The triumph of the “artisanal” games in the industry

Once it is an isolated phenomenon, two chance. But they are already too many times in the last months when a game that is not a triple A, but a relatively modest title, makes the heads of the entire industry turn for their quality and daring. Now is the turn of ‘Clair Oscur: Expedition 33‘, a wonder of Rolera architecture that has become a supervantant and the beautiful girl of critics despite not having the means of production of the greats Blockbusters.

Everyone talks about ‘Clair Osccur’. And it’s not for less. Greeted as a Modern classic Of the role -playing games, it has been developed by Sandfall Interactive, French independent study founded in 2020 and based in Montpellier. The project is an RPG in classic shifts, a gender that In Sandfall they thought that was being mistreated by the great studies. It is not its only original detail: its atmosphere is based on the Belle Epoque French, and bets on a mature narrative and a certain complexity: every year, the mysterious Pentresse paints a number in a monolith, and all the people who reach that age disappear. People live knowing the exact date of their death, which generates a highly melancholic atmosphere.

Modern classic. The combat system and its narrative daring have made the game considered a genre renovator. The result has been both critical and financial: in Metacritic it is already valued as The best game of the year And in just three days he managed to overcome The million copies sold. A milestone that is reinforced by the modesty of its development: just thirty people make up the study. Or not?

Thirty -Pico. Since its launch, it has been said that ‘Clair Oscur: Expedition 33’ was developed by just thirty people, which turned the project into an almost handmade achievement, especially taking into account how polished the combat system and the findings of its artistic direction, at the height of the Japanese classics to which you mimic. However, A rapid calculation Like the one they have done in Jeux Urs allows you to go beyond those thirty people, which undoubtedly make up the hard -creative nucleus of the game.

To them are added a good amount of essential external teams: at least, a Korean team of eight people dedicated to animations is accredited. In Poland, dozens of game testators reside. The entire audio part is: the dubbing cast and the orchestra of about thirty people who have interpreted the very large soundtrack. It is important not to make this type of contributions that since the beginning of this century add up to development, sometimes without accrediting, in teams often outside Europe or the United States, in countries such as Malaysia or China.

The irresistible lightness of the medium games. The video game industry continually lives on its trends, and we currently attend a curious devotion to medium games. The events of recent years (framed in mastodon financial catastrophes such as Sony, EA either Ubisoft) have given a very notable impulse to medium games, as we did not see since the time of PlayStation 3. The public seems to have assimilated, wrapped up with the success of consoles that favor the No-Typically-Triple-A gameslike Nintendo Switch, that games do not need a team of three thousand people behind to be captivating, effective and fun.

At the top. We talked about how ‘Clair Osccur’ had perched to the top of the games best considered by criticism this year, but let’s see who follows him: with his same 92 score, ‘Blue Prince‘, this one developed by a single person; With a 91, ‘Split Fiction‘, a modest production and indies airs, but that will soon have a cinemas version; In the twenty positions we see titles such as ‘The Rotters Are Dead’, ‘Bionic Bay’ or ‘Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders’, openly independent. And remember that two of last year’s greatest successes, ‘Space Marine 2’ And the winner of the game of the year, ‘Astro Bot‘, have been developed with limited resources.

Brand and image. Being a “small” game is no longer an obstacle, but from a while to this part it is a more impulse at the image level. There is nothing more to see the expectation with which the tiny advances of an indie sequel like ‘Silksong’, whose potential as meme exceeds any Blockbuster. More reason for not minimizing the achievements of an extraordinary game such as ‘Clair Oscur’: thirty or one hundred, the size of the team matters little. The remarkable thing is the result.

In Xataka | The great romantic novel of the year is not a book: it is a Chinese video game where you choose your own “digital husband”