{"id":50617,"date":"2025-08-01T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=50617"},"modified":"2025-07-31T18:35:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T09:35:43","slug":"clair-obscur-expedition-33-studio-doesnt-plan-on-expanding-its-scale-of-development-were-just-the-right-size-for-a-full-price-turn-based-rpg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/clair-obscur-expedition-33-studio-doesnt-plan-on-expanding-its-scale-of-development-were-just-the-right-size-for-a-full-price-turn-based-rpg\/","title":{"rendered":"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 studio doesn\u2019t plan on expanding its scale of development. \u201cWe\u2019re just the right size for a full-price turn-based RPG\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sandfall Interactive\u2019s<strong> Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<\/strong> unexpectedly, but deservingly, became one of the most loved games in 2025, with many influential people in the industry nominating it as their personal <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/stellar-blade-director-names-clair-obscur-expedition-33-his-game-of-the-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">game of the year<\/a>. During CEDEC 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/articles\/interviewsjp\/clair-obscur-expedition-33-20250731-351283\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Automaton Japan<\/a> had the chance to meet up with Guillaume Broche and Tom Guillermin, the creative director and lead programmer of the game respectively. We asked them about how Sandfall Interactive approached creating such a polished game with such a small team, as well as their aspirations for future expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Launch Trailer | PS5 Games\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2VaLOc1FpSo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Guillermin says that right now, the studio isn\u2019t really planning on expanding the scale of development any further, emphasizing that while it may not be ideal, their team is currently just the right size to tackle games like Clair Obscur. \u201cI think that, for now, I\u2019d prefer working as a small team. I\u2019m not sure how big \u201can ideal team\u201d would be (laughs). But when it comes to making a full-priced turn-based RPG, I believe that the team we have now is just the right size.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250731-506170001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50627\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250731-506170001.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250731-506170001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250731-506170001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>While Sandfall Interactive had the support of external partners for things like QA, localization and marketing, core development work was done with a very limited team. \u201cWe had five people working on environments, two on the story. And I think, around three to six people worked on the cinematics. The music was done by four people,\u201d Broche says. He notes that, while the team was small, everything worked out because all of the members were so highly skilled. And that talent was carefully hand-picked by Sandfall Interactive. Apparently, the first few members of the studio were meticulously chosen over the course of more than 200 interviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAfter establishing our company, we conducted over 200 interviews in order to gather the first team members. The screenings were rather rigorous,\u201d Broche laughs. However, after the first rounds of interviews, he said that his focus was on finding young, talented people that had \u201cfighting spirit,\u201d as opposed to seasoned industry professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"510\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 904px) 100vw, 904px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250731-506170002.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250731-506170002.jpg 904w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250731-506170002-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250731-506170002-768x433.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As Guillermin notes, \u201cAt the time, our VFX artist and character designer had both just graduated from college, and this game was their first job ever. Since they had very little experience working, they also didn\u2019t have many existing notions of what work was supposed to be like \u2013 which I think I was a good thing, because they managed to adapt to our peculiar work style.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many influential people in the game industry praised Sandfall Interactive\u2019s approach to development, with <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/hideo-kojima-admires-clair-obscur-expedition-33s-small-scale-dev-team-calling-it-his-ideal-environment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hideo Kojima himself stating<\/a> that Sandfall Interactive made him reconsider his stance on large development studios. In an age where development is getting harder and harder, requiring more manpower to create \u201cmonumental\u201d games, Sandfall Interactive proved that it can be done with a tight-knit team full of highly talented individuals. And, given the success of the game, it is likely that this development style may be taken on by other mid-sized studios as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Automaton interviewed  Guillaume Broche and Tom Guillermin, the creative director and lead programmer of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-50617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 studio doesn\u2019t plan on expanding its scale of development. \u201cWe\u2019re just the right size for a full-price turn-based RPG\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Automaton interviewed Guillaume Broche and Tom Guillermin, the creative director and lead programmer of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/clair-obscur-expedition-33-studio-doesnt-plan-on-expanding-its-scale-of-development-were-just-the-right-size-for-a-full-price-turn-based-rpg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 studio doesn\u2019t plan on expanding its scale of development. \u201cWe\u2019re just the right size for a full-price turn-based RPG\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Automaton interviewed Guillaume Broche and Tom Guillermin, the creative director and lead programmer of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/clair-obscur-expedition-33-studio-doesnt-plan-on-expanding-its-scale-of-development-were-just-the-right-size-for-a-full-price-turn-based-rpg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-31T17:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250731-50617-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"820\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"461\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 studio doesn\u2019t plan on expanding its scale of development. \u201cWe\u2019re just the right size for a full-price turn-based RPG\u201d - 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