--- title: How Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Built The Continent with... description: A GDC talk from Sandfall Interactive's Tom Guillebot and Francois describes how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was built with only four core programmers using... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-clair-obscur-expedition-33-built-the-continent-with-4-programmers-game-development-breakdown-1i7fgoqnh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Built The Continent with 4 Programmers | Game Development Breakdown | daily.dev og:description: A GDC talk from Sandfall Interactive's Tom Guillebot and Francois describes how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was built with only four core programmers using... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-clair-obscur-expedition-33-built-the-continent-with-4-programmers-game-development-breakdown-1i7fgoqnh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/1I7fgOqNH.png og:image:alt: How Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Built The Continent with 4 Programmers | Game Development Breakdown og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Built The Continent with 4 Programmers | Game Development Breakdown **[GDC Festival of Gaming](https://daily.dev/sources/gdcfestivalofgaming)** · 59 min read · 3 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A GDC talk from Sandfall Interactive's Tom Guillebot and Francois describes how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was built with only four core programmers using Unreal Engine. The team relied almost entirely on Blueprints (95% of gameplay logic) rather than C++, using native Unreal systems, plugins, and a vanilla-first philosophy to avoid building bespoke tools. They cover their build farm to cut packaging time from 2.5 hours to 50 minutes, custom validation and error-feedback systems (including a blocking pop-up) to let designers self-serve debugging, the architecture of the turn-based battle system built on blueprint skills and buff scripts, and how the open-world map reused the existing character class with 'kill switches' for new abilities like flying (built on Unreal's disabled-by-default flying state) and a faked swimming mechanic (a giant plane beneath the water). Audience Q&A covers Unreal upgrade timelines, working with publishers, marketing to publishers, and cutting scope. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does Sandfall Interactive's small programming team use Unreal Engine Blueprints instead of C++ for gameplay code? Roughly 95% of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's core gameplay logic is implemented entirely in Blueprints rather than C++, allowing designers and artists to build content directly. The remaining 5% of C++ is reserved for platform-specific store integration, experimental engine features not yet exposed to Blueprints, and performance optimizations where Blueprint execution was too slow. _Teams weighing blueprint-heavy versus code-heavy architectures can compare real production tradeoffs on daily.dev._ ### How much did a custom build farm reduce packaging time for an Unreal Engine game with a mostly Blueprint codebase? A dedicated build farm cut full game packaging time from 2 hours 30 minutes down to 50 minutes. This mattered because Blueprints are stored as binary assets, so testing any Blueprint change in a package build often required repackaging the entire game rather than a quick incremental build. _Developers optimizing CI/CD pipelines for large Unreal projects can find similar production war stories on daily.dev._ ### How did the Expedition 33 team fake swimming without building a real swim system in Unreal Engine? Swimming is simulated by placing a giant invisible plane below the water surface; the character continues walking internally while only its animation and physics parameters switch. Water borders are detected using the same invisible-wall spline tool used elsewhere in the game, and by default the flying character Esquie is treated as swimming unless a custom trigger marks an area as walkable. _Developers looking for creative shortcuts to complex movement systems can explore more implementation tricks on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is '95 percent' made with Blueprints](https://daily.dev/posts/clair-obscur-expedition-33-is-95-percent-made-with-blueprints-jv7vkme71) · Game Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Sandfall Reveals at GDC That Clair Obscur Was Built Using Blueprints](https://daily.dev/posts/sandfall-reveals-at-gdc-that-clair-obscur-was-built-using-blueprints-7km9iguuc) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Role Of Unreal Engine 5 In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33](https://daily.dev/posts/the-role-of-unreal-engine-5-in-clair-obscur-expedition-33-bkb7jbexa) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads resist calls to "scale up," insist they "love making games more than managing"](https://daily.dev/posts/clair-obscur-expedition-33-leads-resist-calls-to-scale-up-insist-they-love-making-games-more-th-9cdwwh99a) · GamesIndustry.biz · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#unreal-engine](https://daily.dev/tags/unreal-engine) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-clair-obscur-expedition-33-built-the-continent-with-4-programmers-game-development-breakdown-1i7fgoqnh) ```json 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