Expedition 33 Developer Aspires to Emulate Half-Life 2 and Ocarina of Time

Okay, so here’s the thing. Picture this: Sandfall Interactive—yeah, the crew behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, that game that kinda just exploded onto the scene like, “Surprise! We’re here!”—well, they’ve got this oddball strategy. They wanna mimic—not in a creepy copycat way—but like, take a few leaves out of the ol’ Half-Life 2 and Ocarina of Time playbooks. But, here’s the twist: small team vibes. Like, tiny. Less than 50 peeps. Why? Because apparently, that’s the sweet spot for creativity. Or something like that.

Clair Obscur hit this wild milestone—3.3 million copies in 33 days. You’d think, “Hey, time to expand, right?” Nope. Francois Meurisse, Sandfall’s big cheese, had this interview moment where he confessed that keeping things tight-knit is their jam. Man, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I suppose. Anyway—wait, did I mention their knack for randomness? Like hiring a writer from a Reddit post? Seriously, who even does that?

Back to the game itself—Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It just crashed into 2025, stealing thunder from big hitters like Death Stranding 2 and Metal Gear whatever-it’s-called-now. People are calling it the year’s top dog. Not sure if that’s true, but hey, can’t argue with buzz.

Meurisse also rambled—no offense, Fran—about focusing on one project at a time. Y’know, the whole “a small group of passionate folks can make magic” spiel. I mean, it worked for those other legendary games, so maybe they’re on to something? Authenticity and teamwork were tossed around like confetti too. Maybe that’s the real secret sauce. Make games you actually want to play. Revolutionary, right?

So yeah, that’s Sandfall’s grand scheme. Keep it small, keep it real. Guess we’ll see if this tiny team trend pays off. Anyway… no idea why that stuck with me, but there it is.