Contrast developer Compulsion Games is crowdfunding an interesting-looking first-person roguelike that tasks the player with escaping a city filled with creepily cheerful psychopaths.

According to the studio, We Happy Few is a game of paranoia and survival in a drugged-out, dystopian English city in 1964.

It is being created for Windows PC for release next year, with Mac, Linux, and console versions also under consideration.

You play one of three Downers – someone off their happy pills – who must hide in plain sight or neutralise Wellies in your bid for freedom.

“You’ll have to blend in with its other citizens, who don’t take kindly to people who don’t abide by their not-so-normal rules,” the game’s pitch reads.

“What do the Wellies approve of you doing? What makes them suspicious? What turns them into a homicidal mob? And is there anyone here who can help you?

“Welcome, my friends. It’s another fabulous day in Wellington Wells.”

At the time of writing, We Happy Few had raised CA$51,124 of its CA$250,000 goal (NZ$280,000), with 29 days remaining.