Sandfall Interactive is refusing to let the enormous success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 dictate what comes next. Director and CEO Guillaume Broche says the studio is prepared to make major creative changes with its next game, even if some players ultimately dislike the result. In an interview with French outlet Konbini, Broche explained that Sandfall is not trying to recreate its debut game’s success by simply giving fans more of the same. When discussing the possibility that the studio’s…
This has been true for a few years now, but indie studios have been making far more interesting games than the big studios. Add to that the fact that big AAA projects need to tack on tons and tons of money-making add-ons that degrade the experience in order to justify the cost of a decade of development, and the industry seems to actually be trending towards the artistry and innovation you mentioned.
Unfortunately, this isn’t applicable to all genres. It took pure action games nearly a decade to get to a point where we get a handful of new indies a year, and they’re not all good because it’s difficult and costly to get the genre right. It’s on a better path now, but there’s still a giant gap between the current output and the output of far more popular genres.