Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 skyrocketed in the last few weeks. This is a particularly great success for the development team at Sandfall Interactive, who released their first title with the role-playing game. The success may come from the fact that the team adhered to an important principle.
What was allowed for the team? The YouTuber Pirate Software was able to interview the CEO of the development studio, Guillaume Broche, and the Art Director, Nicholas Maxson-Francombe, on YouTube. The interviewer wanted to know how the team developed its ideas.
As Broche revealed, every developer could come up with their own ideas, no matter how silly they were:
I think it’s the best way for me to create cool content, by simply coming up with silly ideas, and we have tons of silly ideas, like every lunch, where we just come up with stupid stuff that doesn’t make sense and is very silly.
Moreover, it was advantageous for the development team that there were not many large meetings like company discussions where validation processes had to take place first. This way, the team could simply try out their ideas. The developers were very open to internal ideas and allowed each employee enough creativity.
Clair Obscur Thrives on Its Humor in a Dark Setting
What silly moments does he refer to? As Broche explains further, other games tend to take themselves too seriously. Deep and dramatic stories lack the humorous elements.
This contrast between silliness and seriousness can be seen in many situations in Clair Obscur. Many funny moments probably would never have occurred if the developers had not been able to process their silly ideas. These include:
- The neighborhood dispute between Esquie and François over stones
- Monoco’s preference and passion for collecting feet
- Esquie’s vocabulary consisting of many “wheee” and “whooo”
Despite serious themes, including suicides and miscarriages, there are funny moments scattered throughout the game that contrast with the dark setting. This very mixture possibly explains why Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has become such a success.
Another development studio shows, on the other hand, that silly suggestions can also go in the wrong direction. They developed colorful skins for their shooter that they probably won’t make again in this form: Leaker Says Activision Knows That Many New Skins Look Silly – Discusses Future Plans
