Clair Obscur Devs Prioritize Passion Over Popularity
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's director is inspired by FromSoftware's narrative style, focusing on player discovery. The team prioritizes creative freedom and making games they love, regardless of mainstream success. Recent updates include new character hairstyles and bug fixes, celebrating the game's first anniversary.
Coverage across 4 outlets
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs were told that "no one" would like one of the RPG's best systems before it launched, lead says: "We didn't care"
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's creative director Guillaume Broche revealed that developers at Sandfall Interactive were told their game's unique blend of action and turn-based combat would be disliked by players. Despite these warnings, the team proceeded with their vision, which has since been praised, even winning multiple Game of the Year awards. Broche also commented on the charm of imperfections in games, contrasting them with overly polished but ultimately boring titles.
Elden Ring and Dark Souls inspired Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director's approach to the RPG's story –…
Guillaume Broche, creative director of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, discusses how FromSoftware titles like Elden Ring and Dark Souls inspired his RPG's narrative approach. He aims to create a story that encourages players to think and piece together the lore, rather than being explicitly told everything.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead doesn't "care" if his next game isn't as popular as Sandfall's GOTY RPG, because "we're just going to do what we love again"
Guillaume Broche, director of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, stated that Sandfall Interactive's next game may not achieve the same level of popularity as their previous award-winning RPG, but this is not a concern for the studio. Broche emphasized that the team prioritizes creating games they love, believing this approach contributed to their past success. He also mentioned that the studio is prepared to make bold decisions for future projects, even if they are not universally liked, to maintain creative integrity and avoid development pressure.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gets a surprise update for the RPG's first anniversary and, my god, Monoco has braids…
Sandfall Interactive is celebrating the first anniversary of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with a surprise update. The patch introduces new collectible haircuts for characters and addresses various bugs. The developer highlighted Monoco's new braided hairstyle as a notable addition.
Surrounded by layoffs, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Lune actor hopes the next game from Sandfall sticks to what made its debut RPG a hit: "Value the amazing people who made this"
Kirsty Rider, an actor for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, hopes Sandfall Interactive will continue to value its team and the creative elements that made their debut RPG a success. Despite industry-wide layoffs, Sandfall's lead writer and programmer have indicated a commitment to maintaining their current team structure and focusing on shipping quality games.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is '95 percent' made with Blueprints
Aggro Crab, a co-developer for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, revealed that the game is '95 percent' made using Unreal Engine's Blueprints visual scripting system. Studio head Nick Kaman shared insights into their development process, humorously comparing their approach to throwing rocks at a wall.
How the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 dev process powered creative design freedom
Sandfall Interactive's CTO Tom Guillermin details the development process for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, emphasizing how the team leveraged Unreal Engine's Blueprint visual scripting to grant designers maximum creative freedom. This approach allowed for efficient iteration and asset reuse, enabling the small studio to achieve its creative vision for the RPG, which is available on PlayStation 5.
Morning Postmortems/Retrospectives
Developers behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 shared insights into the game's creation process. The discussion focused on the methodologies and secrets behind how the game was developed.