{"rewrite":{"id":"r_eaab84d70664670f9f5a0b2b","clusterId":"c_782695a23a5e20e39b5ec823","slug":"sandfall-interactive-keeps-small-team-for-next-project","model":"deepseek-v4-flash:free","headline":"Sandfall Interactive Keeps Small Team for Next Project","summary":"Sandfall Interactive, the French studio behind the turn-based RPG \"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33,\" stated at a postmortem event in Yokohama on July 26 that it will not expand its team despite the game's success. CEO Guillaume Broche said that creativity comes from the constraints of being small, and that knowing you cannot do everything creates the necessity to focus on what is important. The studio currently has about 26 people, and Broche wants to maintain that scale for the next project, aiming to tackle something \"a bit crazy.\" The event, co-hosted by Epic Games Japan, also included a roundtable with developers from Atlus and Tango Gameworks. Broche described the team's achievement as \"a reproducible model,\" not a miracle, thanks to the right people and tools like Unreal Engine and MetaHuman. The game, released in 2025 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, sold 1 million copies in three days and 5 million by October 2025, and won Game of the Year at multiple major awards, including The Game Awards 2025 and the BAFTA Game Awards 2026. Despite this, Broche said the ideal is a scale where everyone knows each other's faces and names.","whyItMatters":"The studio's refusal to scale up after a complete sweep of the \"Big Five\" GOTY awards suggests a deliberate counter-model to industry norms, where success typically leads to expansion.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eLead Character \u0026amp; Concept Artist Alain Reynaud detailed the six challenges of making 120 distinct characters at small scale, led by a semi-realistic art direction that risked the uncanny valley.\u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eThe team tried Character Creator 3 first, then Epic\u0026#39;s MetaHuman, the Mesh Morpher plugin, and finally the Mesh to MetaHuman plugin, settling on a combination of MetaHuman Creator and ZBrush sculpting.\u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eUE5.7 built MetaHuman Creator in as a plugin, and a one-click fix removed the neck and body seams that had plagued the combined workflow.\u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eReynaud\u0026#39;s final pipeline exports only the head, eyes, and teeth meshes to Maya for topology, then sculpts in ZBrush and bakes details with Mesh Morpher.\u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eRoundtable panelists included Tango Gameworks\u0026#39; John Johanas, Atlus\u0026#39; Kazuhisa Wada and Takuya Yamaguchi, and Sandfall\u0026#39;s Tom Guillermin, who said the team had only four programmers.\u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eJohanas called completing the game start to finish with about 30 people \u0026#34;close to a miracle,\u0026#34; noting the Hi-Fi RUSH vertical slice team was also about 30.\u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eBroche, born in 1992, said he grew up on Japanese games and anime, loves Persona 4, and was influenced by Hayao Miyazaki and French films, not copying Japanese style.\u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eOn the Nintendo Switch 2 version, Broche said technical challenges mean there is nothing to announce at this time.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"Sandfall Interactive's Guillaume Broche frames the studio's 26-person size as a creative constraint, not a limitation. The next project's ambition, \"a bit crazy,\" will test whether that model scales.","twitterPost":"Sandfall Interactive's next project stays at 26 people. Broche calls the constraint a creative tool, not a compromise.","threadsPost":"Sandfall Interactive won Game of the Year at The Game Awards and BAFTA, sold 5 million copies, and still plans to stay at 26 people. Guillaume Broche calls it a reproducible model, not a miracle. The next project is \"a bit crazy,\" and the bet is that the small-team constraint is what makes that possible.","newsletterBlurb":"Sandfall Interactive, the studio behind the award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, says it will keep its team at around 26 people for the next project. CEO Guillaume Broche argues that small-team constraints drive creativity, even after the game swept major Game of the Year awards.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"4Gamer.net\",\"url\":\"https://www.4gamer.net/games/807/G080770/20260728023/\",\"title\":\"「Clair Obscur: Expedition 33」に登場する120体ものキャラクターはどのように作られたか。小規模チームで仕上げるために用いたUnreal Engine 5の活用法\"},{\"source\":\"4Gamer.net\",\"url\":\"https://www.4gamer.net/games/807/G080770/20260728021/\",\"title\":\"Is the Global Success of 'Clair Obscur: Expedition 33' a Miracle? Developers Discuss the Essence of Small-Team Development with Atlus and Tango Gameworks Creators\"},{\"source\":\"Automaton\",\"url\":\"https://automaton-media.com/articles/newsjp/20260729-457196/\",\"title\":\"Developer of Hit RPG 'Clair Obscur: Expedition 33' Says Success Won't Lead to Team Expansion: 'Creativity Comes from Limitations'\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":18304,"outputTokens":1594,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1785630829,"createdAt":"2026-08-02T00:11:08.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-08-02T00:27:23.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-08-02T00:11:08.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_782695a23a5e20e39b5ec823","canonicalTitle":"「Clair Obscur: Expedition 33」に登場する120体ものキャラクターはどのように作られたか。小規模チームで仕上げるために用いたUnreal Engine 5の活用法","representativeArticleId":"a_7e1c4a57564e6b28db702cda","sourceCount":2,"writtenSourceCount":2,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":false,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33\"],\"studios\":[\"Sandfall Interactive\",\"Epic Games Japan\"],\"people\":[],\"type\":\"news\",\"domain\":\"games\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"written","firstSeenAt":"2026-07-28T07:36:35.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-07-29T05:55:56.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-08-02T00:11:08.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"4Gamer.net","url":"https://www.4gamer.net/games/807/G080770/20260728021/","title":"「Clair Obscur: Expedition 33」の世界的ヒットは奇跡か否か。開発陣がアトラス，Tango Gameworksのクリエイターと語った少人数開発の本質"},{"source":"Automaton","url":"https://automaton-media.com/articles/newsjp/20260729-457196/","title":"大ヒットRPG『Clair Obscur: Expedition 33』開発元、成功したけど「チームは大きくしない」。“できない”からこそ創造性が生まれるから"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["Clair Obscur: Expedition 33"],"studios":["Sandfall Interactive","Epic Games Japan"],"people":[],"type":"news","domain":"games","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":["Sandfall Interactive's core team for \"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33\" was under 30 people, with about 26 current staff.","The game sold 1 million copies in three days and 5 million copies by October 2025.","CEO Guillaume Broche stated at the July 26 event that the studio will not expand its team for the next project.","The game is available for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG.com."]}