Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Was Meant To Be An 'Intense And Short' Experience, Producer Says

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has made immoderate important waves successful the gaming space. And 1 of those cardinal differentiators, arsenic explored successful a caller interview, is the scope of Clair Obscur compared to astir large games nowadays.

In a caller interrogation with GamesIndustry.biz, immoderate of the heads astatine Kepler Interactive — the steadfast of Clair Obscur developer Sandfall Interactive — talked astir the occurrence down Expedition 33 and its spot successful the industry. In immoderate ways, it's easier to enactment the ways Clair Obscur is antithetic from the accustomed AAA blockbuster, and 1 notable quality pointed retired by Kepler portfolio manager Matthew Handrahan is the game's length.

"Brevity should beryllium much of a virtuousness successful gaming," said Handrahan. "Something tin beryllium amended by being shorter — thing that's being discussed successful movie astatine the moment. Every movie seems to beryllium two-and-a-half hours long, and I deliberation astir radical are like, 'Can they each beryllium a spot shorter, please? Because we person different things to bash with our lives.'"

Sandfall's COO and shaper François Meurisse told GI.biz that, from the beginning, the squad wanted Clair Obscur to beryllium an "intense and short" experience.

"The archetypal magnitude estimates of the crippled were person to 20 hours for the main quest," said Meurisse. "I deliberation we ended up person to 30, adjacent 40 hours if you instrumentality a spot of time. As a player, determination are truthful galore large games retired determination that I privation to experience, [and] what's important to maine is the level of excitement and amusive I get from a game, alternatively than however agelong it is."

Current ballpark estimates from HowLongToBeat spot a main communicative runthrough of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 astatine astir 27 hours, with 41 hours for the Main + Sides and a completionist playthrough astatine astir 61.5 hours. It tin inactive beryllium a spot longer than a short-form indie game, but inactive comes successful astatine a overmuch little hr number than immoderate monolithic AAA games, oregon adjacent different agelong RPGs.

As Handrahan enactment it, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 "really respects the player's time." He noted that Clair Obscur doesn't connection immoderate "sense of bloat oregon extranous things that are enactment determination conscionable to marque it larger and larger and larger." And for Meurisse, helium wondered whether determination was a nexus betwixt the hr number of a crippled and its worth proposition.

"The worth that players get from games does not align systematically with the magnitude of the game," said Meurisse. "For example, 1 of my favourite games of each clip is Inside, which lasts astir 2 hours, but it's 1 of the astir polished, and aggravated [experiences] — and adjacent beingness changing for immoderate people."

In IGN's 9/10 reappraisal of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, our reviewer noted the hr number arsenic well: "I finished the main communicative and a decent magnitude of broadside contented successful astir 35 hours, and that magnitude speaks to however Clair Obscur doesn’t discarded a infinitesimal — determination isn’t truly immoderate filler on the captious way and it doesn’t get bogged down successful drawn-out exposition."

There are galore factors that acceptable Clair Obscur isolated from the accustomed gaming blockbuster, successful ways that consciousness similar a motion of the changing times successful the games industry. You tin work much astir those factors successful the afloat interrogation implicit astatine GI.biz. But it surely seems similar Clair Obscur has acceptable an absorbing precedent for large games without large bloat.

Eric is simply a freelance writer for IGN.