Taking place within the retro-futuristic version of the mid-1960s, following an alternative version of World War II, players take control over one of three characters, each of whom seek to complete a personal task while escaping the fictional city of Wellington Wells – a crumbling dystopia on the verge of societal collapse, due to the overuse of a hallucinogenic drug that keeps its inhabitants blissfully unaware about the truth of their world, while leaving them easily manipulated and lacking morals.

The developers focused on creating a story with strong narratives, while underlining gameplay with a sense of paranoia, and designing in-game decisions that are of moral gray areas and weight, which influence and affect later parts of the game.

Some pieces of clothing allow you to conform in restricted areas, disarm traps in broad daylight without a fuss, or take honey from bees without being stung to death.

The player must explore others houses and buildings around the map to find food and water to avoid starving and dehydrating, which will end the game (if on permadeath mode; otherwise, they will respawn back at the last hatch they visited.)

The game takes place in an alternate historical timeline, in which Giuseppe Zangara assassinates Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, allowing Senator Huey Long to become President of the United States.

However, the repercussions of the Very Bad Thing left the citizens with immense anguish and guilt over their actions, leading to the invention of a new hallucinogenic drug called "Joy", which suppresses all unhappy memories and leaves its user in a chemically-induced euphoria, while also brightening how they perceive their environment.

By the 1960s, Wellington Wells' isolation led to resounding advances in technology, including Tesla-styled weapons, portable power cells, and automated security systems.

To encourage the drug's consumption, the media is tightly controlled and centers on "Uncle" Jack Worthing, a friendly MC whose voice and image widely broadcasts government propaganda over the city's televisions and radios.

Arthur, not knowing it is for Gwen, agrees in return for a Letter of Transit from General Robert Byng (Stephen Boxer), Sally's most prominent patron and on-and-off lover.

After finding the town's executive committee too addled on Joy to pay any mind to the tanks or the famine, Ollie decides to confront Uncle Jack (Julian Casey), Wellington Wells' friendly celebrity propagandist.

He plays a tape of his final but unreleased broadcast, in which Jack suffers an emotional breakdown brought about by resurfacing memories of his daughter Margaret and despairs over the town's hopeless situation.

If Arthur continues to the mainland, he encounters an impoverished young child complaining about the rainy weather, indicating other towns in England did not follow the path Wellington Wells did.

They Came From Below: The first DLC story which follows lovers Roger Bacon and James Maxwell, two houseboys who are in search of their superior Dr. Faraday (who created Wellington Wells' technology) in an underground facility populated with hostile robots.

Morrie reveals he first heard the tune being hummed from the roof, leading Nick to investigate and finding the body of a music shop owner he had met last night.

This triggers another vivid vision of the music shop owner being murdered, and Nick wakes back up in the hotel room, this time with a dead woman.

Realizing that Dr. Verloc has no permanent solution and is willing to let the populace die off to "sustainable" levels, Victoria resolves to cut off the town's Joy supply to wean them off the drug.

The combination of the destruction of the Joy supply and the broadcast of Uncle Jack's final recording sends all of Wellington Wells into complete anarchy as the enraged citizens slaughter each other.

[15] The procedural generation also fell out from Compulsion's previous experience in building Contrast, in that they recognized that as a five-person studio, they lacked the man-power to develop a lot of high-quality content.

Provost considered that with the permadeath mechanic, the player would need to put a great deal of consideration into using Joy as to preserve their current game knowing there will be consequences later.

[16] Other influential works include The Prisoner, A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World, V for Vendetta and Doctor Who, along with the humor of Monty Python and Blowup for the game's aesthetics.

[11][17][18][19] Some of the Compulsion team, including Provost, had been with Arkane Studios during a time where they were secretly developing an episode for the Half-Life series, also set in a dystopian world, which carried into We Happy Few.

[11] Describing the meaning behind the story, Alex Epstein was quoted as saying "We Happy Few is inspired by, among other things, prescription drug culture — the idea that no one should have to be sad if they can pop a pill and fix it.

[26][27] Part of their choice to use early access was to provide transparency of what the game was actually to be, wanting to avoid the pitfalls that happened with No Man's Sky on its release in August 2016.

[15] Compulsion maintained it was aiming to produce a roguelike survival game with some light narrative elements, which was meant to be played repeatedly, with a complete playthrough taking only three to four hours.

At one point, the studio tried to remove the survival elements leaving only the action-adventure gameplay, but felt this affected the balance and flavor of the title, since Wellington Wells was meant to be a society on the verge of collapse due to dwindling resources.

[13] Community manager Naila Hadjas stated that with these changes, they estimated the full game now was about 20 hours long, but still offering replayability through the procedural generation aspects, different playable characters and difficulty modes.

[31] Alongside this, in response to complaints regarding the price change, disabled the ability to pre-order the game and offered full refunds to anyone that had bought the title earlier regardless of playtime.

[39] The Australian Ratings Board agreed to review their classification, offering interested parties to also reply in standing for reclassification of the game during the month of July 2018.

[50] Brittany Vincent of Shacknews elaborated that the characters' "stereotypical" accents along with the "peppy" music lent the game a "realistic lilt that make these weirdos even creepier".

[48] However, while Sam Spyrison of Hardcore Gamer agreed that the voice-acting was mostly solid, he felt that the dialogue was inconsistent, saying that it "ranges from original and enticing to disjointed and nonsensical".