In spite of Massive Success, Clair Obscur Creators Intend to Keep Studio Compact

The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY candidate, it’s also a massive commercial success. Studio the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that the game exceeded 5 million units sold, this is despite its status as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.

The game's performance was a shock for the team. I was convinced that we would have a good game that would meet moderate market performance,” a senior team member explained.

A technical director noted the game's review aggregate, now standing at 93, came as perhaps the most surprising moment for everyone compared to our early predictions and the actual outcome proved to be. Because when it dropped everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. The energy was electric.”

That success prompted work on a free update for the title featuring fresh areas, enemies, plus epic encounters, as announced will release in the next few months.

However, as the title expands, it's unlikely the studio to grow. “We have a great team under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for the project and also for new ideas. We'd like to keep the close-knit size that made this possible then develop large projects one by one,” they said.

Their team size generated plenty of debate when the game came out. A few well-known creators, like Hideo Kojima, considered Sandfall’s team as a perfect example for a studio. Although the team is and was indeed a small team versus large developers, a quick look at the game's credits reveals many individuals worked on it; Sandfall contracted a Korean team for animation work, for example.

“We will hire slightly more for sure if we have a future production surge in upcoming years,” the executive stated. “However, I envision rather a creative atelier of a few highly skilled individuals capable of producing artistic collaborations.” It was stated that Sandfall’s vision as developers “is more to maintain the key advantages that enabled this success from the start.”

Despite being premature for the studio to reveal exact details about future projects — and trust me, I attempted to learn more — the team does know what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, forms the foundation of what we built,” a developer explained. “The timing isn't right to specify what will interest us, yet we must to remain faithful to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling and engaging mechanics that drives our passion.”

The lead programmer added how this game began with the creative director “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully this approach we will be able to do as well for future productions.”