There are certain things in this world that we take for granted, including the fact that when it comes to being successful in certain things, you “absolutely need to be part of something big” to make it happen. That’s not how life works all the time, and there are plenty of examples of that. In the case of Clair Obscur Expedition 33, the team at Sandfall Interactive are just 30 strong, and yet they made a game that’s already a “Game of the Year” nominee, sold over a million copies in just a few days since launch, and gamers are eager to see what they’ll make next.
The irony of all of this is that this whole thing started because the head of the studio got bored at his old job and wanted to leave it. That old job? Ubisoft! The jokes write themselves, people. As noted by BBC, Guillaume Broche was tired of what he was doing at Ubisoft, so he decided to make a new game with a new studio. However, he needed to get a team together, so when making a demo for a certain thing, Guillaume Broche put up a voice-acting request on Reddit, and he soon found Jennifer Svedberg-Yen.
“I saw a post on Reddit by Guillaume asking for voice actors to record something for free for a demo,” she revealed. “I was like: ‘I’ve never done that, it sounds kinda cool’, so I sent him an audition.”
That sounds pretty basic, right? Except, while she applied and soon got hired for a voice role in the game, she soon became the head writer for the team! Composer Lorien Testard was found not because of Reddit but because of SoundCloud! Bet some of you forgot that this place even existed still, didn’t you?
Anyway, after sending out messages to various places looking for help, Broche found some people…but didn’t think they’d actually be up for helping him:
“I have a list of 15 people to contact and I’m like: ‘Okay I’m probably going to get maybe no one at all’. And every time the first one is like: ‘Yeah, let’s do it’.”
And that’s how Sandfall Interactive came to be! People who wanted something new or were tired of the pandemic they were trapped in and wanted something fun to make, and they made Clair Obscur Expedition 33 as a result!
So keep pushing forward with your hopes and dreams and never be afraid to try something new! You never know where it’ll lead you.