Despite Massive Achievement, Clair Obscur Creators Plan to Keep Studio Small

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong GOTY contender, but also an enormous commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive and publisher their publishing partner announced that this title topped 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of it being a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success was a shock for the team. I firmly believed that we would have a good game achieving moderate sales results,” the COO and producer stated.

Another leading developer remarked this title's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, was the most surprising moment to the team versus “our initial expectations and the actual outcome proved to be. Because when it dropped the entire team was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

This triumph has led to work on a complimentary expansion for the game featuring fresh areas, foes, and boss fights, which they said is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

Nevertheless, while the game is growing, don’t expect the team will expand. “We have a great team guided by a visionary director who has a great vision for the project plus upcoming innovations. We'd like to keep the close-knit size that worked for this game then develop large projects one by one,” they noted.

Their team size generated plenty of debate when the game came out. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, viewed the development group as a perfect example for game development. Despite being indeed a small team next to major studios, a quick look at the game's credits indicates numerous contributors worked on it; the French studio partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, to illustrate.

“Some hiring will occur a little more certainly should there be an increase in development in the coming years,” the executive stated. “Yet I picture rather a creative atelier comprising a handful highly skilled individuals that can make collective masterpieces.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as developers “aims to keep the key advantages that made this achievement possible originally.”

While it may be premature for the studio to disclose concrete plans regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, I tried to get them to — they are certain their fundamental principles. “Strategic combat, forms the foundation of our creations,” the lead programmer said. “It's a bit too early to specify future passions, however, it's crucial to remain faithful to the DNA of studio with [a] strong narrative universe and the interesting gameplay that inspires the team.”

They mentioned that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with their director “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped this approach we can continue as well for future productions.”