Introducing We Happy Few

[Naila 36]

Hello everyone!

 

Two big announcements today!

 

First, we are unreasonably excited to announce We Happy Few, our new game and baby that we’ve been developing since early 2014. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out our announcement

 

There’s also a new game page that has some new art - check that out here.

 

Second, we are coming to PAX East 2015! This is next week, holy crap! We’re probably not going to be sleeping much until then. More details below, but before we get there… why show at PAX East, you say? Didn’t you guys take like, a year, to show the game after you announced last time? Yes, random audience member, what an incredible memory you have.

 

We’re showing WHF way, way earlier than we showed Contrast. One of the things that we realised on releasing Contrast was that community feedback is awesome. There were so many great ideas that you guys came up with after Contrast’s release, and we just couldn’t help but wonder what the game would have been like with your input from the start.

 

With WHF, we’re doing things differently. Starting at PAX, we’re going to be opening up development to people who want to get involved. This means getting people playing the game early on, and pushing out constant content updates based on community feedback. We’ll release more info about this as we finalise our plans over the coming weeks.

 

So, that’s that! If you dig the trailer, and have some questions/comments, we’d love to hear them on our forums. We can’t answer everything 100% yet, because we’re still rushing to get the build ready, but we will be able to as soon as we get back from PAX. Alternatively, you can:

 

Sign up to our mailing list.

Follow us on twitter.

Like us on facebook.

Send us positive vibes, man. Groovy.

 

Now, for the juicy PAX details:

 

In booth # 6216 in the Boston Convention Center, between 6 and 8 March 2015, we will be showing the current build to anyone who wants to give it a go. We’re still ironing out the plans 100%, so this could change, but we’re thinking that:

 

- Everyone who plays the game at PAX can enter a draw to get access to our friends and family pre-alpha

- If you do something super special and probably quite difficult inside the PAX build, you’ll bypass the draw and get access after PAX.

 

Also, we are going with a bunch of friends from the great white north (Canada), the Up North Indies, a rag-tag collection of Montreal and Quebec developers, uniting under one banner. Well, except we’re not actually physically uniting under a banner, because those things are ridiculously expensive.

 

 

Up North Indies also includes:

 

5201 Bishop Games

5205 Chainsawesome Games

5207 Kitfox Games

5213 KO-OP

5215 Parabole

5217 illogika

5225 Clever-Plays

6200 Sauropod Studio

6204 Juicy Beast

6212 Minority Media

6217 Burrito Studio

6249 Thunder Lotus Games

10181 Miscellaneum Studios

 

 

Otherwise, thank you all for checking in. It’s going to be a wild ride!

[Sam 5]

Hope you guys liked the trailer!

 

The whole team worked crazy, crazy hard to get this thing out the door. I'm very proud of everyone

[Shamano 0]

What a wonderful way to announce your next game! I went totally crazy! I liked the incubus-mode trailer, run for your life dude! I'd like to remark the forced, unnatural atmosphere, that closes the trailer. The contrast between the happy background music and the (deadly?) shovel hit... well, that was creepy as hell. Again, another very interesting game from you guys, very looking forward to see more!

[Jake 0]

Awesome trailer, dudes! I can't wait to see what will happen with this game out in the wild!

[Pandora_Layn 0]

I am literally going to spend my evening picking this trailer apart frame by frame. I'm curious to know if there will be any nods to Contrast in game.

 

I really wish I could go to PAX! You know I want in on that pre-alpha

So, so, so excited for this!

[spsc_Jonathon 0]

I definitely agree with the philosophy of showing a game very early on, giving yourself time to just absorb the feedback. Diablo III crashed and burned because people were only allowed to test up till the first mini boss and it turned out horrible for a really, really long time. I'm not going to PAX East, but I'm keeping my ear to the stone for news!

 

spsc_Jonathon

[davidfish 0]

This looks amazing, can't wait for this.

 

Will you using Early Access, or waiting for a full release? Please tell me it's the latter.

[Publicglutton 0]

Love this genre , love the graphics. Looks fantastic.

Is there any other way of joining the pre-alpha ? as I will not be able to attend Pax

 

[Naila 36]

Hey! @Publicglutton That is the plan! So in short, yes We will have more details coming soon!

[Naila 36]

Thank you all! The general response for the trailer has been incredible and it is fueling our passion more than ever

[Papermoon 0]

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!! >U<

It seems spectacular!!!

[ibiliszx 0]

( '<)...it´s amazing , i love your concept art .

definitely I will be watchful to every detail about this game.

 

can`t wait for early access.. o/

[TurtleSocks 0]

See you guys at PAX! Can't wait

[Guillaume 0]

@spsc_Jonathon - I totally agree with you. It's a decision we took early in the development of We Happy Few and we designed the game accordingly (in layers) - so that we could do one layer at a time, discuss it with the community, gather feedback, before moving on to the next step.

 

Honestly - it's a bit scary as a developer to go "allright - we're going to show this thing" even if it's not completely ready, because it will make the game better and stronger. Our team is very quality-focused, so showing any kind unfinished work is a hard mental switch to make. As artists we tend to want to hoard it all in secret until its perfect

 

[Pandora_Layn 0]

@guillaume I think this is a fundamental shift in the way games are made and will ultimately lead to longer lasting and deeper engagement with the consumer after initial release. Brilliant.

[Guillaume 0]

@pandora_Layn And I would love to pretend I invented it! You know... Just like Apple recently reinvented the concept of paying for games only once. Laugh. Seriously - we've looked at what our peers were doing and I agree with you. We have a lot of respect for a number of indie trailblazers who have managed to masterfully include you guys (and gals!) in the process of making great games, so we figured we'd break a few eggs too. But that puts you all in the hot seat! Now we just have to find a way to get the 6 unreasonable people who down-voted our trailer to change their minds ;P

[Scottjaw 0]

This has to be the best trailer I've seen in a very, very long time.! That art style and premise are insane. Definitely going to keep my eyes out for more.

[CUS 0]

This looks absolutely FANTASTIC!!!

 

Reminds me of the wonderful "The Prisoner" series from the sixties!!

...going to feel like number Six playing this with the surreal sixties settings (the strange "village") and the druggings

 

If you run an Alpha/beta testing, I beg you...PLEASE consider me as a tester!

[ceboidea 0]

i love the art and the concept it's honestly really cool. i'd love to see more info about this in the future, like the concept for the main character and whatnot. and also, what consoles are planned for this game to play on?

[Euphemios 0]

Is this slightly based on the Dr Who episode 'The Happiness Patrol'?

[Naila 36]

@CUS Thank you! We have some plans for Alpha, we will share more details in less than a week! I will keep you guys updated

 

@ceboidea @Whitney is our Art Director extraordinaire responsible for these concepts, I am not going to lie, she is truly fantastic. As for platforms, it is safe to say PC but we are focused on building the game and its foundation at the moment, down the line we would love to release on consoles but that is something we can only confirm down the line.

 

@Euphemios We have some Whovians in the office but myself am not so I wouldn't know (Couldn't get past the '' Where is my mommy?'' episode, soo weird!), you have me intrigued now, I need to check that episode.

[DrBeardfacé 0]

This looks so awesome, can't wait for this.So hyped for this I made some liveries on Forza Horizon 2.Made sure I got a couple of 60' cars in there too, good luck guys.Hope to hear more soom.

http://www.forzamotorsport.net/Handlers/GetPhoto.ashx?game=fh2&id=3331315&full=true

[DrBeardfacé 0]

[Parcevel 0]

So basically my friend sent me a link to this page like hey this is a game you might like because I know you like bioshock a lot. So I watched the trailer and haven't been this excited for a game since GTA V. Please I'm dying for info though like even just more artwork or anything it looks so amazing.

[MurphysParadox 0]

It is a very strong trailer, evoking such great games as Bioshock and No One Lives Forever. I appreciate the brief real video and actual human anchor/controller/government representative. Gives the game a little something.

 

I also enjoyed the pacing and direction, the way it goes from happy to creepy to scary to hopeful to frying pan to lights out. Bravo guys and gals. Thematic trailers are awesome, especially early in development.

 

Good luck at PAX and have fun! It is a great expo.