going to run into. Worth a read, I think.

Art Team  

Whitney  

This week I developed the rules for landscaping, vistas, and geographical layout of our world, specifically for the Garden District. More to come on this later.  

For now, here are a couple of concepts I did for the piñata scene in the intro. David helped with the rat bag blood explosion :) Initially we were going to have the rat in a bag to show that the Wellies actually did try to make their own piñata, but we decided against it for readability reasons. Showing them hit just a rat was more powerful and got the point across better. In these images I wanted to get across really how much Joy influences the Wellies' perception of their world.

 

Emmanuel  

I am finally working on the world! I have no idea what I am doing.

I’m just kidding. We tested some height variation/landscape concepts about a year ago, but I wanted them to be better! So now I am making them better.

Sarah  

This week has been all about signs, signs, and more signs! Whitney and I have been making neat shapes, and designing pretty bracket signs for the Garden District, that need to be equal parts authentic and forgettable. I made some new icons, and gave some existing icons a nice face lift!  

 

 

Thank you for tuning in!  

Compulsion

Update #62 - 27 days away from Early Access/Game Preview!
almost 10 years ago – Fri, Jul 01, 2016 at 12:56:01 AM

Hey everyone,  

Today we have another update on Thursday instead of Friday, because tomorrow is again another holiday, Canada Day!  

It will be a short update as most of the team is either fixing bugs or working on secret content for Early Access. Stay tuned for next week as we announce the price of Early Access.  

But, we don’t want to leave you hanging, so here is another Early Access sneak peek, and an update from Alex!

Narrative Team  

Alex

I’ve been working on rewriting the objectives and Arthur’s journal entries into the voice of the game. The journal entries are fun because I can write whatever I want without worrying what it will cost. I don’t have to record them, no one has to animate someone saying them. The player can take the time to read them or not. So I can scatter Arthur’s personal observations and backstory throughout them.  

It’s a bigger job than it looks, because as I go through them, I’m also discovering encounters that aren’t quite as they were designed, or don’t quite make sense within the world. My job is to make sure that every encounter makes narrative sense. A level designer might write a level so that you’re supposed to go here and dig that thing up. But how does Arthur know there’s something to dig up? Usually it’s a matter of retconning: I know that he’s supposed to do this, so what’s a good reason in the world of the game for him to do that. Sometimes it’s a matter of rejiggering the encounters, so the LD’s and I have a palaver. Rejiggering almost always makes the encounters more compelling; necessity is the mother of invention.  

Since we last spoke, I had the chance to get [person who Sam won’t let me tell you about] into the studio, and Arthur should have quite a bit more to say in this next build, and even more in the one after that. I also finally found the perfect person to play Percy. He’s a fantastic young actor named [hah, like Sam would let me tell you that]. I’ve been writing a lot of audio flashbacks that you will eventually hear. At some point, Percy will become real to you, the way he’s real to Arthur. Jose, Chris, Valentino (our sound partners at Signal Space) and I have also been recording multiple voices for all the NPC’s. You probably won’t hear them all in the next build – we have to make a face animation for every voice doing every line. We have software that does most of the heavy lifting, but there’s a fair amount of massaging that Remi has to do, to the point where he’s been whining about not being an animator. So that will all, I think, come out in the second EA update, not on launch.  

On a side note, every voice actor I’ve talked to is kind of embarrassed about the Brexit vote. It’s sort of like talking to someone who’s just announced they’re getting divorced.  

We’ve recorded every single passive conversation, dozens of them. You’ll have to ask the LD’s and the programmers when those are going in, but at some point, you’re going to start hearing some rather silly conversations around you, and also some rather illuminating conversations. Oh, and the Wastrels will have five new ways to tell you to fuck off. But hopefully they’ll do it less often.  

Meanwhile, the usual narrative directory things. What is written on this cabinet? What note does this guy have in his pocket? What does the end screen say? Could we please have a dozen letters you can find in the mailboxes? What are the signs on this bridge? What are the coins called? What’s a better name for Mrs Stokes’ letters? How would you describe a banger? What’s the description text for a light bulb? Can we have bunting in this building? (No.) What can we call this park?  

Each of these sends me down a rabbit hole, but I usually find something that amuses me, and hopefully will amuse you. Not everything is a narrative Easter egg. But quite a few of the names of places and people are there for some reason or another. Enjoy!  

Sam  

I’ve been having a great time telling Alex all the things he can’t talk about. Considering how much he writes every week, you can imagine that this is almost a full time job.

Thank you for tuning in!

Compulsion

Update #61 - Road to Early Access (July 26!)
almost 10 years ago – Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 12:37:59 AM

Hey everyone, 

This week we are posting the Weekly Update today (Thursday) as tomorrow it is a holiday here in Quebec! Tomorrow is Saint Jean-Baptiste, the national Quebec holiday, where we relax and hang out with family (or whoever will tolerate our presence). It’s a long weekend so we’ll be a bit quiet on the reply front. 

Otherwise, the team is back together at the office after E3 and we are gearing up for the Early Access release on July 26! 

Most of you are up to date with everything since you’ve been following us from the get go, but just in case you had any questions, we’ve made an updated FAQ. One of the biggest misconceptions new fans have is that they believe the game is a scripted linear story and they get turned off once they realize it is also a survival game set in a procedural world. As most of you already know, we have a story, we are just going to tell it in a different way :) 

If you wish to see some pictures from our E3 trip, we posted some photos on our Facebook page! 

We also did a lot of fun interviews at E3, here is one with Daniel Kayser from Epic and another one with BBC News. 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36556520 

We won’t be talking too much about Early Access until it releases (we’re in bug fixing mode) but we will show you some sneak peeks of Early Access content every week up until the release ;)

Programming Team  

Camille 

 Well, the cat’s out of the bag and Early Access is coming soon. This means we have to wrap up as much content as possible. UI-wise, this also means I get to go down my ever-increasing pile of TODOs and decide which ones are actually kind of important! I’ve been revisiting some of our UI screens over the previous two weeks and putting in place some ideas both functional and artistic. 

The first of which was the status screen, which had admittedly been a rough placeholder to begin with. With the revamp of the HUD the old coloured need bars that I was using there became somewhat obsolete and reusing the new elements would make more sense. Another objective is to provide more actual information about your status effects and how to fix them. So some extra space was allocated for them, although what the extra information will be still has to be worked out.

The other player menu that required revisiting was the journal screen. Specifically, our players might have noticed we had been using it to display letters found in the world, such as Mrs Stokes’s letters. But this wasn’t optimal, because the journal so far was only laid out for quests even though we specifically wanted to have lore elements visible somewhere. So a new section was made for those.  

And since our designers have been hard at work adding so many encounters, I’ve found that the journal could actually get quite cluttered. Therefore, I’ve added some sections in order to distinguish between the story, major and minor encounters you find.

And last but not least, where would we be without Jack Worthing? ...And all three shows we had of him!  

Truth be told, our broadcast system was inadequate and could only schedule a single in-game day’s worth of shows. Considering we have much more than that even now, it’s been a bit of a blocking issue if we wanted to deliver more content. I have decided that this could not stand and have taken it upon myself to address it.  

The result is more Uncle Jack than you could’ve imagined.

Arthur, why are you hoarding all these tellys?
Arthur, why are you hoarding all these tellys?

I have implemented a simple but sufficient broadcast system that takes our shows and scatters them at different timeslots throughout the day. It is randomized once every new game, so if you’re diligent enough, you should be able to watch a full serving of Uncle Jack.  

But don’t forget to eat, sleep and take your Joy! The shows keep playing regardless of what you do. If you miss one, better not die before you’re around to see a rerun.

Design Team  

Vince  

And there it is! The beautiful amazing intro that I poured all my soul in has finally been revealed at E3! That was such an amazing moment. Finally seeing something you worked on for months without being able to talk about it and then… BOOM! The whole planet sees it, and it has gotten a whole lot of love and positive comments from you guys, I couldn’t have hoped for more. Special thanks to all the good peeps at Microsoft for giving us this amazing opportunity.  

Besides that, we are still working hard to polish the Early Access version of the game, swatting bugs left and right and balancing the game so that you guys can get a good idea of what to expect in the full game. Of course, we will have lots of surprises for you along the way until the final release and we will continue working hard to make this game a success! With your help too, of course :)  

Mike  

Hey! This is week I added a bunch of letters in the game! They can be found in the mailboxes around the Village and the Garden District:

 

Thanks to Alex we can learn a bit more about the world of Wellington Wells with these! :D  

The rest of my week was bug fixes, bug fixes, and bug fixes!

Animation Team  

J.R.  

So you guys finally had a chance to see a whole story sequence without us being all secretive about it. How cool was that?! I hope you enjoyed the cutscenes, we got plenty more to come on our way to the finish line.  

Cinematics aside, coming back from the E3 week I got some time to tinker on a lot of gameplay animations and create some new ones to support encounters. I notably worked on the new takedown against sleeping NPCs, the infamous “pillow takedown”. (see below)  

I also spent a couple of lovely days making every NPC archetype puke properly. They now have facial animation to go with a nicely located particle emitter, thus making sure that the vomit comes out of their mouths. Other sphincters felt awkward.

 Thanks for tuning in!  

Compulsion

Update #60 - Oh What a Week!
almost 10 years ago – Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 08:48:01 PM

Hey everyone, 

So this week was a big week! Naila, Whitney, Sam and Guillaume flew to LA for E3. We were lucky enough to be invited by Microsoft to be on stage during their press conference where we were able to reveal the intro of We Happy Few and our Early Access / Game Preview release date: July 26th. In case you missed it, you can still watch the video on this link:

We also had 4 stations on the Xbox booth so we spent the whole event with people who tried our game. It looks like you like what we have to show so far! We’ve received 17 awards and nominations including Curse, Unreal, VG 24/7 and IGN for best adventure game, where we’re competing with...err...The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This is something that wouldn't have been possible without you guys - our Kickstarter supporters, PAX players, dev friends and everyone else. Thank you.

Globally, we’re overwhelmed with the amazing support we received this whole week and it gives us enough energy to recharge for the last sprint before release. 

 A few answers to FAQ, as a recap: 

  • The game will be available on Steam Early Access, Xbox One Game Preview and GOG.com Game in development on July 26th 2016, 
  • We’re targeting the Full Release for early 2017, 
  • We haven’t announced the price yet, but we will in the coming weeks, 
  • The scene we showed introduces the game, and will be part of the July 26 launch. We want to remind you guys that the rest of Arthur's story will be coming on 1.0. Game Preview and Early Access will be all about the gameplay. If we haven't been clear enough about this, please let us know and we'll explain further, 
  • We’re still working on the soundtrack, we’ll keep you posted later. 

And now we’re back at the office to make sure we deliver a fun Early Access experience! 

 Thanks for tuning in! 

 Compulsion

Update #59 - See you at E3!
almost 10 years ago – Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 07:26:13 PM

Hey everyone,

 

We are getting ready to fly to LA to attend E3! We might or might not be making a long awaited announcement next week… you’ll have to keep an eye out for that! If you are attending, come say hi! We think you’ll figure out where we are. Wish us luck, and if you like what you see, please help us spread the word!

Narrative Team

Alex

Some of my jobs are sort of big-small. They require much more thinking than writing. Generally they involve staring at the wall for forty-five minutes, giving up in frustration, and then getting the answer on the bike ride home. If that doesn’t work, a ten minute chat with my wife, who’s also a writer, usually gives me the idea I need.

So, I had to write an ending for the Early Access version of the game (it’s temporary until we have the narrative available). My first thought was to give an emotionally satisfying ending; but G felt that we didn’t want players to feel they’ve completed the game when we haven’t even completed the game. I needed to come up with something for Arthur to say that tells the players (a) there’s more coming (b) something about Arthur’s frame of mind.

Good action movies ramp up the pace nonstop starting around halfway through. But the filmmakers need to check in with the characters. So we contrive to pin down the hero and the heroine somewhere for a little while. They’re hiding, so they have nothing to do but talk. In TERMINATOR, it’s the scene in the culvert where Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese finally get to know one another. Kyle talks about John Connor and what he means.

So this is that. A brief time where Arthur is in no danger, and can check in with himself.

This is where it’s helpful to have something to say. Fortunately, there is a bit of philosophy at the heart of the game. “Is there a true self?” as Arthur is fond of asking himself. If you take pills to be happy, is that happiness true or untrue? Someone close to me hates taking his anti-depressants because he feels they make him be not-himself. Someone else close to me takes anti-depressants because he feels that he’s not himself without them – the depression is the external thing.

Like all good philosphical questions, there isn’t really a right answer to that one. Obviously, the game takes a side. But that doesn’t mean that Arthur knows what the right answer is.

So when you play through the EA release, you’ll get a bit of philosophy. But don’t expect emotional closure. For that you’ll have to wait till some time after the snows come.

Design Team  

Mike

Hey guys, this week I worked on the gameplay and navigation in a creepy mansion we can find in the game:

 Created a new park for the Garden District:

 And I’m working on a new top secret underground level ;)

See you next week!

Art Team

Weili

I don’t usually have the chance to include my work on the Friday weekly, because I am working remotely as a real life Wastrel in Asia, 12 hours ahead of Montreal! Here are some screenshots that give you a hint of what is now available in the environment.

 Butterflies and a damaged Bobby spawner

 Object of interest Shimmering prototype.

 Burning FX prototype

 Fog prototype

 Ghost prototype

Thank you for tuning in!

Compulsion