Game design inspiration often includes playing incredible games. At Clever Plays we see it as both research and an awesome perk!

In our latest article, our co-founder and Game Director Mattieu Bégin, highlights some of his favourite games of the year, and a few he's got his eye on for 2025.

Check out the full post here: Clever Plays Blog[clever-plays.com]


Tell us in the comments here or be sure to join our Discord[discord.gg]!

And, if you haven't already, please wishlist Happy Bastards here on Steam.

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/2964560

Thank you,

~LizMac and the Clever Plays Team

At Clever Plays, our development journey has been unconventional. From Leap of Fate to Operation: Tango, and now Happy Bastards, we’ve continually challenged ourselves to push creative boundaries and craft unique gaming experiences.

We’re thrilled with our new logo - creativity and curiosity are always key. 🔑

We also sat down with our Co-Founder and Game Designer, Mattieu Begin, to discuss the evolution of Clever Plays over the years.

You can read the full post here: The Evolution of Clever Plays[clever-plays.com]


Thank you to our amazing community for making these past 10 years truly fantastic, we cannot wait for what the future holds!


Thanks,
~ LizMac and the Clever Plays Team

WePlay Expo is bringing together 100s of featured games and we're thrilled that Happy Bastards is among them!

Browse games that have demos, are on sale, or coming soon as the event runs through November 23rd!

Check out the event:

WePlay Expo - https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/sale/weplayexpo2024

Starting today at 10am PT, you can find Happy Bastards in Steam's Turn-Based RPG Fest!

With 100's of games celebrating all that is turn-based, you'll be sure to find something that will scratch that Turn-Based itch!

Check out the full event here: https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/category/turnbased_rpg

Happy Bastards is available to Wishlist now on Steam!

What, exactly, does “Bastardizing” other games mean? It means paying tribute to some of our favourite features in strategy games and then building upon it with our own twisted take (and new features) in Happy Bastards! To be clear, we are drawing inspiration from features found in some great strategy RPGs. We also took inspiration from games not typically categorized as strategy–think of them as genre blenders. The fun for us here at Clever Plays is exploring how we can take the genre in our own bastardly direction.

In future blogs, we plan to go deeper into how we’re building something wholly unique. For today, though, let us show you some of the inspirations behind Happy Bastards’ gameplay.


High atop the list of our inspirations has got to be Battle Brothers and Mount & Blade.

In these games, you move your character freely on this seamless world map and set your own objectives. The world evolves dynamically and you are free to decide how to interact with it.

Battle Brothers in particular focuses on assembling a band of mercenaries. Heal them, equip them, level them up, and customize them. Most important aspect – and Kev’s favorite: Mercenaries are disposable!

In Happy Bastards, NPCs of all types (merchants, armies, monsters) also move on the map according to their AI-simulated actions in the world. Attacking or allying with NPCs changes how they act, giving the impression of an emergent, living world! We want our world to feel alive and the alliances you make – or break – determine the direction of your quest for fame. 

In the world of Happy Bastards, though, there’s also a larger focus on non-combat situations—maybe you’re talking yourself out of a fight, maybe you’re trying to con your way into some elf’s bed. Most NPCs are willing to talk to you and, as a fame-obsessed bastard, your character considers all offers at negotiation. You can forge alliances with any of the towns on the map or just as easily piss them off. Get on the good side of local heroes and VIPs…or negotiate a treaty with the nearby monster hordes, which can lead to a lot of shady endeavours. 


[Also, it was a huge thrill for Kev’s minion, Angela, to meet Jan Taaks and Paul Taaks, the actual brothers behind [i]Battle Brothers[/i] at Gamescom 2024. Missing from this photo is Christof S., the third founder of Overhype studio and programmer behind Battle Brothers.]


When it comes to the actual combat, we looked to two different sources that I think can work well together. The combat for Into the Breach and Darkest Dungeon is all about tactical choices in the thick of the fight. There’s no sneaking around, no turns wasted approaching the enemy.

There’s a LOT to love about Into the Breach, but let’s talk about the small grid combat focused on three characters. Like ItB, our small battlefields play out like a bloody version of chess where every combatant is in each other’s faces the whole time. That, and there will be clear terrain effects during battle.

Now compare that with Darkest Dungeon. There, you have tactical 4v4 combat occurring on two fronts: Keeping warriors alive and maintaining their sanity. Combat is only about tactical decisions, weighing a team’s strengths and weaknesses rather than navigation through an environment.

We want to marry the two concepts. A focused battle grid that’s as important as how your mercenaries work together – and, frankly, if their heart is into the current mission. Don’t think a mercenary is cut out for the job? Swap them out!


NPCs need to stand for something – more to the point, make you feel like they are a part of this weird and wonderful world we’re building. I’ve played games like Crusader Kings II and love how you interact with any NPC through a systemic list of actions. In Happy Bastards, you can socialize and interact with anyone, in any way you choose: Talk, gift, seduce, trade, team up, and so on. These choices directly impact the rewards you gain and which opportunities players will miss.

Besides the amazing art style in Griftlands, we also love how this conversational roguelike deckbuilding game turns NPCs into allies and enemies. Depending upon situational choices, you gain bonuses or penalties—so how you act socially has strategic implications.

Long story short, don’t expect a hero’s welcome into a town where you previously kidnapped the local celebrity. 


I’d be a fool to not mention Slay the Spire. Besides obviously being a great game, it ushered in – among other things – quick player choices that help randomize runs through the game. I love how you’re often presented with a choice to make between two or three specific options. There’s benefits, sure, but you have to weigh them against your current needs and what could be lurking around the next move.  You’re forced to choose and press on. 

We want to insert those quick choices into the world as well. You can be randomly roaming the countryside and stumble upon all sorts of encounters. My current favourite: You can stumble upon skeletons that want to retire and are willing to sell you a map of their loot-filled dungeon, if you ask them nicely enough. 


Sure, half the fun around the mercenaries in Happy Bastards is that they seem pretty disposable – in every sense of the word – but we also want to give them some personality. Each has quirks and unique traits. These mercenaries (and the other inhabitants in the game world, for that matter) will react to what’s happening based on their personality and your standing with them. 

In Death Road to Canada, your team members (randomly-generated NPCs) have unique personalities, reacting to situations with dialogues based on their stats and traits. It breathes a whole new kind of life into fighting the undead.

Now compare that with the randomly-generated NPC Orcs in Shadow of War! These Orcs talk to you directly, exposing their personalities and giving personal reasons to the player to kill them. If they escape and meet again, they procedurally refer to their common past. There are times I’ve actually talked back to them while playing! 

When we blend these concepts together in our own way, we’re aiming to have a world full of characters that are different enough, but also make sense in this kingdom full of jerks. There could be that one guy in your squad that only wants to go to brothels. Another mercenary constantly takes risks…or that guy constantly complaining about travelling.  Basically, think of that one friend that makes you roll your eyes all the time. You know the one. 


Right after the reveal of Happy Bastards at Summer Games Fest, we shared a bit of my excitement – and the kind of questions we’d heard from attending press. What? You missed that post? Take a minute and catch up here. More recently, Yohan talked about the art inspirations behind Happy Bastards…you should definitely check that one out as well. 

We’ve got a long way to go as development of the game continues, but we’re planning to give you more looks behind the development curtain (like this one). Our tiny team wants to be as transparent with you as possible as we craft this crazy world. So, please consider following us on our socials.


Maybe this paints a clearer picture for where we are planning to take Happy Bastards. Maybe this sparks a bunch of other questions for you. Ask away! In fact, we love talking with our Discord friends about everything from game design to what we’re building. After all, we couldn’t do any of this without you. So, please consider following us – and wishlisting the game on Steam. 

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[discord.com]. So, please consider following us – and wishlisting the game on Steam. 

It’s great seeing people lol watching the trailer for our new game, Happy Bastards – especially because that’s the reaction we were hoping for when recently talking to press about the game! I’m Mattieu Bégin, Creative Director and Game Designer of Happy Bastards, and if you couldn’t be at the press event, then this post is for you! We’re treating you like the press and share everything we recently showed them – and answer some of your questions about this twisted Tactical RPG coming to Steam.

“What is the point of Happy Bastards?”

You know all those fantasy games where you’re the chosen one on some noble quest? Not here! In Happy Bastards, you’re doing all these questionable things just to get ahead. Get rich or let someone else die trying. Or, as we say in the tagline, “Who needs XP when you’re famous?”

You see, I am a HUGE tactical RPG fan and Happy Bastards is heavily inspired by tactical greats such as Darkest Dungeon, Battle Brothers, XCOM, and Into the Breach. I love that these games are very challenging, have deep tactical combat systems, and let you manage a group of warriors. We are taking all that and expanding upon it in a way that we think feels distinctly different with Happy Bastards, a game that rewards you for being a shameless opportunist.


“Who are these Bastards – and how do I control them?”

This is your band of mercenaries. They are the suckers who will do your dirty work, suffering the consequences when things don’t turn out as planned.

You recruit, upgrade, and customize these procedurally generated bastards–but they also have personalities of their own…and they don’t always blindly follow your orders.

The bastards speak their mind and cause trouble (or pleasantly surprise you), in and out of combat. It is part of the game’s tactical challenge to keep them in check based on their personality traits, interactions with other bastards, and morale.

Who said being the boss was going to be easy?

While we wouldn’t say these bastards are disposable – they can gain XP – your mercenaries are just a means to an end for Kev.


“Who the hell is Kev?”

Kev is a wannabe hero. He doesn’t have any skills, can’t fight, but he’s got a big mouth and is more than happy to let everyone else do his dirty work — so long as he can get all the glory and fame. What Kev lacks in class, he more than makes up for in determination. Sound like anyone you know? Well, that’s YOU in Happy Bastards.

Now, mind you, Kev is our best take on being your worst possible self. You can customize the look, gender, and name of your glory-seeking leader.

Heroes in this world are the rock stars of their time. Think Mötley Crüe or Guns N’ Roses-levels of sex, drugs, and rock – but with sex, ale, and swords! People admire heroes in Kev’s world and they are willing to blindly do whatever heroes want. So, OF COURSE, Kev wants in on that action.

You probably got a taste of that from the trailer. It shows the main way to earn fame in the game: Kev recruiting mercenaries that go out adventuring, and when you come back to town, you brag to the populace of your adventuring exploits. Still, there are plenty of other bastardly ways to earn fame…but that’s another story for another blog post.

“So I’m always rooting for the Anti-Hero in Happy Bastards?”

Something funny happened during SGF: Several people told me that Kev made them think about their own D&D campaign characters and these people are kindred spirits. You see, Kev was inspired by fun D&D campaigns I’d run with buddies as the DM. (So this probably tells you a lot more about the people that I hang out with on weekends.)

As you’ve gathered by now, Happy Bastards is intentionally morally bankrupt. I get it. Some players don’t feel good about not being the good guy in games. Don’t think about it so much. The world of Happy Bastards is so clearly a parody, full of ridiculous characters and situations. Just go with it — be the anti-hero.

“Can you go into the gameplay more?”

There is actually a lot to be deduced even right now if you look at the trailer carefully. Feel free to pause the trailer video! We wanted the trailer to mostly establish the tone of the game, as a starting point for this campaign, but we do already give some quick glimpses for what’s ahead.

I wish I had a demo to let all of you play right now. Hell, that’s the first thing everyone in the press asked me. However, the game is still early in development. Please keep following as the team works under the direction of our glorious leader, Kev.


In the coming months, we’ll dive into the various game elements that make Happy Bastards truly unique. We’ll talk about its open world that features a dynamic simulation of NPCs. We’ll give much more details on the various mechanics of the combat system (remind us to tell you more about tag-team abilities and meatshielding). We’ll tell you what to expect from the bastards you recruit as mercenaries, including some tips on babysitting them.

It isn’t us just sharing our progress, though, we want to hear from you! Join our Discord and ask your own questions, tell us what you’re liking, and what you’d like to see more of in the game!



This is the start of our journey together and we plan to share a lot more as game development continues. The only thing we ask: Wishlist Happy Bastards here on Steam. It’s a small button click that goes a long way to help us as we build the game. Best of all, it’ll keep you updated as we get closer to Early Access and full 1.0 release!

Thanks so much for your interest — and helping us make the game we’ve always wanted to play!

Gear up and get ready for a wild ride through a world where chaos reigns supreme and only the unruliest survive. We are beyond excited to introduce you to Happy Bastards, our newly revealed open-world tactical RPG with turn-based combat. Assemble your squad of mercenaries, each more unpredictable and audacious than the last, to explore, fight, and loot your way to fame and fortune! Who needs XP when you’re famous?

In Happy Bastards, you call the shots. Lead your team of raucous rogues as they get their hands dirty doing the jobs no one else would dare. Who needs XP when you’re famous?

Key Features:

Fame is the Name of the Game
Why risk lifting a sword when your disposable mercs can do all the dirty work? Just rely on your silver tongue and shamelessness to build your claim to fame, one flashy act at a time.

Tend to Your Unruly Bastards
These ruthless warriors are as dumb as a bag of rocks. Be prepared to babysit in and out of combat as your bastards argue, cause mischief, and speak their minds. Who said being the boss would be easy?

Be Hands-On at Arm's Length
Shout commands from a safe distance while your bastards execute each of your combat tactics. Whether ordering a perfectly-timed tag-team ability or sacrificing a human meat shield, you make the call--but never take the fall.

All the Scheming, None of the Guilt
Lead a morally-bankrupt campaign across a parody-filled fantasy world. Every town, hero, and monster faction can be turned ally or foe, so choose wisely because you'll have to live--and your bastards likely die--with the consequences.

We’re truly excited for all that is coming on this Happy Bastards’ journey and hope that you will join this merry band of devs on our quest to make a fantastic game for you!

Wishlist the Game on Steam: https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/2964560/Happy_Bastards/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CleverPlays

Join the Discord: Discord.gg/CleverPlays

Thank you,

LizMac and the Clever Plays Team