Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a compact RPG that lasts around 30 hours and has surprisingly sold over 3.3 million copies. This success is even more remarkable in light of the struggles facing larger franchises like Final Fantasy, where development costs have spiraled, causing a decline in successful releases.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Matthew Handrahan, the Portfolio Director at Clair Obscur’s publisher Kepler Interactive, shared insights about the game’s development. He remarked how the industry’s fixation on high-budget titles offers a new space for nimble developers to thrive. Handrahan notably stated, “You’ve seen the number of releases from AAA publishers dwindle and dwindle and dwindle. Now there’s an opportunity for teams like Sandfall to come in and give players something that they really have not been given for quite a long time.”

The exact budget of Clair Obscur remains undisclosed, but Handrahan is confident it’s less than expected for a title with this level of success. He implied that previous games like Mirror’s Edge and Vanquish likely cost more to develop. On this point, he expressed, “I would guarantee if you got 10 people to guess, I think all 10 wouldn’t guess the actual figure.”

François Meurisse, COO of Sandfall Interactive, echoed this sentiment affirming their preference for a smaller, more agile development team to foster creativity, reminiscent of the teams behind iconic games like Ocarina of Time and Half-Life 2 that had a maximum of 60 or 70 developers.