Despite Runaway Success, Clair Obscur Creators Aim to Keep Team Lean
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong GOTY candidate, it’s also a huge financial hit. Developer the development team along with publisher their publishing partner announced that the game topped 5 million units sold, and that’s even with its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.
This achievement was a shock for the team. I firmly believed that we'd create a good game garnering reasonable commercial success,” the COO and producer stated.
Another leading developer noted the game's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as the most surprising moment for everyone versus what we anticipated and the actual outcome of the field was. Once it was published all staff members were cheering loudly. It felt absolutely wild.”
This triumph resulted in Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for players featuring fresh areas, foes, plus epic encounters, which they said is coming sometime soon.
That said, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate the team will expand. “We have an excellent group with a strong creative director who has a great vision for the project and future concepts. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that worked for this game then develop one big game after another,” the producer noted.
The size of Sandfall sparked significant conversation when the game came out. Some developers, like Hideo Kojima, viewed this studio as the model for a studio. Despite being truly compact compared to its AAA counterparts, checking Expedition 33’s credits reveals numerous contributors participated; the French studio partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, as an instance.
“We plan to recruit slightly more definitely when facing a future production surge down the line,” the executive stated. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio comprising a handful exceptionally gifted creators that can make artistic collaborations.” It was stated that Sandfall’s vision as a studio “is more to maintain the key advantages that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”
Although it's premature for the studio to reveal exact details about future projects — rest assured, I attempted to learn more — the team does know their fundamental principles. “The turn-based aspect, I think it's in the DNA of this project,” they remarked. “It's still premature to specify our next interests, but it's important also to stay true to our creative core through compelling worlds plus innovative play that inspires the team.”
The lead programmer noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started with the creative director developing his passion title. It is hoped that's something we can continue as well for future productions.”