We Happy Few of his father three weeks before "Contrast" shipped. During this time, he had reflected on his state of life, and came up with ideas for "We Happy Few" in his emotional distress, particularly the idea of a society fixated on drugs and masks. Provost presented this to his creative team, who saw the possibilities of expanding on this. Narrative director Alex Epstein considered the idea similar to "Prozac Nation", and where in current times, there is a prescription drug for every conceivable malady. The title of the game comes from the St Crispin's Day Speech from "Henry V": Narratively, the
We Happy Few were in a utopia and the darker reality "under the hood" formed the "basis" of dystopian fiction. The idea of the Wellies wearing masks was seen as flipping around the use of Guy Fawkes masks in "V for Vendetta", that instead of being a sign of resistance, they would be "a symbol of the psychological oppression", forcing their wearer to be smiling all the time, according to Provost. "We Happy Few" has been said by some to be a cross between video games series "BioShock", "Fallout" and "Don't Starve", and novels "Brave New World" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four". The main characters