Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads say "our vision is to ship quality games," and "we don't believe you need to have a lot of people to do that"

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads say "our vision is to ship quality games," and "we don't believe you need to have a lot of people to do that" News By Jordan Gerblick published 21 January 2026

"Expanding for the sake of expanding is not our vision"

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 studio Sandfall Interactive doesn't plan on expanding significantly following the breakthrough success of its debut launch.

Talking to Edge Magazine for issue #419, Expedition 33 creative director Guillaume Broche and lead programmer Tom Guillermin were asked whether Sandfall's next game will be bigger than Expedition 33, and they had a pretty decisive answer.

"No, I think it's good to have limitations when you are creative," said Broche. "It's the best way to be the best version of yourself. We could scale up now we have a lot more money, but I would say it's not tempting for us, because even the management team and myself, we'd have to be hands-on and doing things for ourselves. We love making games more than we love managing, so we want to keep doing that. These past five years were some of the best of my life, and I want to be happy like that again."

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• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs' next game will focus on "what we think is cool" rather than trying to please everyone

Sandfall certainly proved it's possible to make not only a quality game, but one that punches well above its weight in terms of studio size and pedigree. Just recently, veteran game developer Adrian Chmielarz said his whole "world view is ruined" after learning the "phenomenal" Expedition 33 was made by "a lot of newbies."

That's another big reason Sandfall doesn't feel the immediate need to grow as a team: things seem to be working pretty well as they are.

"In terms of team dynamics, everybody knows everybody in the team, and people are used to working together," added Guillermin. "Now we are lucky enough to have a strong foundation from the previous project, but expanding for the sake of expanding is not our vision.

"Our vision is to ship quality games, and we don't believe you need to have a lot of people to do that. There are large teams that deliver great games, of course, but for us what works best is pretty much our current size. We don't want to change the team structure and dynamic."

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Maelle's most infamous attack in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was actually "very bad" during development, and Sandfall made it super powerful by trying to fix it and not testing the change properly

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After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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