'There is a bit of pressure': Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs will stay true to themselves for their next game despite expectations—'we need to trust our instincts'

The Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs have had a pretty impressive year. Releasing to almost entirely glowing reviews, it has since gone on to sweep awards and even received two public shout-outs from French President Emmanuel Macron. But as one chapter ends, another begins as the Sandfall devs prepare for their next game.

Talking to Edge magazine for issue 419, Sandfall Interactive's chief operating officer and production director, François Meurisse, explained the angst and thought process behind stepping into the next game (via GamesRadar).

"There is a bit of pressure" from fans and critics when it comes to the team's next game, but "it's not so important to us," Meurisse explains. "We have time to get really focused on the next game. We have some great ideas we're so excited to explore, and we don't start from the same point. The team already has five more years of experience. So maybe we can do some great stuff."

That's a rather humble reflection. While there's never any guarantee a game will do better than the last or even live up to expectations, and while I understand why Sandfall may want to downplay its next game while it's still in its conceptual stage, this studio has proved without a doubt that it's capable of truly amazing things. It managed to persuade a bunch of us here at PC Gamer that parrying is actually a hell of a lot of fun, well done.

But the making of Sandfall's next game will undoubtedly be different from its first, not least because the studio now has a reputation and a bunch of eager fans. That fact is not lost on lead writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen: "[I'm] a bit of a people pleaser, so it's always in the back of my mind that we have a lot of fans now, and they have certain expectations and certain feelings towards the game. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think about that at all."

But despite the weight of expectations hanging over the studio, it seems like the devs are planning to stay steadfast in their creative autonomy. "Creatively, we've always let our North Star be our own personal taste in terms of what we think is cool, what it is we enjoy and want to see," Svedberg-Yen says. "I've seen too many TV shows and books be swayed trying to please a lot of people, and in the process, you end up losing the heart of what's there. So [we] feel like we need to trust our instincts and continue to trust the vision behind the studio."