Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 how a tiny studio developed the Belle Epoque-set gaming blockbuster

"The record-breaking 12 nominations at the Game awards this year was beyond the wildest dreams of Guillaume Broche when he first began inking out Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as a personal project while working at Ubisoft. Before selling more than 2m copies, the narrative-driven roleplaying game with a unique world, challenging combat and great writing was a technical demo called We Lost. It was Broche's appetite for risk and a few hopeful Reddit posts that would create the game's world of Lumiere"

"I was doing like eight hours per day after work and not sleeping at all for a few years, Broche says. And while he would be joined by Tom Guillermin on the programming side and Francoise Meurisse as producer, the next few members of the nascent studio Lorien Testard, lead composer and Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, lead writer would only come to Clair Obscur by chance, via social media."

"Testard, a guitar teacher at the time who had never composed or published any music commerically, was discovered by Broche on SoundCloud. We liked the same philosophy in games, says Testard, who had been writing music inspired by his favourite titles. Similarly, Broche found his art director, Nicholas Maxson-Francombe, through personal works he posted on ArtStation. We are all deeply engaged in our subject areas, says Svedberg-Yen, who says that was what bonded the team together."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began as a personal technical demo titled We Lost and evolved into a narrative roleplaying game that sold over two million copies. The game features the world of Lumiere, challenging combat, strong writing and a central conflict against the Paintress, including the annual Gommage event. Founder Guillaume Broche developed early prototypes while working at Ubisoft, working long hours and posting on Reddit to recruit collaborators. Team members joined via social media and platforms like SoundCloud and ArtStation, forming a crew including programmer, producer, lead composer, art director and lead writer. Shared passion and deep engagement in craft bound the team and led to record 12 Game Awards nominations.

Read at www.theguardian.com