French YouTuber Joueur du Grenier (JDG) recently sat down with Guillaume Broche, CEO and Creative Director of Sandfall Interactive, and Alan Reynaud, the Lead Character Artist, to discuss the development and international success of their first game, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Conducted around two weeks after the game’s release, the interview revealed exclusive insights into the creative process, the team’s journey, and what the future holds for the studio.
You can watch the full interview on Joueur du Grenier‘s official YouTube channel:
Special thanks to JDG for the exclusive look behind the scenes at one of the year’s most talked-about indie titles. Here is a short summary, translated from the video, which is in French originally.
A Small Team with Big Dreams
The interview is very chill, and Guillaume and Alan have freedom to talk about their game, Claire Obscur: Expedition 33. They share stories about how they made the game, the challenges of working in a small studio, and the excitement of seeing it sell over 2 million copies. Guillaume explains how he moved from a big company like Ubisoft to a small indie studio, where he could finally create the way he wanted. At Ubisoft, he was more of a project manager, and he started playing with Unreal Engine in his free time. His very first project in Unreal, which he named “Sandfall” for the time that passes by, became later on Expedition 33.
The Freedom to Experience & Inspirations
Their partnership with Kepler, the game’s publisher, is described as very open and supportive, which allowed them to experiment more than usual. Kepler was open with them, they were able to discuss deadlines, changes, inspirations, and more. This gave them enough freedom to create exactly what they had in mind.
The interview also covers what inspired them, including popular games like Final Fantasy and Demon’s Souls, and even books like Alain Damasio’s La Horde du Contrevent. This book gave them ideas for the game’s story, which is all about exploring the unknown. They worked hard to make sure the game was both challenging and fun for many different types of players, with an ideal playtime of 20 to 30 hours.
They also talk about the bigger picture in the gaming world. How many studios keep making the same games, and how small teams like theirs can bring unique ideas. For them, passion is the most important quality in a team.
Highlights
- Being a small studio allowed them to make cool choices. It’s a passion project first.
- Inspirations include Final Fantasy, Demon’s Souls, FromSoftware games, and Persona.
- Only 4 of them come from Ubisoft, the majority of their team are Juniors in the gaming industry. It was their first game.
- They had help from outside studios, especially for voice acting, QA in Poland, and animation which was made by Korean Freelance artists. Kepler helped a lot with Com.
- Kepler and Sandfall were able to communicate smartly about release date, quality, and more.
- They want to make unique, original games instead of copying big franchises.
- The release of Oblivion right before Expedition 33 scared them, but in the end only positive came from it.
- Guillaume Broche mentioned not being a fan of Open-Worlds, despite Zelda Breath of the Wilds was one of his favorite open-world games. He did not want to put a massive open-world in Expedition 33.
- Removing things like the mini-map was a bold choice to make players explore more. They wanted us to focus on the game world itself, not just follow a map. It was risky, but it worked.
- Their goal was to integrate everything inside the Lore of the game:
- There is no yellow painting to indicate the road.
- You can climb up things, but those are explained as installed by previous expeditions, and that’s why you can climb up this mountain. Because someone else was there first.
- No items scattered randomly.
- No ten thousand side-quests that end up making you forget about your main story.
- They had a big discussion about the game’s difficulty. While they wanted everyone to play the same game, they also realized some players may just want to experience story, and ended up deciding on multiple difficulties.
Small Studio VS AAA
Small studios can make amazing games with the freedom to be creative. Guillaume and Alan explained how moving from Ubisoft to Sanfall gave them the chance to make the game they wanted. Expedition 33 proves that you don’t need a massive budget to create something special. Games with universal themes can connect with players all over the world. Even though Expedition 33 has French influences, its themes of adventure and discovery make it interesting for players everywhere. It’s a great example of how indie studios can change the gaming world with unique ideas and passion.
The gaming world needs new, unique ideas, not just the same old sequels. It was pointed out that too many big studios just make the same games over and over,. Small studios like Sandfall can bring new ideas. They also shared how important it is to take care of the team’s well-being, avoid overworking them, and believe that taking care of people helps them be more creative and productive.
GOTY and Future of the Game
Game of the Year was also discussed. Guillaume mentioned they already got their biggest reward: seeing players enjoy their game. GOTY would be the cherry on top of the cake.
Exciting news was also shared: there are plans for a movie based on Expedition 33 and even live concerts with music from the game. Both Guillaume and Alan say they are happy to expand the world of Expedition 33 even further. They end the episode by thanking the gaming community for its support and talk about how important it is to create original games that players truly enjoy.
If you have the chance to watch the full video, we highly recommend it, as they go into many more details about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. This is just a rough summary.
For more information about Clair Obscur or other gaming news, you can also take a look at our gaming hub!
