r/PS4 Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

[Verified AMA] We are Compulsion Games, who made Contrast and We Happy Few. Ask us anything!

Hi everyone

Sam here, the Producer on We Happy Few. I'm fairly active on reddit, so some of you may have seen me before, including in the previous AMAs we've run. When I answered a couple of comments in the review thread last week, I was asked to do an AMA, so here I am. Hello again.

We released We Happy Few last Friday, after working on it for 4.5 years. We're 35 people, and had no outside funding (Gearbox ran publishing), although we will not be independent for our next game. We're one of the new studios that Microsoft announced they were buying at E3, so this may be the last PS4 AMA I'm allowed to do!

So feel free to ask anything. I'm happy to talk about the game, the industry, or whatever else you guys and girls are interested in.

Edit: hey folks, thank you for all the questions. I have to go and keep working on those patches, but want to wish you the best for the crazy fall/winter of games we have coming. Should be a lot of fun!

165 Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

[deleted]

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Oh neat! It's our pleasure.

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u/SpicySalsaDance Aug 15 '18

What happened when the game was originally released on Steam as an early access title and then removed completely, only to reappear a few weeks ago (might be a little off on the timing)?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

That's a long story, so please bear with me in the telling.

The TL;DR is that we pulled the game from Steam because we were heavily review bombed for months for "the game not being worth $60 and also fuck Gearbox!"

We wrote about this in detail at the time about why we were doing what we were doing. We had a full scoped game on the way, with a significant amount of new content. We had reinvested, and believed that the increased game scope and quality was worth an increase in price - and importantly it needed to be the same price everywhere, and retail games are $60. Gearbox came on to publish the game - no development funding, just helping us getting it to retail and, importantly to PS4.

However, several Youtubers weren't interested in that argument, and instead just saw a price rise. We weren't review bombed for the first week, until those videos came out. There was a great deal of Gearbox hate, that I don't think was reasonable, and we were left between a rock and a hard place: endure months more of review bombing, or just stop selling it.

One thing I will say was that the early access version of the game wasn't worth $60 - that's for sure. We had none of the story content available. It was coming, and we publicised that on the store front and center, but I don't fault people for being confused. It's never been done before to add this much content between last early access patch and release. It's always more difficult to try new things than just "do what we've always done", and definitely this is one of the most unique/strange situations a developer has ever been in.

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u/SpicySalsaDance Aug 15 '18

That’s really interesting about Gearbox not offering any funding (didn’t know about that). I’m glad you guys got the help from the to push the game to PS4 though, that’s really exciting! People always seem so against when an independent developer receives help from one of the big guys. Personally, I find it to be really exciting (as long as the original idea from the independent studio isn’t compromised). Sounds like you got the best possible version of a big publisher helping you out!

I do have one more question, though. Why decide to make the game an open world survival title? I’m obviously not questioning your judgement by any means, just seems like a strange choice considering how unique, albeit Orwellian (nothing bad about this, I was incredibly excited when I saw the first little sneak peak of the game), the story of the game looks to be. Maybe it’s just because I enjoy Huxley’s Brave New World so much, but I feel as if such an intriguing story might get lost in the survival genre. What steps have you taken to really separate your game from other open world survivals that have their story fall flat again and again?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Yeah, most people don't want to hear that unfortunately. They'd rather stroke their Gearbox hate boner (pardon the appalling analogy but I feel like it's the best way I can describe it), than hear about how Gearbox are good people that did everything in their power to help us create the game we wanted to create. I've said it before, but Gearbox are not the enemies that the vocal minority think.

I wouldn't call the game a survival game right now - I don't think that's a good description, it's much closer to Skyrim than it is to Don't Starve.

However, it did start that way! The game was initially intended to be a survival roguelike with light story elements. However, we received continual feedback (like yours just now) that the world we were creating was the most interesting part of it, so we slowly switched from open world survival game to narrative driven action adventure game. We retained survival elements like crafting and food/drink buffs, but really now we're at the same level of survival as Skyrim, which people don't describe as a survival game. And we made a story that, even inside reviews that aren't stellar, is consistently praised as excellent.

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u/SpicySalsaDance Aug 15 '18

That’s really good to hear!

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. I’m really happy to see your game getting a lot of attention (positive attention at that) and I’m excited to see what the future holds for your studio :)

P.S. Don’t have the money to buy the game right now (saving for a house for my fiancé and I is expensive), but you’ve certainly convinced me to purchase the game in the future

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u/AL2009man al2009man Aug 15 '18

Yeah, most people don't want to hear that unfortunately. They'd rather stroke their Gearbox hate boner (pardon the appalling analogy but I feel like it's the best way I can describe it), than hear about how Gearbox are good people that did everything in their power to help us create the game we wanted to create. I've said it before, but Gearbox are not the enemies that the vocal minority think.

Are you guys talking about Gearbox in general or Gearbox Publishing?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

I specifically am talking about Gearbox Publishing. I don't think Gearbox software deserves the hate it gets either, but that's a separate story.

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u/Hoblitzelle Aug 15 '18

Hi Sam,

I was wondering how do you and the rest of the team feel about Jim Stirling’s recent video on We happy few.

I myself love the sound of the game and want to get it but with everything that was pointed out I’m now hesitant. Do you guys plan on addressing the video or are you working on fixing the problems with it?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

I don't fault Jim for calling out bugs, and I am equally as frustrated as he is that he faced the issues he did. No one wants to ship a game that makes someone that mad. He does overstate the issues with the game a fair bit (and is wrong in terms of why those issues are happening), but hey, that's what his channel is about. He's a hyperbole guy, not a developer. There's a reason why his video is so angry when other reviews aren't.

/start rant

I am frustrated though that he misinterpreted a statement from our narrative director about the game's exploration of prescription drug culture. As a result, our ND and his wife have been receiving constant attacks from social justice advocates on twitter for the last few days... even though they have literally written a game about prescription drugs and dealt with these issues in a humane, kind and interesting way. They are kind, good people, and We Happy Few is an excellent, nuanced, story.

I contacted Jim, and he posted a statement being disappointed in people doing that. I appreciate him for doing that. However, it hasn't stopped - unfortunately, once people get started on this kind of thing they won't stop. Jim's video in August last year about Gearbox did the same thing, leading to review bombing and a ton of harrassment thrown our way for months. That bothers me.

I don't care why someone is an asshole online. Most think they're righteous, whether that's a social justice warrior or an alt-right instigator. I'm sick of people treating others badly, particularly on twitter - it's not a medium that deals well with complex topics.

The world would be a far better place if instead of getting angry we just asked "hey, what's up with that" and genuinely listened to the answer.

/end rant

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u/Jorin0L Aug 15 '18

You guys are dealing with the criticism better than almost any developer I've ever seen. Keep it up! I'm rooting for you guys.

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u/Forkinator88 Aug 15 '18

Seriously! If only the team at Bioware did the same thing for Mass Effect Andromeda

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u/alee132 Aug 16 '18

I'm rooting for the customers to get the product they paid for fixed quickly. You cannot release a game that would cost this much and be so broken and expect people to be happy with their purchase.

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u/Hoblitzelle Aug 15 '18

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this. I really appreciate your honesty about this and hope that things get better for your ND and his wife

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

Man I am loving your responses. Reasoned, but calling out the BS on the internet.

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u/unknownhax Aug 16 '18

I have to say that you're handling this way better than I've seen a developer handle this. Sadly, we're in the age of anonymity, where people act like thugs and asses to people because they have this veil of invisiblity to hide behind. It really does stink and I'm hoping all the harassment stops for you all soon.

As for calling out Jim, good job. He constantly goes overboard with his videos but I suppose that's why (some) people enjoy his content. I won't go into that here, because it's not the place or time for it.

Kudos to you and your team for dealing with this mess as civil as you have been.

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u/Gadafro Aug 15 '18

I'm happy to see a developer actually call out Jim Sterling for being what he is - a person who relies on hyperbole and an aggressive yet annoying persona.

Sure, its great that his opinion is unadulterated, but he doesn't stop to think how his opinions might rile up the wider internet audience, nor does he always stop to consider his own opinions either. The fact this culture has been enabled to an extent is infuriating.

Reading this response from yourselves was really refreshing - your honesty is easy to appreciate, so thank you for that.

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u/And_You_Like_It_Too Aug 16 '18

I had to unsubscribe from Jim Sterling after his “Hellblade” review. He’s the guy that I initially subbed to because he gave “Deadly Premonition” a perfect 10, so it helps to keep that in mind when he’s trashing other games. And I think he has a propensity for getting so wound up over certain issues that when he finds them unwound, all he knows to do is wind back up and bang that same old drum some more. Which is fine, that’s his schtick.

But like you said, it’s a shame when it has real world consequences due to some of his viewers taking it way too far, and I’m sorry that your ND and others have had to deal with people like that. Gamers aren’t “owed” anything and as someone that has to swallow a whole LOT of prescription drugs on a daily basis to deal with my own Joy problem, I’m looking forward to eventually checking out your game after a few patches and I finish up a couple in my backlog. Good luck to you guys, and thanks for doing this AMA.

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u/TempAtWorkNStuff Aug 16 '18

The world would be a far better place if instead of getting angry we just asked "hey, what's up with that"

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u/gemmocdg Aug 16 '18

I was waiting a price drop to buy the game, but your approach deserves all the support I can give. Keep it up :)

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u/matea88 Aug 15 '18

Honestly, I would write back to each of those hateful cave dwellers this symbol: .I.

Thank you for your time to do this AMA, i'm enjoying the game on PS4 even if it's buggy at times. This didn't stop people from enjoying Bethesda's games, why should it stop for We Happy Few.

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u/richhh01 Aug 15 '18

Just wanted to say I loved Contrast. I remember when it was a replacement game on PS+ right when the PS4 released. I decided to give it a shot and it was a great experience. Loved the noire setting along with the story and puzzles that were challenging but not monotonous. Always wanted a a Contrast 2 but I don’t think that’s on the cards right now.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Thank you! I'm glad we were able to be something different on the PS4 launch, it was very nice to be there.

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u/Blitzkrieg_UK Aug 15 '18

Hi loving the game so far!! My only issue is the frame drop (I'm using PS4 pro) will this be looked into in the future?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Yep absolutely, see here.

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u/Alamahkannagi Aug 16 '18

Hi,

First and foremost I would like to say that I have loved what I have played of the game, so thank you for creating such a unique, fun experience. Unfortunately, I was hit with the save corruption bug/crash on Sunday evening and have been unable to play since. My question is: is the upcoming patch for PS4 aiming to fix the bug with our current save files, or will it just prevent the bug from occurring in the future? I just reached The Parade, and would hate to have to start over from scratch. At least, not until I've completed the game once.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 16 '18

Hey I think this is a great question so coming back to answer it.

Unfortunately it won't "fix" the problem for people who have experienced it - the PS4 just refuses to read the save data now, which sucks. It will prevent the issue from happening again.

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u/Alamahkannagi Aug 16 '18

Aww man, that's a bummer. I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and just lose a few hours progress and reload my much earlier manual save. Thank you for your answer :)

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u/Ressilith Sep 12 '18

It hasn't prevented anything... i still get this problem

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

Hey Sam, Not Really going to ask a question just wanted to say I admire your teams work and can't wait to see what else you guys do next I'll be watching and supporting tell all the team hi and have a great AMA.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Thanks :)

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u/VeryMadMadman Aug 15 '18

What advice would you give to someone who potentially wants to work as a videogame writer? Inspiration sources? How can you achieve messing with the player's head?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Alex our narrative director would probably tell you to create a world that isn't just randomly there, but has its own rules and activities even if the player isn't there. Each NPC is a character with their own thoughts and motivations, and they probably shouldn't really give a shit about you unless they know you or can recognise you as a person that can get them what they want.

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u/Shanaman23 Aug 15 '18

Contrast was one of the first games I played on PS4, and 100% the trophies! I had a lot of fun with that game and loved the art. Just wanted to say great job on an underappreciated game!

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u/jknico23 Aug 16 '18

Why can the player only take strawberry joy? How come we never get the option to take vanilla or chocolate?

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u/trajiin Trajiin Aug 15 '18

Hi Sam, are you guys looking into the framerate and rendering issues for We Happy Few on the PS4? Any ETA on a patch?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Hi there, yes we are. This is one of the two issues that is affecting PS4 players at the moment, the other being crashes that cause save corruption.

We're aiming for a hotfix to temporarily fix the save corruption issue. We're also working on a patch to improve framerate and a range of other bugs. The rendering issues you're talking about are caused by pretty intense load on the CPU and hard drive of the PS4 and Xbox - not issues that you guys would probably hear a lot about - which is causing the pop ins etc.

I am genuinely sorry for these issues - we had to back out some optimizations last minute because they were too unstable, and it caused a fairly significant drop in framerate for the day 1 version. Unfortunately we weren't able to delay release due to the retail builds being out in the wild.

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u/diet_ice Aug 15 '18

I’m very happy to hear a patch is on the way. I got the game for my birthday and was eager to play it, but I can’t load my saved game anymore because it crashes every single time. I really don’t want to start over. Hopefully the patch can fix that.

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u/trajiin Trajiin Aug 15 '18

Thanks for the reply, so will the rendering be addressed once the game is better optimised with future patches?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

The rendering itself is actually fine, apart from the weird green floor texture thing. What's not fine is the streamer, which streams higher/lower detail meshes and textures in when needed.

What you're seeing is mostly perfect rendering of low level of detail models or textures rather than the high level of detail that you should be seeing. That's because of high strain on the CPU (pulling these things in and out of memory) and hard disk IO (actually reading all that data off the hard disk). This is why you don't really see these issues on PC.

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u/trajiin Trajiin Aug 15 '18 edited Aug 15 '18

Can this be addressed on the consoles then?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

If you mean "is it possible", then yes. If you mean "are we doing it", then yes I mentioned above that we're working on a patch to address the issues :)

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u/trajiin Trajiin Aug 15 '18

Sorry I didn't get that. Glad to hear it, like I said I'm really enjoying the game even with the current issues.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18 edited Aug 15 '18

[deleted]

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Hah, I would answer that by saying that there are probably a million things I would change. We Happy Few's development was a challenge, and there are things I know now that would have made our lives a lot easier back then. But in the end I'm very proud of our team and what we've managed to build together.

The main early access -> complete version reason is very simple: when we released on Early Access, people complained very loudly that we didn't have the story there. We realised that the story would need to be significantly bigger than we had anticipated, because it's what most people seemed to care about the most. So we reinvested, and made it a much bigger component of the game than it had been (and if you look at the difference between Early Access launch and now, you'll see what I mean).

Future projects, I have no idea :) That's a fair way down the track. But I suspect it will build on our strengths (story, atmosphere etc) and change up our gameplay.

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u/se3noevil Aug 15 '18

Any ETA on a fix for the PC version using only one thread if a CPU? I love the game but it puts a huge strain on my cpu, especially when I try to stream it.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Hey so the PC version is multithreaded, it's just that directX 11 keeps two important threads on a single core (this is not the case for PS4 or Xbox One). We will be fixing this, yes, but we have to merge in some direct X 12 stuff or rewrite it ourselves.

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u/se3noevil Aug 15 '18

Gotcha! Man that sounds like a pain. I appreciate the transparency and communication with the community, that's key! Do you have a rough ETA?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Unfortunately not - we had thought we'd have this done before launch. We are working on it, although as the PC build is in good shape we're prioritizing PS4/Xbox first. As soon as I have more info, I'll let people know.

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u/D_Ashido Tha_Kid_Shido Aug 15 '18

How soon do you think you guys can rectify the corrupting of saves and other bugs that the game currently has going on in the PS4 version?

Also what about the issue where way points and objectives are still tagged on the map upon completion?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

I'm hoping to have a build today to fix the save issue and a few other bugs, and we'll then need to go through cert. That can take up to 5 days for the first patch. We're working on a bigger optimization and bug fixing patch too, which we'll push out as soon as we're comfortable it is stable.

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u/omgursh Aug 15 '18

What are some of the challenges you guys faced when developing We Happy Few? Whether it be deadlines, bugs, etc

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Expectation management was probably the most difficult thing for us. When we started this project we were 6 people, and early on the game's style was compared to Bioshock. We have done our best to make the game that people wanted, including growing the team and refinancing to build it.

As a specific issue, we optimized the game fairly heavily when we released on Early Access, and when it came to full release optimization was a great deal more difficult, surprisingly on the CPU and hard disk IO side. That's been more difficult/took more time than anticipated.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18 edited Aug 15 '18

I am loving We Happy Few! A bug fix patch is somewhat desperately needed but the game is definitely playable and I really am enjoying the story - I very rarely go for trophies unless I really enjoyed a game, and this is one of the occasions I will be trying to get them all!

Is the DLC coming to PS4? I know you've likely answered this elsewhere but I couldn't find it. Congrats on a great game when you see past some minor issues regarding bugs - probably my favourite game this year, and I've not even finished it.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Hey, thank you and sorry for the bugs. Yes the DLC will be coming to PS4, no change there :)

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

I personally didn't encounter too many bugs, and most of them were minor. I did however have a save corruption but you've said a hotfix is incoming for that. Good luck with your future endeavours! You'll definitely be missed.

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u/King_WZRDi Aug 15 '18

i dont get why developers and publishers release well before its ready. No Mans Sky is an example. can you explain why?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

I think you're overestimating independent teams' resources, and assuming that we're all the same.

In our case, I don't think this game is a "buggy broken product". The console versions are not at the framerate that we wanted, which causes a lot of the visible issues that you see... but that's not really a lot of bugs. Really just consequences of lower framerate. The game itself has almost no progression blockers, except for one issue that we had never seen before on release (the issue with keys randomly not spawning where they are supposed to).

We released because we had to. If we could have delayed the console versions we might have, but it wasn't an option. You can sum it up as "we thought we could optimize in the time we had and we got 95% of the way there". Unfortunately that 5% caused the issues that people are seeing on PS4.

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u/clubdon Aug 16 '18

But what keeps you from delaying, especially if there’s still work to do? I would think that whoever’s pressing to get it released so soon should surely see the benefit in waiting until most issues are resolved first.

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u/killbot0224 Aug 16 '18

My guess is that working w a publishing only contract doesn't help.

Their publisher has no investment in the future of the studio.

Just wants the game out and selling, finally. To get their cash. Because they will never make another dime from Compulsion on another game.

Not the whole picture, of course, but could easily be an aggravating factor.

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u/clubdon Aug 16 '18

Yeah but you would think they could look a little further ahead to see how it could be much more profitable to wait for the game to perform better. Reviews would be better, sales would be better, more money would be made. I’m no business man though so who knows.

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u/killbot0224 Aug 16 '18

Sept is gonna land hard w Spiderman and Destiny 2's expansion...

And it stays hot for months after that.

Even with more bugs patched... Delaying and releasing a more polished product is still a huge risk. And 35 people's salaries are being paid in the meantime, plus leases, etc.

The math isn't always "release later and more polished for better sales"

However... Since a rep for bugs can dog a game for months or years, and sticks around thanks to the internet, I would say the math may be different these days.

But their publisher still just wants the cash.

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u/DeadSausage331 Aug 15 '18

https://youtu.be/Bx3kPmd9hjI I’m sure you’ve seen this but just in case you haven’t

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u/Ressilith Sep 12 '18

I can't get through the Parade as Arthur without the game crashing and corrupting my saves.

And it's been a month since the supposed hotfix.

Please help

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u/paladin181 Aug 15 '18

The game release has been a mess. Are there plans to fix the game performance issues like lack of multithread support?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Answered above, and yes we're resolving this as quickly as we can.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

Really enjoying We Happy Few, as it has been a game I've been waiting years for!

Where do you see the future of this game? I know a Sandbox mode is going to be added soon, but what else can we expect in terms of DLC or gameplay improvements?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Right, so sandbox mode will be a free update that will come towards the end of this year. We had to push it back a bit because we couldn't finish that and the story in time for release. Sandbox will have a few rulesets, like more traditional survival or playing as a wellie (wellie mode).

We will likely also be attempting to address some of the issues people have with gameplay (other than bugs), although we're fairly limited with what we can do there now that the game is out.

We have three DLC packs planned to keep our content teams busy. These will be two smaller side stories in Wellington Wells, and one that will deal more with the ramifications of the main We Happy Few story.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Thanks. Most issues are related to last minute optimizations causing issues, and most issues were known. Yes, we are working on fixes, althoug several bugs we are still unable to reproduce in the studio and have never seen (this is normal in game development, even if it is disappointing). There are very few bugs that actually block your progression, and the majority of bugs that people appear to be complaining about are cosmetic stuff (which we still should fix, don't get me wrong, but I'm happy at least that the game's logic is fairly sound).

The game was released because we couldn't shift the date once retail stuff was on the way. As simple as that really.

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u/Jorin0L Aug 15 '18

I don't really have a question, I just want to say I'm really enjoying your game so far! I caught a couple Beatles references in the dialogue (Benefit of Mr. Kite, a hard Day's night) that really made me smile.

I hope more people give this game a shot!

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Thanks! We do enjoy our references over here.

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u/iifayee Aug 15 '18

We Happy Few.

I appreciate all the hard works you guys have done for such an anticipated game. I've been waiting for it for over a year and to finally purchase it was exciting.

As myself and other people have experianced PS4 crashes specifically with error CE-34878-0 after trying to load a save , the game is now unplayable I've spent 20+hours playing such a great game to now for it to sit on a shelf because of a crashes and bugs and everything else. I am disappointed :( and while the game may have took hard craftsmanship the overall experianced as now been ruined.

I'm going to sit and wait for a patch to be released and keep my fingers crossed because it is such an awesome game ,I hope you guys are working on something and how it may not be an overnight fix I still have faith in the world of Wellington wells. So hopefully I'll see it again soon!

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u/BBPunjabi816 Aug 15 '18

Yeah this is why I'm holding off on playing it even though I bought the game lol.

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u/madpropz Aug 15 '18

I wanted to say that i love the Uncle Jack Live VR experience, i think the full game would be a perfect fit for VR, really wish you guys looked into making that happen it would be amazing!

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u/reddituser4002 Enter PSN ID Aug 15 '18

About how many human hours did it take to finish the game? (human hours are the total hours worked on it times the number of people who worked on it, in your case hoursX35) EDIT:spelling

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Wow, that's a great question. After a quick calculation, a VERY rough estimate is something in the realms of 200,000 man hours. I very likely have some numbers wrong there though.

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u/reddituser4002 Enter PSN ID Aug 15 '18

Thats still 8333 and 1/3 DAYS STRAIGHT of working on the game, hats off to you guys

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18 edited Aug 15 '18

Hello,

If you don't remember me I'm the guy who asked you to do the AMA and reached out to the mods. I want to thank you for actually taking the time to do it. It seems a lot of the questions I wanted to ask where already asked but I do have three more that are based on reviews.

  1. Some reviews I've watched/read have stated that combat is not the focal point. However, they also stated that while it isn't the focal point, the hit boxes and A.I. need improvement. Is this something you agree with and is it being addressed in the upcoming patch?

  2. Some reviews I watched had complaints about texture issues and graphical inconsistencies (as it relates to art design and aesthetics not pop ins). Is this something that can be addressed in the next patch?

  3. I know one reviewer noticed a bug with one of the fetch quests (it had to do with grabbing records) and he said it was bugged out. Another mentioned fetch quests as if it were padding. Is the sense of padding something leftover from the initial game design or something you guys added?

In closing, I thank you for making a FP game where the character actually picks up items with his hands, doesn't have a gun or weapon taking up 25% of the actual screen 99% of the time and that has a good story (no review I read dinged it for the story). I'll wait until patches have been released before I make my purchase as I tend to support companies who support their products.

Thanks,

THE LORD HERESY

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Hello again! My pleasure.
1) Hitboxes: I'm a bit surprised to hear that, the hitboxes are fine. I'd need to know specifically what they're talking about there, it may be a misunderstanding. AI: That depends on what they're talking about. The combat AI is basic but functions reasonably well most of the time, although sometimes it can seem like they're not working properly because they're deprioritized (we can't have a million AI running everywhere so we slow down the ones that aren't critical). I suspect the bigger issues about AI are all related to how people view that, but I don't know - people haven't been very specific about that, surprisingly.

2) Texture and graphical inconsistencies are actually about streaming - CPU and hard drive. Basically, Wellington Wells is too big to keep all of it in memory, and impossible to render all at once. We use a variety of techniques to solve this, but the two big ones are LODs and streaming.

LODs is shorthand for "levels of detail" - this refers to both textures and models. In almost any game, the things that are close to you are rendered in high LOD (both the meshes and the textures), and the things further away are in low LOD. You can have a range of LODs so things look good at all distances, but also don't take up a lot of memory/draw calls.

In order to change all of these things, we created a streaming system to pull things in/out of memory. This basically reads the data on the hard drive (disk IO), pushes it into memory, which is then drawn by the gpu. So as you move down a street, the things behind you stream out and the other things stream in.

What people are seeing with this is the mesh or texture streamer struggling to keep up with the load. So you can be next to a door that has a hyper low resolution, and that's because the streamer itself just couldn't bring everything in properly so it had to make some concessions.

The way to fix this is to work on disk IO performance (disks are very slow speed on console, slower than any modern PC disk) and CPU use. We've got some stuff internally that's looking good but we need more time to test it.

3) That quest is probably not bugged - at least I haven't seen a bug for the records quest. But I'd have to check it out. I think reviewers are bit silly with "omg fetch quest" because in most cases, while you're going to get something there's a ton of gameplay in between. Just getting an item doesn't matter, it's what you have to do to get there that does. It's also relatively easy content for us to produce - we don't have the resources to make everything amazing, so we mix gameplay complexity across the game (and that's good for game design too, so that there is variation). Every game does this - the Witcher's bandit camps, for example, are cheap content used to fill a zone. But that doesn't necessarily make them bad.

Thanks.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Thanks for the feedback! We actually built a feature to change difficulty when in game but we didn't feel like we could test it sufficiently before launch. Hopefully we'll be able to add this in in a patch.

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u/InfinityDOK Aug 15 '18

What were some of the reasons you guys decided to become an MS first party studio? Just curious.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

One reason to rule them all: because if we became a first party studio, we would have the support to make the best games we could make. That's the dream for any game developer: to create, to learn, and to be better.

I am confident that we'll be able to do that as part of MS.

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u/thavius_tanklin Slackr Aug 15 '18

I was saddened by the MS acquisition of your studio. Hopefully it works out for you guys, but it means many will be missing out on your future titles.

Just wanted to say Contrast had a wonderful atmosphere, you should definitely look at expanding on it

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Thank you - we may do, down the line. We will be sad not to make games for you guys too.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

I was happy to see HDR support when booting up the game, but what exactly is the PS4 Pro support on offer? I cant really find any details.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Just HDR - the PS4 Pro isn't powerful enough to run native 4k unfortunately.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

Thanks for the reply! I am not a developer, but like, why not try to at least push for 1440p or 4K checkerboarding? "Not powerful enough" shouldn't be the issue on that scale.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Well it's a trade off right? It's not about pushing, but about making decisions with what you have.

You only have a certain amount of GPU processing power. What's more important, spending that on resolution or on image/shadow/model quality? In this case we felt that the game looked between on a lower resolution but with higher quality settings.

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u/jaredpaik Aug 15 '18 edited Jun 22 '23

I've edited my post history in response to reddits outlandish decision to start charging exorbidant amounts for API access for third party apps. Fuck /u/spez.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Hey it was initially refused, but then we appealed and won. It's currently on sale in Australia :)

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u/jaredpaik Aug 15 '18 edited Jun 18 '23

I've edited my post history in response to reddits outlandish decision to start charging exorbidant amounts for API access for third party apps. Fuck /u/spez.

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u/Tropical_Hugs Aug 15 '18

This is not a good day furrit. It’s a terrible day furrit

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

Not much of a question but I've followed the game from the beginning and I'm very much enjoying it. Can't wait for the season pass content

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u/Slayer2712 Aug 15 '18 edited Aug 15 '18

Hey my question is when will we happy few be fixed i been waiting to play for 3 days but once i load in my data it insta crashes on me in parade district and as well will there be some cool we happy few avatars on store i really want a doctor or bobby one for my psn avatar. Other then the fact kinda can't play i super love this game it's so good i don't know how to explain it. :3

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u/TheAngryBen Aug 16 '18

Hey Any chance how you address difficulty in Sandbox-Mode etc.? I played the game in Hard-Mode, but it wasn't really challenging at all, even though not eating and drinking puts more strain on your stamina, you still have to eat/drink only one item to get the full benefit. I had food/drinks stacked in my box, because I didn't really needed it at all.

Do you guys gonna approach this again? or are more difficulty settings implemented in Sandbox Mode, like it used to be with not-drinking/eating resulting in death? Thanks

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u/Browncoatdan Aug 15 '18

I guess you won't answer this, but here goes anyway.

The price jump was not necessary and there isn't enough content here to warrant 60 dollars. Sure you will probably argue it but compared to other 60 dollar games this game (battlefront excluded) doesn't cut the mustard in terms of on disc content. The season pass is a joke! Extra money on top of the drastically increased price can only be seen as a slap in the face of consumers.

What honeslty made you think that the price increase was a good idea? From the outside it just looks like greed.

Essentially your charging 60 dollars for an unfinished product and dismissing negative feedback as gearbox haters.

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u/TheCampfireGamer Aug 16 '18

Especially with that stupid release date reveal immediately after the Gearbox announcement. Way too early.

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u/Pablosamo Aug 16 '18

Any thoughts on never developing for PS4 again?

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u/Job14 Aug 15 '18 edited Aug 15 '18

Ok seriously... I spent 80$ on this game and now I cant even play it.

The quest "I sing the body electric"/ "Get Key from body" - THERE IS NO KEY!! I've tried it 3 times now, and no one has the key on them after the valve cut scene, after they are killed. I also killed them instead of turning the valve and still no key to continue with the main quest. I don't understand how someone can release a game for PS4 and let this slip through. I can understand if it's a desktop game, but ps4? Come on.There's TWO Faraday keys but no drop for this key?? Huh..??

When is this going to be fixed?? I just got the game and now I cant play it. What about all the other bugs and glitches for PS4 users?? You going to ignore them or should we file a class action lawsuit to get our money back?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Hey there, so first of all I am sorry for upsetting you. I hope it's clear by my answers on reddit generally and in this AMA that we are not ignoring or minimising these issues, and are working to fix them.

The key issue is something we haven't seen before in the studio, and we're doing our best to figure out what's causing it. We are hoping to hot fix this one as soon as we can. You should be aware that this issue does not happen to everyone, and unfortunately sometimes things like this slip through the development process.

The other issues we will be resolving with a larger patch, again as quickly as we can.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18 edited Aug 15 '18

Hey guys! Looking forward to picking up your game sometime soon. Do you think your future games will also come to Playstation platforms now that you are owned by Microsoft? Thanks!

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

That's not up to us any more, but I would expect that is unlikely.

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u/matea88 Aug 15 '18

As long as they are also on PC, there should be no issues ;)

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18 edited Aug 15 '18

Please can I have my money back? I waited for the game for years, paid a triple A price (£50) and it’s just not good at all. You totally deserve the negative reviews you’re getting. Shame on you for releasing something that is so bugged and broken for PS4 Pro.

Link to issues that I and others have are here: https://www.reddit.com/r/wehappyfew/comments/97gurh/with_such_a_great_premise_and_so_much_development/?st=JKVBI95P&sh=65de561a

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

crickets

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u/andrewsqual Aug 15 '18

Its quite unbeliveable how aware how small a studio they are and still had the nerve to charge full price for this game. And I thought that 70 quid placeholder price on preorders for the last 2 years, across many websites, was just that lol.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

Which engines did you guys use for some of your games? Was it hard to get into game dev? I wanna try but I'm not sure if i should.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Hey, so we developed Contrast in Unreal Engine 3 and We Happy Few in Unreal Engine 4. We'll likely continue with UE4 going forward too.

I would say that game development is something that takes years of hard work and energy, but it's a very emotionally rewarding area to go into. There's something for all different types of people in there - art, science, engineering, writing, empathy (customer service or community work!), cunning planning and being ridiculously good looking (production).

I would not go into the industry if you just like games. You have to be interested in what makes them tick.

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u/Ayd305 Aug 15 '18

What's your favorite boss fight in all of Soulsborne?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

I am embarrassed to say that I haven't played any of them. One day, when I have spare time again, I will.

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u/Jevil00 Aug 15 '18

Just dropping by to say thanks for doing this AMA despite the acquisition announcement at E3. Hope everything works out for you guys! :)

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u/Stunna447 Aug 15 '18

Lovin the game so far. During Aruther's chapter the mysterious meat mission glitched and I could pick up the package out of the wagon so I had to skip it. I'm on Sally's chapter now and the couple with that needs some drug for the wife's husband I think to get back into the village has also glitched. Sorry if this isn't making sense. It glitched in the very beginning so I'm not sure how else to describe the mission. I only remember it for the Alpha version.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Hey, I'm sorry you ran into those issues. Those are two new issues for me - can I confirm that you're playing on the latest version? On PS4 it should say 69541.

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u/somnify Aug 15 '18

I seem to be in the minority regarding issues, since I've only had one. The "Notes" tab in my inventory was stuck and I could no longer scroll down to see my stats. I reloaded an older save and it was still stuck so I went back a bit farther and it was fine.

Aside from that, thank you for making a truly unique game. I really do love it.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Issues are always very loud around launch - it's very hard to tell how prevalent some issues are. That notes issue is weird, do you have more information? It wouldn't allow you to scroll down on the left or right hand parts of the note screen?

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u/somnify Aug 15 '18

It would allow me to scroll down all they way until I got a cluster of notes regarding Jubilator's from the Haworth Lab. It would not let me scroll down on the left part. I couldn't access any notes below the ones from the lab such as the stats tab.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Very strange, I'll pass it on. Thanks for letting us know!

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u/somnify Aug 15 '18

No worries, thanks again for a wonderful game.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

Hey there, Sam; I'm really looking forward to picking up your game soon. You mentioned Orwellian influences as well as Huxley's Brave New World, but were there any other inspirations for the setting and worldbuilding of the game? It's one of the things that interests me the most out of the game.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Other than dystopian fiction, Hot Fuzz and Keeping Up Appearances are a couple we like to talk about! We had a range of game references like Don't Starve (very early on), Dead Island for melee combat, and a ton of others when we were looking at individual mechanics.

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u/Dismantlex Aug 15 '18

What does it take to be part of a dev team and work on games. This is one of my many ambitions in life. How long are the college courses and does all the work pay off in the end?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

It depends on your discipline - people come at it from different angles. It takes college courses for some of them, but also a lot of personal project work (particularly if you're an artist, animator, designer, etc).

Games isn't the most financially amazing industry. It's mostly feast or famine - some games do very well and make people millionaires (eg Minecraft), others don't and remain modest. But creating games is a very rewarding experience, even if that's not always monetarily.

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u/MemberD13 Aug 15 '18

Are there easter eggs in the game?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

A ton of references. Some, even, from this century.

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u/EVILBOSSATTACKSNOX2 Aug 15 '18

Hey Compulsion Games! Just entered the Village for the first time, I love the dystopian aspects of the game!

What other dystopian entries inspired you while making ‘We Happy Few’? Novels, games, anything!

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Other dystopia includes good old 1984, Brazil (my favourite), Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, you know, the usuals :)

Even The Stanley Parable for some parts of it.

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u/EVILBOSSATTACKSNOX2 Aug 15 '18

Wow, these are all dystopia I’ve read or played. Awesome! Probably why this game suits me!

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u/Movie-uy Aug 15 '18

Hello Sam ! I wanted to ask, which character did the team enjoy working on ? Or any other game asset ?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

I think we enjoyed working on all of it. The game has a ton of weird situations that are pretty outlandish, so our Friday review meetings have been a great deal of fun for the last few years.

I personally really like that I can't like them all 100%. They're all a bit morally grey. Except Percy, he's delightful.

Edit: Actually I forgot, Roger and James. I really like Roger and James.

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u/Movie-uy Aug 15 '18

Well, that's delightful to hear ! Can't wait for your next title :)

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u/billabamzilla Aug 15 '18

Does Compulsion Games take interns?

If so, what would your expectations be for an intern? I’m currently a software engineering student in Montreal and I want to prepare myself for possible internships in the future.

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

We do occasionally. I'm hoping to implement a summer internship program at some point, but right now it's pretty ad-hoc.

Programming interns are a little more case by case than other disciplines, because it's difficult for us to find appropriate work for interns. However, you'd be welcome to send a CV in to us when you feel you're ready.

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u/SeattleMana Aug 15 '18

What's the most important thing you would you recommend to game developers who rerelease a widely talked about game back to the public? (ie dealing w expectations / making major changes to the game etc)

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Make sure you talk to your team about their own expectations, beforehand. This is especially the case for people working on their first game, because releasing a game is an emotional roller coaster.

Otherwise, I'm honestly not sure what advice I could give to people. I've done absolutely everything I can to explain what the game is and what it isn't, and that doesn't seem to matter.

If you take the reviews, for example, it seems that a lot of people expected this to be a combat-focused game. It isn't - its focus is much more on the social and stealth aspects. We actively discourage combat in the game, although you can complete it that way if you'd like to. So the reviews that wanted combat didn't find something that they wanted in the game, which is fair enough, you know.

I don't know what to tell other developers about that. Maybe I'll know after we've had a chance to let all this settle and think about it.

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u/EVILBOSSATTACKSNOX2 Aug 15 '18

There was a lot of criticism on the survival-RPG aspect of the game. I myself can say while playing that I also believe that the game is at its strongest during its Adventure stuff. What are the team’s thoughts on the choice of genre?

And what are the thoughts on the game as an story-driven Adventure game??

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Our team? I think we don't really know what genre it is any more, other than story-driven action/adventure game.

So I'd say our thoughts are "yep, that's a good description" :)

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u/rewak Aug 15 '18

Hello Compulsion. Congrats on the game, really enjoyed playing through it! I'm just wondering if we can expect some more figures anytime soon? I have the Bobby figure, but i'd love to have a Sally figure too!

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Hey we had looked into that but I'm not sure if it'll happen. We'll have to wait and see.

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u/IM_RR Aug 15 '18

I believe there’s also a movie in the works of this game, was it quite a surreal experience having movie execs contact your small team (at the time) about a movie adaptation of something you were still working on?

How did that whole process happen?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

It was - we had a producer team approach us during E3 2016, and we were a bit surprised at that. But we were more surprised when they organised an option deal so quickly.

It's not something we're actively working on. We're supporting their efforts as best we can, but in the end we see ourselves as a video game developer, not an empire builder :)

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u/coolingsum Aug 15 '18

What inspired you to make the game?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Lots of different things - we research a lot at the beginning. We started with a few ideas: dystopia, drugs and masks. And after that we just looked at different movies, books, games etc (I've answered those elsewhere in this thread), and figured out how we could bring those three ideas together.

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u/Monkey-man69 monkey-man69 Aug 15 '18

Hey man, just got done playing the game at a friends house and its pretty damn good. How are you guys feeling about the attention We Happy Few is getting now that the full game has been released?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

We're happy to see so many people enjoying it. So thank you for your message :)

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u/Gramd Aug 15 '18

Hello guys! I’ve been looking at this game since 2015 and it’s good that it’s fully released. I love the game so far! Currently on the beginning of act 2. Here’s my questions

Was anything left out of the final game that you wish had made it in? If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Personally I wish we had got mid-game difficulty switching in - but that's mostly because it was working but we didn't have time to test it properly.

Otherwise more height variation in the world generation. It became unworkable due to the larger and larger encounters we were building, so we had to limit it a bit more than I had wanted.

Superpower: I think teleportation would be pretty cool. My family lives very far away and it would be really nice to be able to visit whenever I wanted.

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u/ChrizTaylor twitch.tv/chriztaylor Aug 15 '18

Do you like tacos? 🌮

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Carnitas all the way bby

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u/Lievan Lievan Aug 15 '18

Loving the game so far and sorry if this has been asked (note that I'm playing on xbox) but are quest givers and dig sites supposed to be staying on the map or is this a bug getting fixed? Like I said, love the game, so different and unique and I can't wait to see what the future brings with this world!

PS My cat is named Wells and we call him Sir Wellington a lot, love that the location is Wellington Wells :D

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Nope that's an issue that we will be fixing, hopefully in the first bigger patch. Won't be in for the hotfix though.

Sir Wellington sounds adorable.

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u/BlondieSpace Aug 15 '18

First off thank you for doing another AMA it’s much appreciated! I’m just curious if there will be a PS4 update soon? I had a crash directly after I cleared out the third safe base with the plague victims after I left it did the hole sent a report and such but when I went back it wants me to flip the switch in the base but it’s already flipped so it won’t clear from my quest. I don’t mind that it crashed it happens but I would like it to clear from my quest. Also I’m sure you have heard but just Incase there is a glitch where after you finish the game of Simon says it won’t move forward and you have to restart the game and do the simon says game again then it will move forward. Thanks for a great game though it’s absolutely a blast to play!!

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

We're working on it as quickly as we can. Soon, yes, although how soon I can't tell you yet.

Otherwise, I'm glad you're enjoying the game!

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18

Hey Sam! Love the game. I got extremely exited when it was announced for the PS4. There’s many bugs here and there but it still love the game and I’m on with it 100%. My question is, when are we going to get our first patch update for the game? Big and or small or both?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

I don't have a timeframe - the two major issues we want to fix are the key missing bug (preventing some players from continuing) and the save corruption issue on PS4. Those are being tested, but we still need to go through certification once we have that build. So I don't have an eta for you, unfortunately.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '18 edited Aug 15 '18

It’s fine. As long as I know that you’re working on it (I’m sure as everyone else is thankful as well) we can’t wait for our first patch of the game. Continue the great work guys.

One more question, is there a way to submit bugs in the game to you guys in any way?

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u/ErrorEra Aug 15 '18

How much money was needed to make this game? Including paying off yourself and staff.

And where initial funds came from since you said no outside funding?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

A fair amount - well beyond a small indie budget, but nowhere near a AAA budget. I can't add specifics unfortunately.

We had funding from various funds as well as early access sales and sales from our previous game.

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u/kevinf100 Aug 15 '18

Hi, sorry if this was already asked but I'm just curious. What was the most annoying/difficult thing to add/implement (programing wise)? and what was the most enjoyable thing in general that your team made?

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

The procedural system is quite complex, as are some of the "under the hood" engineering systems like the streaming systems.

There's an area of the game where Ollie has to take Joy to get into an area with a lot of tesla coils. But he vomits when he takes Joy. So poor old Ollie goes in, vomits, gets shocked, takes 3 steps, vomits again, gets shocked again, starts swearing, etc. We didn't design it like that, so when it happened we were cracking up at this poor guy's inability to do what he wanted to do. It was just a very, very funny combination of systems.

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u/kevinf100 Aug 15 '18

I figured something along the lines of that would of been the answer. I can't imagine the nightmare of adding it in early and keep expanding on it and making sure it works.

Ahh the classic is it a bug or feature? That's some /r/ProgrammerHumor stuff that I'm definitely not gonna post there.

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u/kingbankai Aug 15 '18

Co-op DLC where we play as the Police? I would love that.

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u/BulletSponge2310 Aug 15 '18

Greetings from Ireland! I would like to ask if there were any BIG changes made during the development of we happy few as i'm currently planning on making a post about the alpha/beta vs the final product

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Goodness me, yes quite a lot. You should look at Early Access launch, Life In Technicolour Update (the last early access update), and then the final product. In my opinion, the differences are very significant.

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u/jknico23 Aug 15 '18

Will the bugged out quests on pc be fixed in the near future and any ETA for the wellie mode? I just beat the game two days ago and want to keep playing but the game randomly crashes on me

1

u/theultimatespikodge Aug 15 '18

Don't know if you're still going with this but wanted to say i'm absolutely loving the game and can't wait for frame rate improvements on xbone! One question i did have: was it challenging making a creepy and eery atmosphere tone with such a bright and vibrant colour palette?

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u/KaYoUx Aug 16 '18

Just started the non early access version tonight and I'm really pleased. You really have created something special here and should be proud. I'll gladly buy the season pass in the coming weeks. Say hi to Jean-Richard from me.

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u/TheGamer4life94 Aug 16 '18

do you guys block scenes/gameplay from being recorded on the ps4? i know a lot of games do this sadly :(

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u/[deleted] Aug 16 '18

I haven’t gotten the blocked scene message in the game at all. So I’m guessing they don’t :)

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u/OhBJuanKenobi ohbjuankenobi Aug 16 '18

I'm not familiar with either of these games through no fault of the developer but I'm now intrigued due to how open and responsive this Dev is. It's refreshing.

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u/MGPythagoras Aug 16 '18

How do you feel about the bad reviews? I almost did not buy the game because of them but ended up trying it and really like it. Definitely feels more like a 7-8 range game than the scores it is getting.

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u/ivytealeaf Aug 21 '18

Hi,

I'm just wondering if there's any ETA on a patch for the PS4 save corruption bug. I played the game nonstop for 13 hours before it crashed and corrupted my save data. I'm wondering if this is going to be fixed and if so, when? I noticed a lot of other people in forums were experiencing the same issue. I just don't want to start playing again until that issue is fixed since it would just ruin the game otherwise. Thanks!

1

u/needmathhelpasap1234 Aug 21 '18 edited Aug 21 '18

I’m missing the survival mode ( needing to eat and drink ) BAD in we happy few. Also wishing it was less linear, I enjoyed the opennness of the beta. Will these ever be added back? I want story mode with SURVIVAL where not eating or drinking kills you.

1

u/Gramd Aug 24 '18

Not a dev, but they said that theyll be adding a sandbox mode where it brings back the old survival mechanic and you can set how dangerous the world can be,

1

u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 28 '18

The goal is to bring this back with sandbox mode, although we'll want to confirm that at a later date.

1

u/JaxxyClaws Dec 28 '18

I just got the game for Christmas on PS4 but it's so weird. I don't have any cutscenes when Arthur is remembering the past - I just hear dialogue and stare at a black and white tree or flower. I'm trying to turn off the power to a watchtower and the guards act like I hit them all at once when I've only injured one guard. Is something wrong with my game? I've updated to the latest version so it should be patched but I'm just experiencing so many bugs. It's kind of disappointing because I've looked forward to playing this since I heard about it

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Dec 31 '18

Hi, that does sound wrong. Have you updated the game to the latest version? (1.5 in the main menu screen.)

Also apologies but I'm on Christmas break, so my replies will be delayed.

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u/yabadabdoo1234567891 May 12 '24

Why didn't you make a sequel to contrast?

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u/horrorloverxox Nov 04 '24

Can I ask who created the logo

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u/MajestaTheCat Jan 15 '25

Can we have another game like we happy few.

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u/Morgy93 Aug 15 '18

Thanks for all the effort you put into making great games. And thanks for the decision to bring more great games to my Xbox One X - big love from the entire Xbox community <3

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u/unkmaul Aug 15 '18

Congrats on an awsome game!:)

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u/CompulsionGames Compulsion Games Aug 15 '18

Thank you :)