Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not just the biggest breakout game of 2025, but it's also poised to take home a lot of year-end awards as well. That includes Best RPG, Best Story, Best Performances, Game of the Year, and Best Indie Game.
That last one is a sticking point for some, given the game's size and scope, plus the fact that developer Sandfall Interactive had a publisher for the game.
Despite that fact, Sandfall views itself as an indie developer, and with Expedition 33, it wanted to prove that these smaller, independent studios were capable of making large-scale games without out-of-control budgets and gigantic development teams.
Talking with the New York Times, they confirmed that the game's budget was under $10 million. One way the team was able to stick with such a small budget was by avoiding current trends in modern gaming, notably not chasing the open world rabbit hole. While Expedition 33's Overworld is fully explorable, most of the gameplay takes place in somewhat linear dungeons. This allowed the team at Sandfall to not waste resources fine-tuning a massive open world.
“We have the tech now to make those games with...
