There are many ways to describe Sandfall Interactive’s 2025 RPG Chiaroscuro Expedition 33. Moving, attractive, captivating. Game leader of the year. But, perhaps most obviously, after looking at his mime enemies and beret-clad figures with baguettes on their backs, he is French. The game is French AF, wearing its inspirations proudly, which makes sense; Sandfall was founded by French game developers.
“It’s been an incredible journey,” CTO and lead developer Tom Guillermin told me in a recent video interview in which he discussed what the last few months have been like for Sandfall after its runaway success Chiaroscurowhich has sold 5 million copies and counting. Together with COO and Producer Francois Meurisse, we talked about the upcoming update, which will add a recent environment, challenging boss fights and more. We also talked about the absolute Very vital aspects of the game.
Example: Was Francois a character named after Francois the creator?
Francois does not play a gigantic role at the beginning, and until the end of the game he is only encountered when players encounter Esquie. When will Act 3 and the secrets come? ChiaroscuroThe central conflict of Painters vs. Expeditioners is revealed and players get to know Francois better. Like Gustave, Maelle, Verso and all the others, he is a tragic figure. However, woven between the tragedy and sadness present in Chiaroscuro these are moments of carefreeness and French details.
“We actually went overboard, but in an unexpected way” when it came to the game’s Frenchness, Meurisse said. He noted that some people “were even pissed” that a French-language dub wasn’t announced alongside the English dub cast, so in October 2024 the band released Baguette trailer announcing the French voice in a “sort of making fun of itself” way. (Seeing all the characters, even Renoir, in baguette costumes is quite entertaining, especially considering what happens in the emotional scenes shown in the trailer.)
“And in the beginning, it wasn’t even planned that something like this would be in the game. It was just a joke when we were discussing specific marketing,” Meurisse said, referring to “mimes and red berets with baguettes.” As Guillermin succinctly stated, “It would be even more difficult to accept our Frenchness.”
“Then in the next game I could put snails and frogs everywhere,” Meurisse joked.
Players really liked the baguette costumes, as did the trash can from the prologue. The opening segment of Lumière features interactive trash cans, which inform the player that there may be more of them than they might think. One of the citizens of Lumière hides in a garbage can and explains that by doing so he avoids the Malacca, a mysterious deity responsible for turning the citizens of Lumière into flower petals. “Today I turn 33. Can you believe how lucky I am?” – says the trash man moments before Gommage appears and supposedly takes his life.
“I think in games it’s very important to have things hidden when you interact X number of times,” Guillermin said. “It’s great to see people go crazy over a completely normal trash can, and here there’s nothing to see.”
ChiaroscuroLumière is clearly inspired by France and even features its own version of the Eiffel Tower, all broken and distorted, bent at an unnatural angle. “We wanted it to take place in a French setting because there was obviously something close to it,” Meurisse said. Sandfall’s artists were “quite free to specify the references they wanted to use” when creating Lumière. “We also had some technical limitations, so we couldn’t make Lumière as big as a city as we could, or add too much urban density to the game,” Meurisse added.
The prologue set in Lumière is immediately engaging and establishes the stakes of the story. You can control early hero Gustave or his former lover, Sophie. The game doesn’t directly state that Sophie is on her way to becoming Gommaged, but dialogue and environmental clues allow players to piece it together on their own. Chiaroscurothe prologue is one of the game’s strongest parts in terms of storytelling, but according to Sandfall, that wasn’t always the case.
“And also being able to control Sophie, which wasn’t the case,” Guillermin added. He explained that making her playable “really helps you bond with her. And when you get to port, it’s even harder.” Calling the beginning “difficult” might be a bit of an understatement – I could barely watch this scene through tearful eyes, and I doubt I’m alone there.
“It might be a little sadistic,” Guillermin said, “but it’s important to build a real connection with the characters.”
After discussing some of the more emotional parts of the game, our discussion ended on a more lighthearted and gracious note. We talked about Expedition 60, the renowned nude expedition, and Meurisse commented that “it’s nice to have a space like this where you can put a lot of these little stories.
Players learn about Expedition 60 Chiaroscurocollector’s magazines. They give a lot of insight into what life was like on previous expeditions, like the one who got ailing after eating Nevrons. I couldn’t facilitate but wonder if there were any unusual journal entry ideas that didn’t make it into the game.
“I mean,” Guillermin said, “anytime you do an expedition naked, I think that’s as crazy as you can get.”
