There are decisions that Provost says, initially, the team would have reconsidered. It was both a narrative experience in the vein of BioShock, and a procedurally generated roguelike with survival mechanics. As E3 2016 came around and We Happy Few went further into development, it seemed almost at odds with itself. It was an impressive start, one that gave Compulsion the tools it needed to do what it wanted to do.īut the crowdfunding campaign also had an unseen side-effect: it defined We Happy Few and set expectations for the kind of experience it would be. In June 2015, it launched a Kickstarter campaign that surpassed its goal of $200,000 to create We Happy Few. Provost says there was strong internal desire to do more narrative work, but that meant scaling up. That also kindled something within Compulsion Games.
And it's also expertise that we didn't have to fulfill those expectations." "And I went, 'Whoa, wait a minute.' BioShock is, that's $80 million that's a budget.
"Everybody said, 'BioShock, BioShock, BioShock,'" Provost tells me. Due to the nature of the game-how a drug called Joy masked the downfall of the seemingly utopian Wellington Wells-comparisons were quickly drawn to another video game tale of an idealistic society in ruins. Though the plan for We Happy Few was the aforementioned survival game, the iris of press quickly honed in on its engaging world and narrative. After a debut in February, first impressions started to roll in from PAX. While E3 2016 was the inflection point, We Happy Few's journey started earlier at PAX East in 2015. "That's really the story of We Happy Few, is making the chicken and the egg at the same time," Provost says. The bits of story ended up being what players sought, early previews set aspirations high, and the five-person studio from Montreal, Quebec was suddenly in a situation where it didn't just have to make We Happy Few, but become the kind of studio that could produce We Happy Few in the process. The world of We Happy Few would be about survival and procedurally generated he compared it to indie hit Don't Starve, only set in a 3D dystopia.īut with its compelling premiere came a world of expectations. Provost jokingly tells me over a video call that he'd shoot himself before making another puzzle-platformer. We Happy Few was like a counter to Compulsion's work on Contrast. But this major debut for We Happy Few was on a scale it hadn't seen before. Showing the trailer for We Happy Few on Microsoft's stage at E3 2016 was a pivotal moment for Compulsion Games.The studio, founded by ex-Arkane developer Guillame Provost in 2009, had worked on a few external projects and made its own puzzle-platformer, Contrast. "Of course, he'd have to break the tube to get out. "Do you think the canister wonders what life's like outside the tube?" the trailer's protagonist wonders aloud. As a "downer" who's off their Joy, the player slowly begins to realize the horrors that are taking place, all while being hunted by the state and its drug-filled denizens. In just under five minutes, Compulsion Games reveals the twisted world of We Happy Few: the city of Wellington Wells has fallen to ruin, and its citizens are kept in line with a psychotropic drug called Joy. But then an upsetting image shakes the protagonist out of his stupor, and rather than take a pill to stifle it, he decides to take it all in and watch as the sheen wears thin.
The player-character is contentedly working his way through newspaper clippings, censoring aberrant text with a sheet of black ink.
When We Happy Few's E3 2016 trailer opens, there's already a sense of unease setting in.