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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Lune actor Kirsty Rider hopes that whatever Sandfall Interactive does next, the devs will "put first all the things" they did in their first hit J'RPG, and importantly "value the amazing people" behind it.
In an interview with GamesRadar+ ahead of the 2026 BAFTA Game Awards, we asked Rider if she has any hopes for the future or legacy of Clair Obscur. Reflecting on the game, she thinks "the legacy of it now is like this small team who put their hearts into something and then created something that people connected with. And I think my hope would be that that can continue as the legacy of Sandfall and those creators."
She notes that "people say this about when you have a big hit and then you do a sequel – that's a hard position to be in. How do you nail something when part of the fabric of something is, 'This was unexpected and no one knew what this would be.'" And "unexpected" is certainly the right word – the devs and actors alike have reiterated how they genuinely didn't see the game's level of success coming, but that they remained focused on creating a game full of elements they loved.
It's this aspect that Rider hopes the devs don't lose sight of as they head into their next project, whatever that might be.
"I feel like the team chose what they appreciated, what they loved, what they were excited by, what they thought was fantastic. You know, they didn't shy away from making bold choices," she observes, giving a special shout out to the RPG's "phenomenal" music.
She concludes: "I guess that, in a sense, would be my hope for the continuation of the team, is that they continue to value the amazing people who made this game and put first all the things that they did in this one."
Thankfully, at least as far as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen is concerned, that's exactly what Sandfall plans to do. Previously noting that "we've always let our North Star be our own personal taste in terms of what we think is cool, what it is we enjoy and want to see," she said that the devs "feel like we need to trust our instincts and continue to trust the vision behind the studio."
What's more, lead programmer Tom Guillermin has also said that "expanding for the sake of expanding is not our vision," and "our vision is to ship quality games, and we don't believe you need to have a lot of people to do that." He added: "We don't want to change the team structure and dynamic."
While Guillermin was referring to the idea of not unnecessarily expanding Sandfall's dev team, his thoughts on the strong current dynamic are reassuring to hear, especially in the current climate where layoffs continually wrack the games industry, with teams losing talent left and right as a result. Last month, Fortnite developer Epic Games laid off over 1,000 employees, and that's just one example of a trend that's been ongoing over the last few years across multiple studios. Now more than ever, cherishing teams matters.
