Sandfall Stays The Course As Expedition 33 Reshapes Awards Season

Sandfall appears in several headlines this week as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 continues to lead award conversations and shape expectations heading into the year’s final ceremonies. The game’s commercial and critical rise has been fast, but Sandfall Interactive’s leadership says the studio has little interest in changing its scale or internal direction.

Creative director and CEO Guillaume Broche spoke after the role-playing debut swept its categories at the Golden Joystick Awards. He said the team’s approach will remain consistent despite the visibility that followed the win streak.

“I feel like dramatic changes don't necessarily mean that we have to change dramatically as human beings,” Broche said. “What we want to do is exactly what we wanted to do when we started the game. It's just make games that are really honest and true, and write stories that move people and really connect people emotionally, and that's what we are going to keep doing moving forward.” — Guillaume Broche

The studio built Expedition 33 with a core staff of a little above 30 full-time developers and relied on external support to complete production. Broche said the current team size is deliberate and works well enough that expansion is not on the table.

“We don’t want to grow too much as a company,” he said. “We work well as we are now, as a small team, and we want to stay like that, because we are very happy, and why change?” — Guillaume Broche

Expedition 33’s momentum has begun to influence the awards field beyond Sandfall itself. Team Cherry, the developer behind Hollow Knight: Silksong, said it will not travel to Los Angeles for The Game Awards. The studio indicated it sees little reason to attend an event where it expects Expedition 33 to secure the industry’s top honor. Silksong launched earlier this year after a long and scrutinized development period, receiving strong reception. But the shift in player sentiment toward Sandfall’s debut has become clear as the season progresses.

Expedition 33 recently passed five million copies sold, strengthening its foothold as a likely frontrunner. The game’s reach has produced a ripple effect among other nominees and sharpened expectations across the field. Its reception in Japan and among longtime RPG communities has also added weight to its performance, particularly for a studio producing its first release.

“But the most striking thing, for us, and the real reward in our hearts, is the emotional response to the characters, to the story, how much people embrace the characters and they helped them get through tough moments in life,” he said. “And I think that's why art exists in general, to create an emotional response and be something that moves people, and that’s what we want to keep on doing.” — Guillaume Broche

Broche said the team will carry lessons forward from the project, noting that mistakes during development will inform future production methods. But he emphasized that the strongest outcome for the studio came from how players responded to the narrative and characters.

Read also, Team Cherry has stepped back from this year’s awards circuit as Expedition 33’s momentum grows, with co-founder William Pellen noting the studio is “pretty busy” while acknowledging the game’s five-million-copy surge and its influence on expectations across the nominee field.