How do you set the expedition right into a sport like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? For author Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, it meant rethinking traditional RPG social gathering varieties like they had been the forged 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 gamexplore. “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 folks you’ll ship on an expedition the place it’s not essentially all navy. Our expedition wasn’t going to be all troopers. There needed to be individuals who had jobs and had 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 all the pieces, mechanics drive character. There have been some apparent beginning locations: Svedberg-Yen says from the start she and sport director Guillaume Broche “actually wished somebody with some type of elemental magic, somebody who would have extra swords and weapons and issues like that.” Which is nice, as a result of all of us additionally wished that.
On the nexus of turn-based fight mechanics, fantasy world-building, and NASA house mission staffing, Svedberg-Yen discovered her forged. She wanted an engineer, so Gustave was born. Sciel, a farmer, might handle the meals. To verify that elemental-magic field, Svedberg-Yen invented Lune, whose powers made her a pure analysis scholar. Even because the characters, story, and mechanics developed, remnants of these early concepts caught round.
“Sciel was initially speculated to be an archer,” Svedberg-Yen says, “so I wrote dialogue for her the place she takes philosophies about archery however makes it somewhat bit broader — that’s really 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 forwards and backwards with how issues developed.”
Expedition 33’s distinctive construction — and the main twists after Act 1 — allowed Svedberg-Yen and Broche to additional upend the expectations of a conventional RPG forged. Primarily, there’s no important 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 important character, Gustave is the decoy important 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 establish with, that particular person’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 (possibly 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 only printed). However her pursuit of making recent, attention-grabbing characters seems 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 inventive, so we will provide you with options.”
