Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Developers Unveil the Game’s Creation Process

At this year’s Game Developers Conference, Sandfall Interactive shared insights into the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, revealing how a small team of programmers achieved impressive results. The studio’s approach? They leaned heavily on pre-existing Unreal Engine tools, minimizing their own coding efforts.

During a panel discussion titled “Delivering a Wide Scope of Features & Content When You Only Have Four Programmers,” technical director Tom Guillermin and senior gameplay programmer Florian Torres provided an in-depth look at the programming behind the popular RPG. Their talk delved into the intricacies of bug reporting UI and offered valuable context on the development of various game elements, from turn-based combat to the expansive overworld.

Early in the session, the duo disclosed that a staggering 95% of Clair Obscur’s gameplay systems were crafted using Unreal Blueprints, prompting a surprised reaction from the audience of developers. Guillermin and Torres noted that the four-member programming team wrote very little C++ code for the game.

So, what exactly are Blueprints? Simply put, they are a scripting tool within Unreal Engine that allows developers to connect pre-built nodes to create gameplay systems. This feature is particularly beneficial for teams with limited programming resources, which was crucial for Sandfall Interactive, especially since the game was initially prototyped by just one programmer.

Blueprints were instrumental in shaping Clair Obscur; the team explained how various features, such as skills and “battle buffs,” were developed using this tool. They discussed the pros and cons of this approach: while it facilitated easier contributions from designers and resulted in a more stable game, it also complicated debugging and led to some inefficient memory practices. Some original code was still written during development to support experimental features and optimization efforts.

In a surprising revelation, the programmers shared a quirky detail about the game: Esquie, the main character, doesn’t actually swim when in water. A significant portion of the panel focused on how the overworld was designed around the character, which posed challenges for swimming and flying mechanics. They explained that, technically, Esquie walks on a surface rather than swims, although they later mentioned that he is always in a default swimming state, leaving some ambiguity about his movement.

The key takeaway from the panel? Guillermin and Torres emphasized that there wasn’t a singular moral to their story. They made it clear that their goal was to share their development process, not to prescribe a definitive method for other programmers. Regardless, the entire discussion served as a compelling endorsement for Unreal Engine.