Creative director Guillaume Broche explains why Expedition 33 had to be built outside of AAA studios — and why indie development, despite the challenges, made it all possible.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Director Says Game Would’ve Taken 25 Years to Get Made at a AAA Studio
Guillaume Broche, the creative mind behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, believes his ambitious JRPG-inspired game would’ve taken decades to get greenlit if he’d stayed in the AAA world.
In a May 1 interview with YouTube channel Pouce Café, Broche — who’s also the CEO of indie studio Sandfall Interactive — opened up about the challenges of pitching new IPs at major studios. “For this kind of project with a new IP, an original story, original characters, it’s very hard to propose in a bigger company,” he said. “You generally need to prove yourself first and be well-placed to have any hope of pitching this kind of project.”
Broche, a former Ubisoft developer, previously told the BBC he left the AAA giant after growing bored of the environment. It wasn’t a creative space that matched his vision or pace.
From AAA to Indie: Building Something New from the Ground Up
Broche didn’t just leave AAA behind — he built Sandfall Interactive from the ground up, assembling a tight-knit, international team of around 30 developers. The studio’s composer, Lorien Testard, was brought on after connecting via SoundCloud — a far cry from the traditional recruitment pipeline at a major publisher.
“This is the kind of project that, if doable [in AAA], would have taken me 25 years before being realized, and I don’t have enough patience for that,” Broche said. “To create a game infused with passion, we needed that ‘bunch of friends making a game’ kind of atmosphere.”
He emphasized that this sort of flexibility and creative freedom is mostly exclusive to indie teams — even if it comes with a cost. “It’s not an easy task,” Broche admitted. “Very few vacations and nights of sleep for several years.”
Worth It in the End
Despite the grind, the payoff seems clear. Expedition 33 has earned widespread acclaim since its release, praised for its originality, art direction, and bold storytelling — exactly the kind of elements that might’ve been watered down or blocked entirely in a traditional AAA development cycle.
Broche’s story is yet another example of how indie studios are pushing the boundaries of game design — not just with ideas, but with the way games are made.
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