Expedition 33 Studio Won’t Scale Up For Next Project, Even Though It Can

by

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was a huge success in 2025, giving its developer, Sandfall Interactive, the resources to expand. Surprisingly, they’ve decided not to grow the company, and their reasoning seems solid.

Following the successful launch of their first game, Expedition 33, studio head Guillaume Broche told Edge he isn’t planning to rapidly expand the company. He believes that having creative constraints is actually beneficial, according to GI.biz.

This is the ideal way for us to continue growing as a team. Now that we have more funding, expanding rapidly isn’t appealing. I, along with the rest of the leadership, prefer to be directly involved in the work itself. We’re passionate about making games, and that’s what we want to focus on. The last five years have been incredibly fulfilling, and I’m hoping to recapture that same level of enjoyment.

He explained his approach is to build a game around the strengths of his team, rather than forcing the team to fit the game. He added that with Expedition 33, Sandfall aimed to create a game that its developers would genuinely enjoy playing.

The goal is to create a game that’s genuinely fun to play. It might seem strange, but try not to focus too much on what players will think. If you’re passionate about the game itself, that passion will naturally reach the players. For me, the best way to connect with people is by making something authentic. Even if it’s imperfect, if it feels human, those flaws are easily overlooked. The most important thing is that the game has a strong, unique personality.

Expedition 33 was a massive success, selling over 5 million copies and earning many accolades. It particularly stood out at The Game Awards, winning a record-breaking nine awards, including the prestigious Game of the Year title.

The game recently faced backlash when it lost its Game of the Year award from The Indie Game Awards because of concerns about its use of artificial intelligence. There were also questions about whether it truly qualified as an “independent” game. Despite the controversy, its success gave many people hope that smaller, less expensive games could thrive alongside big-budget sequels.

Sandfall hasn’t revealed their next project, but it will be challenging to follow up on the huge success of Expedition 33, which TopMob awarded as Game of the Year.

Read More

2025-12-22 23:40