Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Director Came Up With The Game While Bored At Ubisoft

Boredom can be productive, apparently. At least it was for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director Guillaume Broche, who first dreamed about creating the critically acclaimed RPG while "bored in their job" at Ubisoft in 2020.

BBC reports Broche then started looking "to do something different" while working at the French company known for Assassin's Creed, Just Dance, and Splinter Cell. But he was going to need help building a game inspired by one of his favorite franchises growing up--Final Fantasy.

Broche found his writer in a funny way, according to the BBC. Jennifer Svedberg-Yen responded to one of his Reddit posts asking for voice actors, and she was cast as a major character initially. But then she transitioned to serving as the lead writer for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Meanwhile, Broche plucked composer Lorien Testard from Bandcamp, even though the musician didn't have any background working on video games. "We have, I think, an amazing team mostly of junior people, but they are so incredibly invested in the project and talented," said Broche.

Obviously, the rest is history, as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 came out a couple of weeks ago and quickly sold 1 million copies. There were concerns that Oblivion Remastered surprise launching days before might negatively affect the RPG, but publisher Kepler Interactive says that wasn't the case.

For more, check out GameSpot's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review. The RPG is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S--and it's part of the Game Pass library.