compulsion games just wants to make great video games it's baked into their name but the industry
is filled with challenges especially if you're a tiny indie studio which is how compulsion started
they struggled for years on thin budgets to turn their dreams into reality only to
find that being discovered knocked them out of the frying pan and into the fire growth means
growing pains and compulsions journey so far is filled with both this is how it went down
gion provost was an executive producer at arcane studios when he decided to go his own way
got approached by this taiwanese conglomerate in taipei who wanted to start a studio in montreal
everything looked like it was a really good deal it was a really good salary it was a really good
concept i got to start my own team have tons of money so i signed the contract told everybody we
were leaving we could we quit our jobs and then uh financial crisis happened where but now it's
official we are in a recession the research money evaporated uh just a few weeks before
uh moving we'd set the ship to sale already to move to montreal and start a studio so we
just moved to montreal and started a studio just with no money with no publisher support
compulsion had to raise money for its first games by contributing to other projects like darksiders
and dungeons and dragons daggerdale over the next few years compulsion peaked at eight people and
moved from a private home into a leaky unheated montreal office compulsion was really a a name
that we picked as a desire for us to make games and something that we thought was was a value
that we wanted to explore as the compulsion of players to play at the games that we make
but provost knew that quote starting an innovative game and bringing it to fruition requires a lot of
patience and sacrifice that game was contrast a puzzle platformer that blends 2d and 3d mechanics
contrast tells the story of dede a little girl with an imaginary friend who can shift between
the real world and the shadows on the wall compulsion found a small publisher and their
labor of love released in 2013 only to be met with mixed reviews gamers on steam loved it but critics
felt that the game's virtues were sabotaged by bugs and conventional box on button puzzling
small as it was contrast pushed compulsions tiny team to its limits for votes favored
survival horror for their next game we happy few we wanted something that was replayable we
wanted something that was roguelike we wanted something that was easier for a small team
to create something memorable that would have value for players creatively compulsion wanted
to keep grappling with mature themes provost's father had passed away three
weeks before contrast launched and the team was receptive to exploring darker territory
quote people put up their nice happy moments but you don't see the real unhappiness that's below
chief creative officer sam abbott on the origins of we happy few but the survival genre was
crowded and competitive so compulsion played up their dystopian world and eccentric characters
the plan snowballed when compulsion first showed their prototype at pax east in 2015.
we happy few had great word of mouth but provost recalls that it focused on elements that weren't
fully developed everyone were like oh i shocked we want to know the world what's the story this
is amazing compulsion wanted to ensure that the final game matched fans expectations
so they used a crowdfunding campaign to begin a process sam abbott called
quote open development as design changed from survival horror to story-driven adventure
from kickstarter uh we engaged that that community for a while and that gave us like an opportunity
to really actually work with the community we started doing community updates every week the
team actually made over i think over 160 updates to the community over the course of the lifetime
of the project to keep people involved and also to get feedback from them over the course of that
development cycle but we actually helped gather more momentum to actually get the attention of
a big player in the industry which was microsoft in 2016 xbox was increasing its efforts to support
indie games through its id at xbox program and we happy few was a great match compulsion signed on
earning a spot on stage at the xbox e3 briefing that summer the exposure was phenomenal that
actually launched our early access campaign uh which then you know funneled more money for us
to actually grow the team and actually realize the vision that we had for the the team after
having it shown to the public for the first time and after two years of like telling people this
is the thing that we want to build we finally had the team and the money to actually go and build it
compulsion was growing but expectations seemed to grow even faster
provost was mindful quote generating too much buzz for what we could actually deliver
that's when gearbox publishing stepped in excited by compulsions e3 sizzle reel to help compulsion
signed a publishing deal with gearbox in 2017. what gearbox provided us was a perspective and
education and knowledge that we just simply didn't have inside the studio
meanwhile microsoft was looking for developers to join xbox game studios
speaking to polygon head of xbox phil spencer summarized key qualities of xbox game studio's
wants and potential partners quote people people that we knew and we've worked with before
teams teams that have stuck together through some good times and some adverse times and
then ideas in terms of steady flow of new things that we could bring to our players compulsion
ticked all the boxes and in june 2018 just two months before launch they joined the xbox family
we embarked on a quest a quest to find creative teams that have the mastery of our art form
and we found innovative game designers master storytellers exceptional world builders
and now i'm excited to welcome compulsion games to microsoft studios in august 2018
after more than four years of hard work and hype we happy few released to mixed reviews technical
issues dampen scores and praveau says that compulsion's rapid rise was a double-edged sword
wanting on the one side to be faithful to what we've promised the community we would build
but also seeing what would be the right direction for the team is one of the things that was super
difficult for us to deal with in a kind of an early access community driven game development
where we had made kickstarter promises at the beginning that tension was impossible to reconcile
but across the reviews warm and cold a trend emerged key elements and big ideas were
frequently praised as quote genuinely wonderful and quote overflowing with potential in a 2020
interview with game reactor phil spencer shared his excitement for compulsions future quote teams
that can build new franchises tell new stories those are always sought after that's why i'm
excited about projects like the next compulsion game quote it's a young studio and they're still
growing and learning the craft of what they are as a team but looking at what they're going to do
next i love their ability to create new worlds and unique settings phil spencer on compulsion games
talking to game industry biz head of xbox game studios matt booty couldn't share
details about compulsions next game but he did reaffirm xbox game studios hands off aethus
they're working on their next game and have spent the last year on early ideation and then
as it starts to get exposure feedback will come in and things will start to steer but it's important
to leave them alone for as long as possible until they've got something that walks on its own trying
to maintain creativity inside an organization like microsoft is not as hard as people think it is
it's really just about having a leadership group inside microsoft that understands the value
of creativity and creative game compulsion now a team of 40 and growing is currently dreaming up
their next game a game that has the full support of xbox game studios build the team not just for
the next game but for the next series of games it's been a wild ride for compulsion over the
last 10 years but the most interesting thing about their story is that it's only just begun
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