The video game "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33" takes players on a dark fantasy adventure exploring themes of loss and grief. It's among the nominees for Game of the Year at the 2025 Game Awards this Thursday. Guillaume Broche, director of the game and founder of Sandfall Interactive, joins "The Daily Report" to discuss.

Montpellier

Claire Obscure Expedition 33, the first game from French developer Sandfall Interactive, has garnered significant attention after being nominated for Game of the Year at the 2025 Game Awards. The dark fantasy title explores themes of loss and grief and was developed by a small team in Montpellier, France, with additional animation support from Korea.

Director Guillaume Brocha described the recognition as surreal, noting that the project began as a solo passion before growing to a 30-person team. Sandfall Interactive is now considering expanding the game's universe into other media, such as movies and books, while also working on their next game.

Fans embrace breakout game from Sandfall Interactive

Soon, she'll wake and paint again, paint a new number, ticking down every year, one stroke, and every one of that age vanishes into nothingness. That was a look into the world of Claire Obscure Expedition 33. The game sends players on a dark fantasy adventure, exploring themes of loss and grief. It's the first game from Sandfall Interactive, a French studio founded in 2020, with a ragtag team of developers, voice actors, and composers. Claire Obscure is also among the nominees for Game of the Year at the 2025 Game Awards this Thursday, along with Death Stranding 2, Donkey Kong's Bonanza, Hades 2, Hollow Night's Silksong, and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Guillaume Brocha joins us now. He's the director of Claire Obscure Expedition 33 and founder of Sandfall Interactive. Thank you for being here, and congratulations. Thank you. Well, we're just nominated for now, but let's hope for the best. Well, nominated, this is your first game you've released. How are you guys feeling about all this recognition you're getting? I mean, everything is super, super surreal for all the studio. We are a small team based in Montpellier, France, and everything blew up way, way past our expectations, because I think we made something that is a work of art and that feels like something very sincere and authentic. So just, like, being nominated feels absolutely incredible and way beyond what we could have imagined, like, five years ago when we started the studio. And you guys are only a team of 30 people who made this game, right? What was the process like? Yeah, so, I mean, originally the game was a passion project, like a solo passion project from me. So we kind of grew organically to a team of around 30 people in Montpellier, with also like a small animation team in Korea. But yeah, I mean, I like the sentence, like, nobody told them it was impossible, so they just made it, because we make things in our own way, like very different from other studios. So we are quite proud that it all worked in the end, because it was quite risky. How did you know that people would be open to a single-player experience like this, with popular games out that are multiplayer, like Fortnite and Call of Duty? There are still a lot of players who love single-player games and who love, like, narrative-driven games with cool stories and characters. So I was never afraid that it would please nobody. But what I thought was that it was going to find its niche, like a small niche of players that would really love it. And now the fact that it blew up so much, that was completely unexpected, especially with this kind of game that is turn-based in its gameplay, which tend to have less popular appeal. What's next for you guys? Well, right now we have a lot of opportunities to expand the universe through different medias, like movies, books, podcasts, everything. So we are exploring these opportunities, but also, of course, focusing on the next game, which will be announced when it will be ready. The next game already. And I was thinking, as I was researching this, what a good movie this would make. And we've seen that. I mean, we've seen a lot of video games become movies or limited series. Guillaume Brochat, again, congratulations. I have the soundtrack pulled up on my computer. I can't wait to listen to it later. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

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Washington

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Oslo

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Kyiv

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Minneapolis

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Canberra

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Pennsylvania

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Rome

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London

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Surin

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Breakdown