One advantage Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had when it launched last year was that the RPG was unburdened by expectations out the gate. Sandfall Interactive was a new developer with a lot of industry talent on its roster, but it wasn’t yet a storied studio with a Game of the Year-winning debut to live up to. Now that it is, however, folks at the studio claim it won’t just be aiming to meet fan expectations with its next project.
In an interview with Edge (thanks, GamesRadar+), Clair Obscur lead writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen expressed that while she is “”a bit of a people pleaser” and is cognizant of fan expectations, Sandfall Interactive’s mostly concerned with their own interests rather than catering to fandom whims.
“Creatively, 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. “I’ve seen too many TV shows and books be swayed trying to please a lot of people, and in the process you end up losing the heart of what’s there. So [we] feel like we need to trust our instincts and continue to trust the vision behind the studio.”
Sandfall has been upfront about wanting to make another Clair Obscur game, and fans are already clamoring for it to explore some of Expedition 33’s unsolved mysteries, especially regarding some of the major reveals in the RPG’s third act. But it sounds like the stuff that fans are latching onto isn’t going to guide Sandfall’s creative decisions, so it’s possible the next game may be about something entirely different. It’ll be exciting to see what the studio comes up with, even if it’s not exactly what we’re hoping for. You already know they’re capable of making something great, so why not stay open to what it wants to do next?
