Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was a critically acclaimed smash in 2025. It was also the debut release from French video game development team Sandfall Interactive.
Now that they have had time to reflect on the work that went into the successful RPG, senior members of the team are praising their staff for making such a beloved game.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Devs Reveal Hidden Benefits Of Having Inexperienced Staff
During a recent interview with Edge Magazine (via GamesRadar+), the game’s lead designer, Michel Nora, explained that one of the benefits of working with a younger staff was the lack of expectations of what a studio should be and how a game should be made.
“[The younger staff] didn’t have any expectations about how a studio should be run and how a game should be made, and they brought fresh ideas that were very valuable for the rest of the project. So it ended up being a good decision, but it was also kind of by force, because it’s almost impossible to hire any senior people if you don’t have the money, which wasn’t there at the beginning.”
Game producer Francois Neurisse also chimed in, saying that working with such a young team meant there were no bad habits brought to the project from other gaming companies, and the team had the benefit of learning alongside one another.
“[We were] trying to create something new, and even new skills, from scratch. I’d say we basically did twice the work, because we were doing things for the first time to that scale. [But we had] the opportunity to research and execute the best practices. I also worked a lot of collaborating and exchanging [ideas] with other teams in France, and in Montpellier where many other indie studios are based. I find this industry great, it’s so collaborative among companies, rather than competitive. We benefited a lot from sharing experiences.”
For more information on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, click here to learn about the budget allotted for game development.
For more thoughts on development teams from industry veterans, check out Masahiro Sakurai’s comments on why he prefers smaller development teams.
Don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Well, I guess every player is different, cause I don’t see the point of this game… it seems like they threw the heavy drama in there and OVERLY exaggerated the (engage) part of each battle cell.
I played many games (founder) and beta tester….since the commodore computer was a thing, lol !!
So I think I may be able to tell when a game dev is reaching (too much).
Now, like I said, it’s just my feelings on the matter.
And I have given no critique on the game whatsoever. Thank you