Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 may not have had a big AAA budget, but according to Sandfall Interactive, that might actually be a good thing – it could be what allowed the developers to create an RPG that's genuinely engaging.
Speaking in a recent interview with Automaton, creative director Guillaume Broche confirms as much as he explains why he doesn't think the team would've wanted "unlimited" resources. "I don't think we would have wanted to radically add unnecessary content or change the overall scope of our game," admits the lead. According to Broche, the smaller scope Sandfall had to work with helped make it a fun game – one without any "padding" to waste fans' time.
"I think part of the reason some fans enjoyed their time with our game was how we tried to respect the players' time by not artificially padding out the game time excessively," says Broche. "In some ways, having a limited budget and resources is helpful to narrow down the scope of a title and distill the vision to the core elements that make it great, and maybe having unlimited scope and budget would've made it a less engaging game for our players."
The director concludes, however, "It's hard to know!" As a fan myself, I'd argue he's right – and I'm likely not alone, either. Former PlayStation head Shuhei Yoshida called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 a "perfect balance" of AAA ambition, AA budget, and "independent vision" earlier this year. Sandfall COO and producer François Meurisse also spoke on the topic of AAA budgets himself, saying games backed by big money don't always work.
I'm reminded of what Jon Bellamy, newly appointed CEO of RuneScape creator Jagex, said recently, too – that you can use "a tenth" of the AAA "$400 million budget" and still get "not so different results" if you do it right, citing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as an example. It's safe to say Sandfall certainly did make use of its smaller (in comparison to AAA titles) scope and budget, and the devs are still hard at work, as their new major update proves.
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