French indie hit “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” has been gained a record number of nominations for the Game Awards, the gaming industry’s equivalent of the Oscars, after selling five million copies. Here are some key facts about the favourite for Thursday’s ceremony in Los Angeles: Set in a post-apocalyptic world of magic and twisted creatures, “Clair Obscur” follows a small group of characters seeking to defeat a powerful entity threatening their home city Lumiere — which bears a striking resemblance to Belle Epoque Paris. Inspired by Japanese games such as the long-running Final Fantasy saga, the French title is a role-playing game offering turn-based combat against the monsters inhabiting the world.
The action is set against a varied palette of dreamlike landscapes that players must explore to gain experience and level up their skills to overcome increasingly dangerous enemies. The game offers players two different endings. The creators left some questions unanswered in both, triggering fierce online debate about how to interpret the story.
“Clair Obscur” began in 2020 as a project of Guillaume Broche, a developer at French games giant Ubisoft. He brought ex-colleague Tom Guillermin on board to found studio Sandfall Interactive that same year in the French city of Montpellier. They struck a publishing deal in 2022 with UK-based Kepler, which provided funding for the project.
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Sandfall’s game sparked imaginations with its slick visual style when it was unveiled at the US Summer Game Fest in June 2024. And its release on PC and consoles in April this year immediately found an audience, topping one million sales within three days as critics sang its praises.
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