Despite Runaway Achievement, Expedition 33 Developers Plan to Keep Studio Lean

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a top Game of the Year contender, but also an enormous commercial success. Developer Sandfall Interactive along with publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that this title exceeded 5 million units in sales, this is even with its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success was a surprise to the developers. “I was strongly believing that we would have an enjoyable experience that would meet moderate commercial success,” the COO and producer explained.

The CTO and lead programmer remarked this title's review aggregate, now standing at 93, came as perhaps the most surprising moment for everyone relative to what we anticipated and the final result turned out to be. Because when it dropped everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

That success resulted in work on a complimentary expansion for the game featuring fresh areas, enemies, plus epic encounters, which they said would be out sometime soon.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, don’t expect the team will expand. “We have an excellent group under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for this game and also for new ideas. We intend to preserve the small-team dynamic that made this possible and perhaps create major titles sequentially,” they said.

The size of Sandfall sparked significant conversation upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, considered the development group as the “ideal” for creative teams. Despite being indeed a small team next to major studios, one glance at Expedition 33’s credits shows that dozens of people were involved; the French studio partnered with overseas animators handling movement and effects, as an instance.

“Some hiring will occur a bit more for sure if we have next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” the producer stated. “However, I envision more of a workshop with a small number of exceptionally gifted creators capable of producing collective masterpieces.” It was stated that Sandfall’s vision as developers “aims to keep the successful elements that made this achievement possible originally.”

While it may be too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans what’s next — believe me, efforts were made — the team does know what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, I think it's in the DNA of our creations,” they remarked. “It's still premature to be able to tell what will interest us, however, it's crucial to stay true to our creative core with [a] strong narrative universe plus innovative play that excites us.”

They added how this game started with the creative director developing his passion title. And hopefully that philosophy we will be able to do in coming projects.”