It's something that's been expressed ad nauseam since the release of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but what Sandfall Interactive managed to achieve with a small team of junior developers is nothing short of astounding. This feat was so unbelievable that the "world view" of veteran developer Adrian Chmielarz was shattered when he heard about the collective inexperience of the team at Sandfall.
Chmielarz—known for Painkiller, Gears of War, Bulletstorm and now, Witchfire—expressed his admiration for Sandfall in an interview with GamesIndustry.Biz. Chmielarz begins by speaking about a video where Apple co-founder Steve Jobs describes the process through which they created the first Macintosh. Jobs said he only used 'A' people for the project — the best people at the company.
B Team Heroes
"Because there were only 'A' people, they realised how much more they were enjoying their work and how much better it was, how much faster it went," Chmielarz said. "There is the old saying that ten professional soldiers are as effective as a hundred amateurs, or even a thousand, and that's quite simply true. So when you have a small team, it's really important that you have the best people."
However, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a game that's rapidly approaching the most game-of-the-year wins ever, was not made by developers who would traditionally be considered "the best people." Not necessarily because of their talent, but because of their inexperience.
"Last week I learned that the guys behind Expedition 33 hired a lot of newbies, people [who haven't] made a game before. And now my world view is ruined, and I don't know what to do," Chmielarz conceded. "Here we have a game that looks AAA to me, it's just phenomenal in every aspect. There's a deep story, deep method of work, good gameplay, great visuals, and sound. It's a very coherent product. And then you hear that the core team was 30 people, half of which were first timers. And I'm like, 'I don't know what to believe anymore'."
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Producer Says Sandfall Did "Basically Twice The Work" Of Most Teams To Make The Game
The results speak for themselves.
Chmielarz then points out a couple of clever tricks Sandfall utilised to cut down development complexity, specifically having enemies without faces (to remove the need for animation) and cinematics where characters don't really interact with the environment (removing additional complexity from the animation).
The use of creative thinking to avoid time-consuming and expensive solutions could be the way forward for the industry, as modern triple-A titles take 5+ years to develop and hundreds of millions to finance.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 92/100 Critics Rec: 98%
- Released
- April 24, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- Kepler Interactive
- Genre(s)
- Turn-Based RPG, JRPG, Fantasy
