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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only an impressive GOTY contender, but also a huge financial hit. Developer the development team along with publisher their publishing partner disclosed that this title exceeded 5 million units in sales, this is in spite of it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

This achievement was a surprise to the developers. “I was strongly believing that we would have an enjoyable experience that would meet moderate market performance,” the COO and producer explained.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out that Clair Obscur’s critical score, rated 93 by critics, was the greatest surprise” to the team relative to our early predictions and the final result turned out to be. When the score released everybody in the studio were cheering loudly. It was really frantic.”

The positive reception has led to Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game featuring fresh areas, adversaries, along with challenging bosses, which they said would be out in the next few months.

Nevertheless, despite the game's evolution, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. Our team includes an excellent group under clear creative leadership who has a great vision for our work and future concepts. We'd like to keep the human scale that made this possible and do maybe one big game after another,” they added.

Their team size generated significant conversation upon the title's release. A few well-known creators, including renowned designers, viewed the development group as the model for game development. Despite being truly compact next to major studios, a quick look at the title's staff list indicates many individuals were involved; Sandfall contracted a Korean team handling movement and effects, to illustrate.

“Some hiring will occur a bit more definitely when facing a future production surge down the line,” the producer stated. “However, I envision rather a creative atelier comprising a handful highly skilled individuals that create a work of art together.” He noted that the studio's philosophy as a studio “aims to keep the successful elements that enabled this success originally.”

Despite being too early for Sandfall to say specifically regarding upcoming titles — believe me, I tried to get them to — the team does know their essential identity. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of what we built,” a developer said. “It's a bit too early to announce future passions, however, it's crucial to adhere to our studio's essence featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

The developer added how this game began with the creative director “work[ing] on his dream game. It is hoped that philosophy we can continue in coming projects.”