Happy Bastards is Clever Plays' Irreverent Tactical RPG

Engage in highly tactical turn-based combat on small terrains

Enlist an unruly band of mercinaries to do the dirty work for you in Happy Bastards

Clever Plays' irreverent open-world turn-based tactical RPG Happy Bastards gets a combat demo and new trailer, highlighting a key part of the game.

MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, June 8, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Clever Plays, a Montreal-based independent game studio, provided a fresh look at Happy Bastards, its irreverent open-world tactical RPG, with a new combat trailer during Sunday’s PC Gaming Show at Summer Games Fest. In conjunction with the showcase, the studio also posted a playable combat demo on Steam to provide a hands-on look at the turn-based combat highlighted in the trailer.

“We’ve really been having fun with the combat aspect of the game, working closely with our insider community and playtesting to get the feel of the combat just right,” said Mattieu Bégin, co-founder and creative director for Clever Plays. “So we didn’t want to wait to share the combat demo with a larger audience. That said, we’ve planned a more robust demo that shows off all aspects of the game, including the real-time open-world exploration, toward the end of this year.”

Previously revealed by the Future Games Show during Summer Game Fest 2024, Happy Bastards is an open-world tactical RPG with turn-based combat in which players assemble an unruly squad to help make them a legend through reckless adventuring, bloody fights, lucrative looting, and dirty dealings. Let the bastards do the dirty work while you give the orders, reap the rewards, and enjoy the high life. This morally bankrupt mercenary sandbox with tactical combat, RPG progression, and a world that reacts to player choices encourages players to become famous by any means necessary.

Happy Bastards delivers all the gameplay and features that fans of the turn-based tactical RPG genre expect -- enlisting, evolving, and equipping a group of combatants to take part in a campaign of turn- and grid-based battles with plenty of strategic options; resource management, and an abundance of classes, stats, and abilities and upgrades; and an open-world filled with choices, and a large variety of enemies, NPCs, locations and treasures to encounter. All of this is set against a bawdy and boisterous backdrop and the quest for fame at any cost. When fame is the prize, everything’s fair game.

While much of the game is yet to come, the demo released today simulates a dungeon delve, including combat and exploration. Here are four main features that make Happy Bastards’ combat system deep and unique:
* TACTICS-HEAVY BATTLEFIELDS – Turn-based combat takes place on small terrains with a square grid, with tactical options such as elevation, line of sight, positional bonuses, control zones, tile effects, traps, shoving and falling, and orthogonal targeting that make positioning and facing really meaningful.
* COMMANDS – While players control their mercenaries as in any other game, here they do so from the sidelines as the main character, barking commands, and contributing to combat from a shared pool of abilities – several of which can be used each round in addition to the mercs’ abilities, creating a lot of tactical flexibility.
* TAG-TEAM SYSTEM – One Command, the Tag-Team Swap, redefines squad building and combat dynamics by letting you swap specialized combatants mid-fight, so you always use the “right tool for the right job” even with only three mercenaries on the field at once.
* LIVING CHARACTERS – Despite the name, the Happy Bastards are NOT perfectly docile soldiers who stoically accept their fate. Quite the contrary! They will react, speak their mind, and impose their battle whims – from simple quips and combat modifiers, to panicking or fleeing. It’s a viable strategy to try to make the enemy team implode in panic.

“We’re looking forward to sharing more of the game in the coming months, but hope people will join us on our development journey,” continued Bégin. “People can still sign up for our Insider Program within the Discord, so they’ll be the first to know when we begin testing the open world play.”

Wishlist and download the Happy Bastards combat demo on Steam. To stay up-to-date on the game’s progress, players can join the Clever Plays Discord, visit http://www.clever-plays.com/, or follow the team on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Bluesky, Facebook, and X.

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About Clever Plays
Founded in 2013 as a husband-and-wife team, Clever Plays is a 10-person indie development studio based in Montreal. The team is driven by a mission to create innovative games that combine solid gameplay and unique worlds, while striving to conquer new challenges with each game. Clever Plays’ most recent title was Operation: Tango, a stylistic co-op espionage game that won numerous Best Multiplayer Awards and accolades for Art Direction, Game Design, and more. The studio’s previous game, the 2016 Leap of Fate, a fast-paced rogue-lite in a magical cyberpunk setting, earned a Metacritic score of 80.

Additional Resources:
Happy Bastards Steam Page: https://bit.ly/HappyBastards_Steam
Happy Bastards Combat Trailer: https://youtu.be/pbDGTBrwwz8
Happy Bastards Reveal Trailer: https://bit.ly/HappyBastard_Reveal
Assets: https://bit.ly/HBCreatorKit

Elizabeth Olson
Indie Angels Marketing Services
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