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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top Game of the Year contender, it’s also a huge financial hit. Developer the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive revealed that this title topped 5 million units sold, this is in spite of it being a launch-day addition on Xbox Game Pass.

Its success came as quite an unexpected turn to the developers. I was convinced that we'd create a good game achieving moderate commercial success,” the COO and producer stated.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out this title's review aggregate, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps “maybe the biggest shock for everyone versus “our initial expectations and the actual outcome proved to be. Once it was published the entire team celebrated excitedly. The energy was electric.”

This triumph resulted in Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for players featuring fresh areas, enemies, plus epic encounters, which they said is coming sometime soon.

Nevertheless, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. We've built a talented crew with a strong creative director who has a great vision for this game and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that made this possible and perhaps create one big game after another,” the executive added.

The size of Sandfall sparked significant conversation when the game came out. Some developers, including renowned designers, considered the development group as a perfect example for creative teams. Although the team is and was relatively lean versus large developers, checking Expedition 33’s credits reveals many individuals participated; the French studio partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, as an instance.

“Some hiring will occur a little more certainly if we have next an upcoming production peak in upcoming years,” the executive said. “However, I envision essentially a craft studio comprising a handful really talented people that can make a work of art together.” They emphasized that their core belief as a company “focuses on preserving the successful elements that enabled this success originally.”

Although it's not the right time to say specifically what’s next — believe me, I attempted to learn more — they are certain their fundamental principles. “The turn-based aspect, I think it's in the DNA of this project,” the lead programmer explained. “It's still premature to specify what will interest us, but it's important also to adhere to the DNA of studio through compelling worlds plus innovative play that excites us.”

The developer noted how this game started with their director developing his passion title. And hopefully that's something we will be able to do in coming projects.”