Happy Bastards and The Art of Looking Ugly

The art of Happy Bastards is ugly – seriously ugly – and that’s the point. It’s meant to reflect the world that Kev lives in, the world that you’ll be exploiting in your quest for fame! This world needs to feel flawed, epic,…and quirky. 

I’m Yohan Herve, the Art Director for Happy Bastards (and, technically, the first employee of Clever Plays). I know what you’re thinking. “This is quite the jump from the art style (and game genre) you just did for Operation: Tango.”  

Well, that’s true. With everything that we do, our goal is to create games that respect the player and we want every game to have some kind of innovation to the genre that we’re exploring. We don’t want to do the same thing twice. While we have a long road ahead as game development continues, we thought this would be a good time to talk about what is already out there – what you can see right now, the art style behind Happy Bastards and how it colours the game.

FINDING BEAUTY IN FLAWS

For me, the art should be based on three simple concepts: Relatability, simplicity, as well as the respect and passion for the genre. I came in thinking that this world is flawed, it’s epic, and it’s funny. 

Now, when I say, “flawed” I mean the characters that you interact with in this world…let’s just say they are jerks. In the game, we laugh at everything – and these flawed characters you meet (and play as) all have their own flaws on display. 

Usually in art, there’s beauty found in symmetry. That’s why nothing is symmetrical here. Everything is skewed, even the “beautiful” people in the world. The eyes are off, or a nose is crooked. Flaws are the great equalizer and when you can laugh at everyone (especially the traditionally beautiful), it’s great. Filling a world with flawed characters is funny, sure, but it also shows that everyone is beautiful in their own way…and that everyone has flaws.

Let me put it this way: Most fantasy games create these idealized versions of the heroes and main characters. They are too good-looking. I LOVE The Witcher games from CD Projekt Red. Everything about them is awesome, but if you go back and read the books that inspired everything, Geralt is one ugly MF-er. And Happy Bastards celebrates ugly MF-ers, everywhere.

SOME INSPIRATIONS…AND ONE FROM A VERY UNEXPECTED PLACE

For me, the main inspirations for art direction: Classic fantasy inspirations like Dungeons & Dragons, Frank Frazetta, and Lord of the Rings to start. I took that legacy while borrowing from modern sources like Game of Thrones, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy.  

Take orcs. In Warhammer they are green soccer hooligans. In the Warcraft games they are green with hints of nobility. In classical Lord of the Rings, they are inky-black and ferocious. I then blend those concepts with manga…and Gearbox’s Borderlands franchise. 

How in the world can a first-person looter shooter inspire the style of Happy Bastards? For me, Borderlands captures the beautiful balance between “epic” and “flawed” with a distinct visual language. This colorful, quirky world is filled with people scratched and bandaged up, have unusually short limbs – or nothing at all. It’s bizarre, it skewers and celebrates the quirks. To think it first came out in 2009 when most other shooters were very gray, muted, and grimy is a reminder of how fresh that first game felt when it launched. 

We are trying to do something similarly inspired with Happy Bastards. We’re taking great tactical RPG and strategy games that are traditionally murky, but adding our perspective. Our goal: Create something with a unique identity and – adding to the genre. 

TELLING A STORY JUST BY LOOKING AT THE WORLD

I’m trying to build an entire world and I want everything in it to have a distinct personality. I want my art to have personality. So every NPC, monster, or hero you can find a personality in there. 

Take those orcs I just mentioned. The way we see it, every character should have specific details that will make you see the story beyond your encounter. Personally, I appreciate the more pig-like orcs found in older fantasy, but I want them to have beautiful luscious hair.

When you go into a town to hire mercenaries, I want a player’s first instinct to check out each random character’s looks. Maybe you’ll see one that looks hilarious—or totally badass. I want you to say, “I need to choose this guy based off his looks, not his stats or class.”

The thing we wanted in Kev, when we designed him, was a semi-generic character because you’ll be able to design your own, “Kev.” Second, I wanted him to embody what Happy Bastards is about. Notsomuch evil, just willing to make a lot of gray-area choices to get what he wants: Fame. I wanted to avoid making him repulsive.

There’s a roguish charm in Kev. He lacks muscle…and combat skills. He’s someone you wouldn’t want to turn your back on because he’d just as likely steal something from you or betray you, but you’d also be his drinking buddy in a heartbeat. You know something interesting is going to happen with this guy around. He’s the wild card.

My not-so-secret goal for Happy Bastards: Have people fall for the style first, before the gameplay – just don’t tell Matt [Bégin; co-founder, game designer at Clever Plays] that, OK? That’s our secret. He totally won’t see this blog post. I think.

MORE TO COME FROM HAPPY BASTARDS IN SOCIAL!

As you can see, we’ve got SO MUCH more to talk about when it comes to Happy Bastards. Besides this fractured fairytale aesthetic, there’s the game mechanics and a fun world we’re looking forward to exploring with you. We’ve got some development time ahead of us, but we’d love to talk more about where we’re taking this game as well as what we love about tactical RPGs here, on socials, and on Discord. So, please consider following us– and wishlisting the game on Steam.