Leading up to the June 26 release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Kojima has been giving quite a few interviews to talk about the title. In one interview with Dexerto, he spoke about the team size of Kojima Productions, as well as how he appreciates smaller-sized studios like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 developer Sandfall Interactive.
“They only have like 33 team members and a dog,” Kojima said, discussing how the size of the team at Kojima Studios has grown up to employ more than 200 developers. “That’s my ideal when I create something with a team. Creation has now become much bigger. It’s kind of a war between how efficient you could [be] with the small team, but you have to make it so grand.”
It is worth noting that, while Sandfall Interactive is a relatively small studio, the developers had quite a bit of help from support studios when it came to actually working on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Among other things, parts of development like some of the game’s animations, 3D models, QA, and performance capture were handled by supporting studios, which would likely boost up the number of people that worked on the critically-acclaimed RPG to over a hundred people.
Aside from its development team size, however, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has gone on to become quite a successful release since it came out back in April. While critics as well as players have praised the title, several figures from the gaming industry have also taken to social media platforms to talk positively about the RPG. Most recently, The Witcher 4’s global community director Marcin Momot called the title an early contender for game of the year for 2025.
“That’s it for Clair Obscur,” posted Momot. “I’m not going to be original here when I say we NEED more games like this. Such a great story from start to finish, super likeable characters, fun & engaging gameplay & don’t even get me started on the music. Brilliant! It has to be in the GOTY talks!”
When it comes to developing games, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director Guillaume Broche spoke about how the studio succeeded with the title because it was working on a game that the developers wanted to play. Broche also advises other studios to work on games that they want to play.
“I can speak about it but take it with a grain of salt because I consider myself like really really really lucky in how all the stars aligned,” said Broche when asked what piece of advice he would give to other game developers. “I think that’s the most important thing when you start the game, and I see it sometimes with new devs, and I don’t agree with that, is that you don’t have to make a game that you think people will like.”
“You have to make a game that you will like. And I think that it’s been the key thing in the beginning in terms of creative decisions. If I would not like it in the game, it doesn’t go in the game. And it makes it very personal, but it’s not like narcissistic or anything. It’s just that if it talk deeply to a player, it will, in my opinion, never fail.”
For more details about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, check out our review.