In an industry dominated by massive studios with hundreds of employees, the story behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a true anomaly. With a core team of only 30 people, many of whom had zero prior experience in game development, Sandfall Interactive didn’t just compete; they crafted one of the best games of 2025.
Their unconventional roster included a former chief from a French private car service, a self-taught musician, and a lead writer who had zero published work. This is the inspiring tale of how Sandfall Interactive proved that passion, diverse skills, and smart technology could triumph over traditional industry pedigree.
Utilizing Unreal Engine 5 To Its Fullest
Sandfall Interactive owes a significant part of the game’s success to Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). The studio started working on the project in 2020 using Unreal Engine 4, but they later switched to UE5 mainly for the engine’s superior rendering capabilities, advanced lighting (Lumen), and high-fidelity asset support (Nanite).
- Nanite enabled artists to use film-quality assets without manual optimization, drastically reducing the need for traditional LOD (Level of Detail) and polygon-reduction work.
- Lumen allowed for real-time lighting adjustments without baking, saving time and enhancing visual fidelity.
If it wasn’t for the UE5, the team would have taken a significantly longer time to create the game. “If we had to release the game five years ago, we would have less content because we would have spent more time optimizing the game,” said Tom Guillermin, Technical Director at Sandfall Interactive.
The team also used UE5’s Live Link Face app for iPhone to capture facial motion data from performers, giving the game’s characters nuanced, nearly perfect facial animations.
Furthermore, Sandfall Interactive leveraged other UE5 tools, such as MetaHuman for character creation and the extensive asset library offered by Epic Games. These features allowed the small team to focus its energy on creating high-quality “hero assets,” rather than building everything from scratch.
A Multi-Skilled, Passionate Team
Sandfall Interactive was founded by two passionate game developers, Guillaume Broche and Tom Guillermin. They later employed François Meurisse, who had zero game development experience and previously worked in a French private car service. Meurisse’s role as Chief of Operations was pivotal in raising money for the studio.
Following this, the studio hired Nicholas Maxson Francombe, the art director behind the game’s beautiful and unique visuals. Like Meurisse, Maxson had no prior experience in game development and was working as a concept artist for an events company. Guillaume hired him after seeing his art on the internet.
Music was the heart of the game, and ironically, the music composer had no previous official work before creating the chartbuster score of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Lorlen Testard, a self-taught musician, had previously created fan music based on video game trailers. Lorlen once posted those fan-made music videos on a now-deleted indie game music forum, which caught Guillaume’s attention.
The same story follows the lead writer of the game, Jennifer Svedberg-Yen. Jennifer, like many others, had never worked in the game industry, nor had any of her writing been published. She worked in the finance industry before leaving it to pursue something creative.
During COVID, Jennifer saw a Reddit hiring post by Guillaume, which needed five voice actors to record lines for a demo trailer intended to interest potential investors. Jennifer filled out the form, got hired, and quickly suggested improvements to the dialogue and story. Her suggestions impressed Guillaume, and she became the lead writer of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
The co-founders, Guillaume Broche and Tom Guillermin, were the only experienced members in game development at Sandfall Interactive; both had previously worked at Ubisoft. Guillaume was an associate producer and narrative lead on Ubisoft’s AAA titles, while Guillermin handled game development and project management.
“The story of Sandfall is a miracle for me,” Guillaume Broche stated in a podcast. It is indeed a miracle.
Smart Use of External Specialists
If you look at the credits of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, you’ll notice that more than 30 people were involved. Sandfall Interactive effectively collaborated with external partners and contractors to handle specialized tasks that were not feasible within its small core team. This allowed them to maintain an efficient internal team size while still achieving the quality and scope expected of a major game.
The core internal developers focused tightly on game design, art, story, music, and programming. Outsourcing enabled the team to scale resources flexibly for peak workload periods, such as localization and extensive QA cycles. This strategy is common in the gaming industry and allows small studios to be efficient and finish work quickly.
In the end, I want to wrap this up by saying you don’t need a massive team to create your dream game, nor experts with years of experience, but rather passion and an aim to create something different.
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Sources – Skill Up YouTube, Dropped Frames, & The Gamer