LOS ANGELES: French indie title Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 dominated the annual Game Awards in Los Angeles, winning a record of nine categories, including best video game of the year.

“What a weird timeline for us,” Guillaume Broche of video game studio Sandfall Interactive quipped, thanking his team as he accepted the top award.

“And also I want to extend thanks to the unsung heroes of this industry — the people who make tutorials on YouTube on how to make a game — because we had no idea how to make a game before.”

Clair Obscur, Sandfall’s first game, tells the story of a group of characters battling seemingly impossible odds in a post-apocalyptic universe with a distinctively French visual style.

It was nominated in a record number of categories, winning many despite squaring up against heavyweights like Death Stranding 2 from industry legend Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame and Donkey Kong Bananza from Nintendo.

Clair Obscur began in 2020 as a project of Broche, a developer at French gaming giant Ubisoft.

He brought ex-colleague Tom Guillermin on board to create the small studio that same year in the French city of Montpellier.

‘Thank you to the players’

They struck a publishing deal in 2022 with UK-based Kepler Interactive, which provided funding for the project.

Some 5 million copies of Clair Obscur have been snapped up since its release in April of this year.

“This is a passion project into which we poured our heart and soul,” Broche said, surrounded by members of his team in a video sent by Sandfall.

“To be rewarded like this is just wonderful!” Broche gave a “massive thank you” to players during the ceremony.

The grassroots popularity of Clair Obscur has seen fans attend conventions and game fairs wearing a striped mariner’s shirt and red beret — one of the most stereotypically French outfits players can dress their characters in.

The action game 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 franchise, the French title is a role-playing game offering turn-based combat against monsters inhabiting the world.

Its popularity was founded on the story’s emotional depth and endearing characters, married with original gameplay, which introduced reactive rhythm-based elements to parry enemies’ attacks.

Sandfall “managed to present something really polished and go toe-to-toe with major titles,” industry specialist Benoit Reinier said at the time of the game’s release.

The music of Clair Obscur stuck in many players’ heads and played an outsized role in their immersion into its universe. Winning categories for the game included narrative, role-playing, and music score.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the team in May, thanking them for “putting the spotlight on French-style boldness and creativity.”

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2025