Despite Massive Success, Clair Obscur Creators Intend to Keep Team Small

The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a strong GOTY contender, but also an enormous financial hit. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive announced that the game topped 5 million units sold, this is despite its status as a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

The game's performance was an unexpected turn to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we'd create a solid title achieving some average commercial success,” a senior team member commented.

Another leading developer remarked this title's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, was “maybe the biggest shock for everyone relative to our early predictions and what the reality of the field was. When the score released everybody in the studio celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

This triumph has led to Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game including novel settings, foes, and boss fights, reportedly will release sometime soon.

However, while the game is growing, it's unlikely they'll hire extensively. Our team includes an excellent group under clear creative leadership with a clear direction for the project plus upcoming innovations. We intend to preserve the human scale that led to our success then develop large projects one by one,” they noted.

The size of Sandfall generated significant conversation following launch. Certain industry figures, including renowned designers, looked at Sandfall’s team as the model for creative teams. Despite being relatively lean versus large developers, one glance at the title's staff list reveals numerous contributors were involved; Sandfall hired a team in Korea to work on gameplay animations, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit a bit more for sure if we have next an upcoming production peak in the coming years,” the producer said. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio comprising a handful really talented people that create artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that their core belief as a company “is more to maintain the key advantages that made this achievement possible from the start.”

Although it's not the right time to say specifically about future projects — believe me, I tried to get them to — the team does know what’s at its core. “Strategic combat, forms the foundation of our creations,” they explained. “It's a bit too early to announce our next interests, but it's important also to stay true to our studio's essence with [a] strong narrative universe and the interesting gameplay that excites us.”

The lead programmer added that the project started with the visionary developing his passion title. We aspire that's something we will be able to do with upcoming games.”