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The game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not only a top Game of the Year candidate, but also a huge commercial success. Developer the development team along with publisher Kepler Interactive announced that the game topped five million copies in sales, this is even with it being a launch-day addition through the Game Pass service.

This achievement was a surprise to Sandfall. I firmly believed that we would have a good game that would meet reasonable sales results,” the COO and producer commented.

Another leading developer pointed out the game's Metacritic rating, rated 93 by critics, came as perhaps the most surprising moment for everyone relative to our early predictions and the actual outcome proved to be. When the score released everybody in the studio was screaming and jumping. It felt absolutely wild.”

The positive reception resulted in Sandfall developing a complimentary expansion for the game including novel settings, foes, plus epic encounters, reportedly will release within the “upcoming month[s]”.

However, as the title expands, fans shouldn't anticipate the team will expand. Our team includes a great team with a strong creative director who has a great vision for our work and also for new ideas. Our goal is to maintain the small-team dynamic that made this possible and do maybe major titles sequentially,” the producer added.

Their team size sparked a storm of discussion following launch. Some developers, including renowned designers, considered the development group as the “ideal” for a studio. While Sandfall was and is indeed a small team compared to its AAA counterparts, a quick look at the game's credits indicates many individuals participated; Sandfall hired a team in Korea for animation work, to illustrate.

“We will hire a little more definitely should there be a future production surge in the coming years,” the producer said. “However, I envision more of a workshop of a few really talented people that can make artistic collaborations.” They emphasized that the studio's philosophy as developers “focuses on preserving the strengths that led to this accomplishment in the first place.”

Although it's too early for Sandfall to disclose concrete plans regarding upcoming titles — rest assured, I attempted to learn more — they are certain their fundamental principles. “Strategic combat, I think it's in the DNA of our creations,” the lead programmer said. “The timing isn't right to announce future passions, but it's important also to remain faithful to the DNA of studio featuring rich storytelling plus innovative play that inspires the team.”

The developer added that the project originated from the visionary developing his passion title. It is hoped this approach will be repeated with upcoming games.”