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 #58 - Short but sweet update!
almost 10 years ago
– Fri, Jun 03, 2016 at 07:36:47 PM
Hey everyone!
This week's update will be shorter than usual as most of the team is working on secret content for Early Access :)
Since we are getting closer to the Early Access launch (date yet to be announced but we promise, it will be soon) we wanted to clear up a few things:
All the backers who bought the game will receive a code for Early Access. Those that are already playing pre-alpha, you are good to go once the Early Access update rolls out.
The last update was the PAX demo and the next one will be the full Early Access launch. We hate going that long without putting out an update and we apologies but for Early Access we are pulling out the big guns, we need all the time and focus we can get!
Art Team
Marc-André
This week I spent most of my time working on the level art of a very secret and mysterious location you guys will be able to discover once Early Access is out. I also worked on improving the visual aesthetics of some of our existing assets such as the lead pipes.
Animation Team
Vincent
As a parting gift before his road trip, Vincent left us this lovely animation
Design Team
Mike
This week I worked on a new level, a house that’s filled with old ladies:
The house is also packed with highly dangerous security systems so you better be nice to them xD
Narrative Team
Alex
Along with all the dialog, we have been secretly recording songs. It turns out Bobbies sing when they’re lonely. So do Wastrels. So do some other fellows you haven’t met. Here are a couple of the songs you might hear in upcoming builds...
Thank you for tuning in!
Compulsion
Update #57 - Too steamy for Steam?
almost 10 years ago
– Sat, May 28, 2016 at 12:39:30 AM
Hey everyone,
Summer has arrived upon us. It might be getting hot and humid but as gamers, between the new releases, the sales and the shows, what an exciting time!
Remember to add the game to your wishlist to get notified once it goes live!
Without further ado.
Programming Team
Camille
I said I’d mention this in the last update, but some unexpected developments forced me to take a break from this last week. In any event, I wanted to take a minute to go over the new merchant interface:
We’ve had shopkeepers in the world for a while now, but they never did anything special beyond looking different from other NPCs. And while it is not trivial to implement, we did consider it important enough to have those shopkeepers actually sell wares and perhaps even buy them.
Our game may not be as complex as an MMO with regards to loot and a general economy, but it’s still important for us to balance those. So we’ve introduced currency to the game and will be building a small economy around the things Wellies need the most. This being a survival game and not an open world RPG, you’ll still have to scavenge and make choices about which things to keep or discard. But with a few merchants around the world, you’ll at least be able to barter and exchange some goods for different ones if need be.
The inventory screen was the most complex of all the player menu panes, and adding a merchant functionality on top of it makes it moreso. It’s been an interesting exercise to try and make trading communicate as much information as possible without cluttering the screen with extra elements and widgets. As a result, some things have been shuffled around, as can be seen in the above screenshot, and I’m hoping that the changes will improve the inventory experience both in and out of the merchant UI.
Animation Team
Vincent
Ahoy, guys and gals! Before leaving on vacation I’m wrapping up the scene that wraps up the Early Access playthrough… As you may know the main storyline won’t be included: we’re keeping that under our belt for the final release. Which means that the ending of Arthur’s playthrough will be temporary for Early Access. We could even say ‘Exclusive to Early Access’ if we were that kind of people.
But we’re not.
I can’t tell you much about the scene itself, you’ll have to discover it for yourself… all I can say is that it’s terribly mysterious…
Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be bidding my farewells to the team… then I have an impressively big country to explore.
Fare thee well!
J.R.
We’ve been working closely with the level designers to help them create a lot of new encounters. I personally worked on various animations that go from generic talking animations all the way to pole dancing! (see video)
I’ve also started developing a new workflow for NPC conversations. The idea is that from now on, we’ll be building a bank of different “talking behaviors” that we’ll be able to mix and match. For instance, we can start with a base of generic gesturing. Then depending on the audio we’ll be able to blend layers of expressions that range from happiness to anger, from high to low intensity, in order to match the actors’ emotions. This will let us tackle conversations more efficiently and add variation while re-using a lot of the same animations.
Narrative Team
Alex
This was another week of showing up, working frenetically, and then trying to remember what exactly it was I did. We’re all working on encounters, so it’s really a bit of this and a bit of that. Fortunately, I take notes.
Monday, I had another recording session with the redoubtable Samantha Lee, who voiced a crier, a scientist, various Wastrelles and various chirpy Wellettes. We now have 393 male encounter lines and 188 female encounter lines recorded, with more to write and record. The voices really add to the reality of what you see, don’t they?
Last week, I recorded Arthur: more barks, more encounters. That’s always fun.
There’s a small amount of carnage in the process. Sometimes I have to add a few lines to an encounter. That usually means I need to re-record the whole thing, because I’m unlikely to have the actor back in the studio soon (or ever).
Oh, and I’m recording songs for the NPCs to sing. Almost a dozen. Some of them traditional British pub songs, some old music hall songs, and one or two Gilbert and Sullivan songs for the bobbies to sing. Because why not?
Of course there’s always “David needs these 5 signs for Dr. Faraday’s lab. What’s on them?” So “care and feeding of Faraday” raises the question “what does a scientist eat?” I considered nothing but porridge but went with “only yellow food.” That in turn raises the question of what sorts of yellow food are available in our world.
And, “What do we hear on the phones in the Garden District”? I recorded a couple of short versions. I have a slightly extravagant idea for the long version. Some time in the next release, maybe pick up the phones in the Garden District.
And I’m recording a temp voice (me) for a mad revolutionary who is not at all modeled on Bernie Sanders. He wants you to spread the word.
And, “our game needs an epigraph.” Which translates to “sum up the entire game in someone else’s words.” These little things take thought. Sometimes my brain hurts and I start writing gibberish. That’s usually the sign it’s time to go home. But then answers come on the bike ride. So there you go.
Design Team
Hayden
Hello folks!
This big push for Early Access is upon us, and this week I spent a large portion of my time fixing bugs and smoothing out the rough edges of several encounters. There are a lot of new assets to implement; such as Particle FX, Animations, SoundFX, and these cool little Points of Interest that you’ll see NPC’s using throughout the game.
And though our focus has been on Early Access and giving you guys a great gaming experience, somehow, we still find time to make new encounters almost every week. So to celebrate the coming summer months, and for all you beach goers… Here’s a screenshot of a new encounter where you could really enjoy a late night dip in the water!
Mike
This week I created a BUNCH of objective notifications for the levels in garden district!
This will greatly help us know what our next objective is.
Also I fixed a bunch of bugs and hooked up some fresh new inventory icons ;)
Here’s a prototype level I’m working on in my free time:
Thanks for tuning in and stay HYDRAted!
Compulsion
Update #56 - All about encounters Update!
almost 10 years ago
– Fri, May 20, 2016 at 08:20:43 PM
Hey everyone,
A short update as everybody is focusing on in-game encounters. We’re busy improving the existing and adding new content everyday to make sure you all have fun when we finally release the game.
Stay tuned for bigger updates to come!
Design Team
Vince
Lots of stuff this week! Keyword is (again): Encounters! We want to be able to get as much content ready as we can for Early Access and that means revisiting all our previous unfinished encounters and making sure all these little details are in. That means pestering everyone else to get everything we are waiting for! And we still have to implement it and make it work correctly, too.
Oh, and new ones too. They are not always big and crazy with dozens of NPCs with dozen of voice overs and animations. We also managed to do a few new simple encounters. With the new world generation system, we can mark some encounters as “optional”, so you may, or not, stumble upon them in your game. That way you’ll get more of a unique experience for each playthrough.
I finally got around to adding some traps to the Garden District 2 Houses, actually putting together the models Warren made a while ago for the Tripwire Tin Can Alarms and fixing a bug or two. Now if these Wastrels would only stop setting off their own traps...
Next week is going to be all about ironing out as much bugs as possible, but you know what? I am very excited to actually play the game myself since we added so much content!
I’ll leave you with a little tease: you liked the PAX demo right? It had 4 encounters. But in our build we are making you guys right now… we are up to… MORE THAN 30!
...and more to come in the coming weeks also. :D
Mike
This week I worked on finalizing some more levels, including one with a swaggy Wastrel in it (sorry for the low-res image):
An another one that’s got a kind of ghost in it ??? I’m not too sure, I’ll let you guys find out:
Art Team
Sarah
This week has been an onslaught of signs, signs, and more signs. This little guy continues to be put through the wringer, the poor dear.
Animation Team
Vincent
Hehey ! We’re still going strong on encounters animation, here’s a little sample: two funny ones I did this week !
And that's all for this week! Thanks for tuning in!
Compulsion
Update #55 - Road to Early Access
almost 10 years ago
– Sat, May 14, 2016 at 12:15:02 AM
Hey everyone,
We are getting closer and closer everyday to our Early Access launch! We haven’t announced a date yet but once we are ready to announce it, worry not, we will post it everywhere :)
In the meantime as a reminder, you can always add the game to your Wishlist on Steam. Doing so will send you a notification once the game launches: http://store.steampowered.com/app/320240/
PAX East
In case you missed it, we released a video this week about our experience at PAX. We had an amazing time at PAX showing We Happy Few and meeting the community and our backers. We wanted thank you all for your support.
BackerKit Rewards
For our backers on BackerKit, there has been a mix up in the orders and therefore a slight delay in sending you your T-shirt/poster order. However, this has been resolved and your rewards are now on their way to you and should arrive next week.
Narrative Team
Alex
The past two weeks I’ve been primarily writing and recording (and occasionally editing) encounters. Also more systemic barks, and more passive conversations you’ll overhear if you stealth around. (I don’t think any are in the game yet, but we’ve recorded a passel.)
Encounters are odd beasts. I get the bones of them from David. He’ll say something like “a bunch of Wastrels are cooking a rubber ducky in a stew pot. If you get the duck, you get a recipe for Rick the Stunt Duck.”
Then I’ll say, “Okay, what’s the nonlethal version?” (We have been making progress towards the functionality that would allow a nonlethal playthrough; I think you’ll see it working in the next build. Although playing nonlethally will be a huge challenge, I think it introduces a moral dimension to combat.) And David will say, okay, if you talk to all of them, you get the ducky. And if you talk to all of them the next day, you get something else.”
So now it’s in my court. Why are four Wastrels cooking a rubber duck? What do they think the ducky is? How does your talking to them make them give you the ducky? (And by “talking,” I actually mean, “clicking E to interact.”) What changes in their perspective on life now that they’ve given up their ducky? How can I make that ridiculous and yet somehow humanly truthful?
A fair amount of my job is retconning David’s designs. “If this made sense, what sort of sense would it make?”
Meanwhile, the team keep me busy with questions like “what should be scribbled on this rock” to “what should we call this park on the map” to “what’s the tooltip for a bucket? Okay, how about a bucket full of Motilene?” to “what do you hear when you pick up a phone in the Garden District?” to “what do you call the hole a Bobby pops out of?”
Fun!
Programming Team
Camille
A friend of mine has been saying that since I don’t write in weekly updates, it must mean I’m not working. Sadly, the truth is, I haven’t been doing much visible work lately. But I’ve working heavily on UI this week, and I’ll soon be able to show off something that I can at least tease with the updated tooltips:
I’ve wanted a better display for stack count and durability for a while. But the more astute observers will ask, “Camille, why is there a pound value on this tooltip?” Combined with being able to find shillings in the game world, early access players might be tempted conclude that there is a merchant system in the works!
Art Team
Sarah
Hey all! This week I've been primarily making little pieces to support the different encounters, as well as some more fictional ads and some HUD/UI assets. Here are a couple of tid-bits from my week!
Marc-André
These past weeks I've been working really hard on some exciting locations for Early Access that will add a lot of value to the game. Gameplay wise, it's going to provide you guys with a lot of new experiences.
Art wise custom locations are a joy to play with. The artists get full control of how things are getting laid out (composition and lighting). Working on these locations means thinking creatively to use the most of what we have to create something new and fresh.
Since the week before PAX, when I first started to work on compositions and lighting, I've learned a lot. Since I receive a rough blockout of the scene/location by the level designers, I had to learn to break free from what's already in the level to make good level art. It's important to imagine the scene in your head by yourself and see it with a fresh perspective. I'm really happy to get blockouts though. Since we have different game designers, everyone has his/her own style so each blockout is unique and full of different ideas I probably wouldn't have thought about on my own.
The key to good environment art is making it look reasonably believable and functional, while adding what I like to call the "We Happy Few Touch", which is basically to add some cartoon/comical elements to the scene that only make sense in our world. Doing level art also means dealing with technical constraints like making sure the navigation mesh for the NPCs is big enough.
Recently I've been giving some love to older locations like the Butcher Shop to bring them to the high quality standard we're establishing and to secret locations I sadly can't show you guys yet - but they're awesome.
Design Team
Vince
Hey there! We are working our way to Early Access and getting everything setup properly. And of course that means, new islands setup. I spent some time populating the islands with all the new content you’re gonna be able to play. Of course, it can never work the first time… so there was a lot of back and forth with Matt, our procedural world magician. In the end, I finally got the new map working! It contains a lot of new and crazy NPCs and encounters :)
And of course, finalizing some of those encounters and reviewing them with David. Making sure all the little details are in such as all the crazy sounds, wacky animations, and of course, making sure the pathing still work as intended. Can’t wait for the big reveal!
Mike
This week I worked on finalizing gameplay in more levels, here’s two of them:
The portal attracts you in and then something weird happens ;)
This guy right here will give you a series of missions!
Thank you for tuning in!
Compulsion
Update #54 - It's our seventh birthday!
almost 10 years ago
– Fri, May 06, 2016 at 07:56:14 PM
Message from Guillaume, Creative director.
Hey everyone!
My job mostly consists mostly of helping all the other great people on our team do the work you see every week, but since Compulsion officially turned 7 years old yesterday, I thought I’d share a few pictures and thoughts about us throughout the years.
A rare picture of the team in our first office in 2010 - Derek (Producer), myself, Whitney (Art Direction) and Trevor (Level Design).
Great games are made when a bunch of awesome people from a bunch of disciplines get together, and the right financial conditions make it possible for them to succeed. But those same people are also attracted by studios that have already made such great games.
Paul-Étienne (Programmer), Sam (COO), Sylvia (Animator) and Whitney (Art Director) in 2012.
It is very difficult to magically assemble all of this when you’re starting out unless you’re some kind of charismatic industry veterans with a lot of money at your disposal. The alternative is to be patient.
And patient we were. It took 3 years for us to assemble a team, and accumulate money, to make our first project while doing contract work. It took 2 more years to produce our first game, Contrast.
Sam, presenting Contrast at the Sony PlayStation Press Conference in 2013
And through it all the team grew and bloomed as we all learned how to work with each other. Contrast was never intended to be a big blockbuster title…
Accepting an award for Best Innovation at the Canadian Video Game Awards in 2014
But it cemented our team’s creative and artistic values, and helped us build a place where it was safe to try and experiment with new ideas.
Winning at the inter-studio championship with our friends from Spearhead in 2014
It inspired a strong culture of pride and creative ownership within the Studio. When I look back on it, I’m still not sure what we did right along the way … There’s no secret formula to good team chemistry.
Josh, Whitney and Emmanuel setting up for our first public showing of We Happy Few at PAX East 2015
But I do know that we are truly fortunate to consistently work on new and original ideas, and to retain our creative independence today.
The booth of We Happy Few at PAX East 2016
And that… is in no small part because of all of you guys. Thank you for supporting us, you are amazing.
Design Team
Vince
Hey folks! This week has been all about encounters! On the design side, we are trying to finish up as many encounters as possible so that they can be ready to ship for Early Access. Most of them were already underway, so it was mostly replacing those placeholder sounds and animations with the real stuff!
And of course, it always results in a bit of tweaking and scripting fixes… There’s always something different than we first anticipated, like a VO that is longer than the placeholder was, or an animation that is shorter than was expected. We just have to make sure that the flow stays mostly intact with a little bit of script magic here and there.
After that, the artists are able to jump in the levels and make them all pretty. Also at this point, it’s much more easy to see if we are still missing some animations, audio or VOs or if some of the newly added stuff needs a bit of tweaking.
Mike
This week I worked on finalizing gameplay in some levels we’ve worked on before PAX, here’s 2 of them:
These are now fully playable and will soon have their visuals updated! :D
Animation Team
J.R.
Happy Friday! This week I come back to you from an extensive “narrative slumber”. I’ve been working a lot on story during the last couple of months, and then there was PAX and more secret story stuff… But here we are! And you’ll hear more from us in the next weeks leading to the early access, because we’ve got a lot of cool gameplay animations lined up! Without any more delay, here’s a little bit of what I’ve been working on lately! Enjoy :)
Rémi
Hey everyone! For this week, I spent the first two days on some Top Secret Character Rigging! So sadly, as usual, I won’t be able to show you any of that. But, for the rest of this week, I got back on some Gameplay Animations! Some of them to support new features, such as the Bobby Spawner and other ones for Specific encounters and systemic animations. Have a good weekend!
VFX Team
Weili
Hello! My name is Weili and I recently joined Compulsion as their VFX artist :)
I completed a lot of VFX lately such as: Weapon Electrical Buff, Revision of the Tesla Coil and just finished a Tesla Coil Charge (bit worried that it might actually look too fantasy-ish).
Gas leak for Joy and Toxic have also been created. The Bobby Spawner prototype is ready but will need frequent tweaking to match the animation and timing. And last but not least, charmed bubble on NPCs, camp fire, Tikka fire, throw-able trails (ribbons!)and smoke and fire for the the molotovs.
