Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a great feat of gaming in many ways, but what arguably surprises people the most is when they hear it was made by a team of around 30 people. Often, it's assumed a game of Clair Obscur's scale needs hundreds of people, but its game director Guillaume Broche doesn't have many plans to expand.
Speaking to Automaton, Broche revealed he thinks that the team at Sandfall is pretty much perfect for its ambitions. "I think that, for now, I'd prefer working as a small team," he said. "I'm not sure how big 'an ideal team' would be (laughs). But when it comes to making a full-priced turn-based RPG, I believe that the team we have now is just the right size."
Broche also said that they screened over 200 people in interviews before deciding on the right employees. Rather than grabbing seasoned veterans, Broche was more concerned with candidates with the right mindset.
"At the time, our VFX artist and character designer had both just graduated from college, and this game was their first job ever. Since they had very little experience working, they also didn't have many existing notions of what work was supposed to be like - which I think I was a good thing, because they managed to adapt to our peculiar work style," he said.
As budgets balloon and sizes of development teams grow bigger, perhaps we'll see more studios like Sandfall Interactive pop up in time. One thing's for sure, no matter how many people are at Sandfall, millions of eyes are watching what they'll do next.