15-minute gameplay trailer, Kickstarter video + fresh images of We Happy Few

Compulsion Games has unbridled a swarm of media, including a lengthy gameplay video and some images, for We Happy Few to mark the launch of its Kickstarter campaign.

Set to launch on the PC, Linux and Mac, with potential console versions down the line if all goes well, the game is set in an alternate reality English settlement called Wellington Wells in 1964; this is an era in which Germany won the Second World War and subsequently occupied England. Featuring roughly 15 minutes of gameplay footage from a pre-Alpha build, the video – narrated by Game Designer Josh Mills – starts off with the player scrounging for resources in a shelter and then moving on to the outside wherein he indulges in unarmed combat with a couple of wastrels, crafts a healing balm and lock pick, picks a locker, gets taken down but a lady with a rolling pin (!), breaches a police barricade to enter the village, imbibes a “Joy pill” to blend in which has adverse effects on his hunger/thirst meter. And more.

The campaign for the game has a CAD$250,000 goal, out of which it already has garnered around 55,000. The concept artwork shows off the different characters, including assorted enemies, the inhabitants of the settlement and three playable characters – all Downers (people who are not taking the Joy pills anymore. The Kickstarter sets out the premise quite well, with “Uncle Jack” interviewing a developer and touting the benefits of the pill. We Happy Few currently has an estimated June 2016 release window.