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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just an impressive Game of the Year contender, but also an enormous sales triumph. Developer the development team along with publisher Kepler Interactive announced that the game surpassed five million copies in sales, and that’s even with it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

Its success was a surprise for the team. I firmly believed that we'd create an enjoyable experience that would meet moderate commercial success,” a senior team member commented.

The CTO and lead programmer pointed out the game's critical score, which currently sits at 93, came as the most surprising moment for everyone relative to our early predictions and the actual outcome proved to be. Once it was published the entire team were cheering loudly. The energy was electric.”

That success resulted in work on a free update for players featuring fresh areas, foes, along with challenging bosses, as announced is coming within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, as the title expands, it's unlikely the studio to grow. Our team includes a great team under clear creative leadership who has a great vision for the project and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that led to our success then develop major titles sequentially,” the producer said.

Their team size generated a storm of discussion when the game came out. A few well-known creators, such as the famed director, looked at this studio as the model for game development. While Sandfall was and is truly compact versus large developers, checking the game's credits shows that many individuals were involved; the French studio partnered with overseas animators to work on gameplay animations, as an instance.

“We plan to recruit a little more for sure if we have an increase in development in upcoming years,” they commented. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio of a few really talented people that create a work of art together.” They emphasized that Sandfall’s vision as a studio “is more to maintain the key advantages that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

Despite being premature for the studio to say specifically about future projects — and trust me, I attempted to learn more — the developers understand their essential identity. “Turn-based gameplay, is integral to our identity of our creations,” a developer remarked. “It's a bit too early to be able to tell our next interests, but it's important also to stay true to our creative core through compelling worlds and the interesting gameplay that excites us.”

The developer added that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began with the creative director “work[ing] on his dream game. And hopefully that philosophy will be repeated as well for future productions.”