How do you place the expedition right into a sport like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? For author Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, it meant rethinking basic RPG occasion sorts like they have been the solid of Armageddon — a dynamic she understood on an unexpectedly private stage.
“This sounds so random, however I did a short NASA simulation the place I used to be an analog astronaut,” Svedberg-Yen tells Polygon. “I used to be simulating a mission to an asteroid at NASA’s compound in Houston. And as a part of that, I received to expertise being a part of a small [crew]. And so I did base a few of my pondering round what sort of individuals you’d ship on an expedition the place it’s not essentially all army. Our expedition wasn’t going to be all troopers. There needed to be individuals who had jobs and have been transferring these abilities into an expedition the place it’s not nearly killing issues, however about understanding and determining who the Paintress is.”
Even in a story-rich fantasy sport the place participant funding is the whole lot, mechanics drive character. There have been some apparent beginning locations: Svedberg-Yen says from the start she and sport director Guillaume Broche “actually needed somebody with some form of elemental magic, somebody who would have extra swords and weapons and issues like that.” Which is sweet, as a result of all of us additionally needed that.
On the nexus of turn-based fight mechanics, fantasy world-building, and NASA area mission staffing, Svedberg-Yen discovered her solid. She wanted an engineer, so Gustave was born. Sciel, a farmer, may care for the meals. To test that elemental-magic field, Svedberg-Yen invented Lune, whose powers made her a pure analysis scholar. Even because the characters, story, and mechanics advanced, remnants of these early concepts caught round.
“Sciel was initially purported to be an archer,” Svedberg-Yen says, “so I wrote dialogue for her the place she takes philosophies about archery however makes it a bit bit broader — that’s truly nonetheless within the sport. When she’s speaking about ‘seeing.’ After which Guillaume later took that and adjusted that into Foretells, he modified the mechanic. So there was a little bit of backwards and forwards with how issues advanced.”
Expedition 33’s distinctive construction — and the most important twists after Act 1 — allowed Svedberg-Yen and Broche to additional upend the expectations of a standard RPG solid. Primarily, there’s no fundamental character with a supporting crew in orbit round them.
“In Act 1, the primary character presumably is Gustave. In Act 2, it’s Verso. Presumably, in Act 3 it’s Maelle. I’ve at all times described it as Maelle is the hidden fundamental character, Gustave is the decoy fundamental character, and Verso is the primary character, however probably not the primary character. What’s nice is I believe all of them share the highlight and relying on who you determine with, that individual’s story is the primary character to you. I believe it leaves one thing up for the gamers to interpret.”
Svedberg-Yen can’t say if there’s a future for these characters and even sequel potential for Expedition 33 (perhaps for the “Clair Obscur” title, however even that’s method off because the Sandfall Interactive workforce focuses on squashing bugs and optimizing the sport they simply printed). However her pursuit of making recent, fascinating characters looks like successful.
“Our story has a starting, a center and finish. And I believe all of it ties collectively properly. So it really works as a standalone story.” But when we requested actually properly for extra time with Maelle? “[Laughs] I believe we’re all artistic, so we are able to provide you with options.”
