The Indie Game Magazine October 2015 | Issue 54 | Page 14

stories We Happy Few will tell. What other BioShock. Oddly, that was not a touchsources of inspiration have impacted the stone. In fact, Whitney had never played
game, either in terms of story or design? it, though obviously much of the team has.
But if people feel we’re sparking a BioShock
Epstein: Neil Gaiman is certainly a big invibe, I’ll take it.
fluence for me. Like him, I poach liberally
from the old stories, and the game aspires IGM: You’re taking a pretty unique apto the same combination of hilariousness proach to the music composition for this
game. Could you elaborate on the recording
and darkness.
techniques, and what can players expect
I know the team is quite fond of Brazil.
from the soundtrack?
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is unquestionably an influence, though I haven’t Abbott: In We Happy Few’s soundscape,
actually read it in decades. I believe there we’re embracing the musical revolution
of the 60s. For example, in the Village,
may be some Dr. Who as well.
our ambient theme takes inspiration from
In terms of design, Michelangelo Antonioni’s early 60s space-enthused electronic music,
classic film Blow Up and its portrayal of while the Wellies listen to the ultra perky
Swinging London (and its anomie), as well 60s pop, mod, and lounge that is pouring
as Fahrenheit 451. Pierre Cardin’s work in out of the Village speakers and televithe 1960s is a big influence on the styles sions. Our composer and sound guys have
the Wellies wear.
been doing a lot of experimentation with
In gameplay, I think Don’t Starve is a big vintage 60s instruments (such as the Vox
influence. All the zombie games out there Continental) and recording techniques, and
are a sort of negative influence: We explic- we’re very excited with how this will shape
itly didn’t want the Wellies to be zombies. the atmosphere and tone of our happy yet
You can fit in with them if you try, and you unsettling world.
ought to feel a little bad if you kill them.
IGM: We Happy Few is being developed

fix (and likewise you may get better ideas
from the community than you would have
had yourself). It can be bad because creating builds every month or two can slow
down development – you spend a couple
of days each month on fixing up a build,
which you might otherwise be spending
on new features.

The one influence everyone mentions is openly in front of the community, which
is quite different from how you developed
Contrast. How would you compare and,
uh, contrast, these two design methods? I
imagine there are benefits and downsides
to both.

In contrast (nice pun), if your development
is private, it means you can be more efficient
with your time; you don’t need to have a
fully working build 100% of the time. You
don’t need to explain why you’re making
the changes or decisions you’re making. It’s
also easier to hype a game – everything is
new, and you get to release new features/
ideas in big chunks, rather than little bits
at a time.

Abbott: With open development, you
quickly get a sense of what people like,
what they want, and what’s not working
for them. You get much more feedback as
you develop the game, which is both good
and bad. It’s good because the earlier you
know about a problem, the cheaper it is to

But, even with a lot of QA and focus testing,
it can also mean that you don’t appreciate
how some players will react to critical parts
of the game. And chances are it’s too late
to fix them post-release, even though it
might only be a day or two of work to do so.

And, of course, you have to temper people’s
comments with your own vision. Open
development doesn’t mean we do everything people suggest - it just means we
have much more information to base our
decisions on. For example, players may feel
that something’s not working, but maybe
it’s not working because it’s not all there
yet. But you have to communicate that
properly – you can’t just ignore it and go
about your business.

Developer: Compulsion Games
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Ouya
Website: www.compulsiongames.com
Twitter: @compulsiongames

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The Indie Game Magazine