Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been a roaring success, in a major win for developer Sandfall Interactive as well as smaller studios and JRPG fans worldwide, and its producer confirms that the devs will "for sure" be making another game in the future.
Speaking in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 producer François Meurisse says that Sandfall's debut JRPG-inspired game "has had success to an extent that we didn't imagine," adding: "We smashed our forecasts pretty fast." Given the game's immense popularity, as well as its critical acclaim (it's still the highest-rated game of the year so far on Metacritic, tied with Blue Prince), that's not an enormous surprise, but it's still lovely to hear.
The even better news is that looking to the future, Meurisse (who also serves as Sandfall's chief operating officer) says, "There will be another video game, for sure," although he mentions to GamesIndustry.biz that it's currently too early to say exactly what that'll look like. It's not clear if he's referring to an Expedition 33 sequel, of sorts, or a completely separate new release from the devs.
Even so, he reveals that the studio already has some thoughts about what this mystery new game could be, as he continues: "I can't wait to dig more into the ideas we already have for the next game."
Meurisse also looks to the rest of the team, who have "acquired new skills throughout [the] production" of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, with "many of them" being junior developers at the start of development. Everyone learned to "work together" during the making of the JRPG, he adds.
With all that in mind, Meurisse "can't wait to get to the next project, because we'll start from a more efficient position than when we started the company five years ago. And that [comes] with higher expectations as well, so it will be challenging. But I can say that we have – and Guillaume [Broche, the creative director of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33] in particular has – great ideas for the next game."
There's no doubt that Expedition 33 has firmly placed Sandfall Interactive's name on the map now, anyway, and I'm positive that I won't be the only one keenly looking out for whatever the team does next, even if it's something wildly different.
