How NASA inspired Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s character twists

How do you set the expedition right into a recreation like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? For author Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, it meant rethinking traditional RPG occasion varieties like they have 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 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 considering 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 recreation the place participant funding is all the things, mechanics drive character. There have been some apparent beginning locations: Svedberg-Yen says from the start she and recreation 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 sweet, as a result of all of us additionally wished that.

On the nexus of turn-based fight mechanics, fantasy world-building, and NASA area mission staffing, Svedberg-Yen discovered her forged. She wanted an engineer, so Gustave was born. Sciel, a farmer, may 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 advanced, remnants of these early concepts caught round.

“Sciel was initially presupposed 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 recreation. 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 key twists after Act 1 — allowed Svedberg-Yen and Broche to additional upend the expectations of a standard RPG forged. Primarily, there’s no primary 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 all the time described it as Maelle is the hidden primary character, Gustave is the decoy primary character, and Verso is the primary character, however not likely the primary character. What’s nice is I feel all of them share the highlight and relying on who you determine with, that particular person’s story is the primary character to you. I feel 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” identify, however even that’s method off because the Sandfall Interactive workforce focuses on squashing bugs and optimizing the sport they simply revealed). However her pursuit of making recent, fascinating characters appears like successful.

“Our story has a starting, a center and finish. And I feel 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 feel we’re all inventive, so we will give you options.”