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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't just a strong Game of the Year candidate, it’s also a massive commercial success. Studio the development team and publisher Kepler Interactive disclosed that the game topped five million copies sold, this is in spite of it being a day-one release through the Game Pass service.

This achievement came as quite an unexpected turn to Sandfall. “I was strongly believing that we'd create an enjoyable experience that would meet some average commercial success,” a key executive commented.

A technical director remarked this title's Metacritic rating, now standing at 93, came as perhaps the greatest surprise” to the studio compared to our early predictions and what the reality of the field was. Because when it dropped all staff members celebrated excitedly. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception prompted work on a complimentary expansion for the game including novel settings, foes, along with challenging bosses, which they said will release sometime soon.

However, while the game is growing, fans shouldn't anticipate the studio to grow. We've built an excellent group under clear creative leadership possessing strong ideas for the project and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that made this possible and perhaps create large projects one by one,” the producer noted.

Their team size drummed up significant conversation upon the title's release. Some developers, such as the famed director, considered Sandfall’s team as the model for game development. Despite being truly compact next to major studios, a quick look at the game's credits indicates dozens of people were involved; Sandfall hired a team in Korea for animation work, for example.

“We plan to recruit a bit more for sure should there be an increase in development in the coming years,” they stated. “Yet I picture essentially a craft studio of a few highly skilled individuals that can make collective masterpieces.” He noted that Sandfall’s vision as developers “aims to keep the strengths that led to this accomplishment originally.”

While it may be not the right time to disclose concrete plans what’s next — rest assured, efforts were made — the team does know what’s at its core. “The turn-based aspect, is integral to our identity of this project,” the lead programmer explained. “It's still premature to specify our next interests, yet we must to adhere to our studio's essence through compelling worlds plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

The lead programmer added that the project began with the creative director pursuing his ideal project. We aspire this approach we can continue in coming projects.”