Featured Image Credit: Photo by Stuart Wilson/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA
Topics: Interview
While Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 didn’t manage the clean sweep many expected at the recent BAFTA Games Awards, it did walk away with three very significant wins.
It won the coveted Best Game accolade alongside Debut Game, while Maelle actor Jennifer English took home Performer in a Leading Role, mirroring her The Game Awards win.
This marks the end of what has been a hugely successful awards season for Sandfall Interactive’s AA debut title which completely took over the world despite its unassuming nature.
GAMINGbible had the opportunity to catch up with several members of the cast and dev team backstage after last week’s big wins.
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“We may have to buy some new shelves,” Clair Obscur’s director Guillaume Broche joked of these latest pieces of hardware.
“I think [the game] comes from a real place of truth,” he told us of how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has resonated with audiences across the world.
“All the people who made this game really believed in it and put their heart and soul into it. For every single job that you can think of, from technical to the art, and it shows, I think, in every facet of the game.
“When players feel that there is truth and sincerity behind the game, even if it's not perfect, they end up loving it. It comes from a place of sincerity.”
There are whispers that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 may be a part of a larger anthology but on that topic, Guillaume stayed hush hush.
“I can't say much except that we bought a table tennis table, so we are playing that now. That’s all I can say,” he said of the studio’s future plans.
Jennifer English’s character Maelle is very much at the beating heart of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and playing her is a journey Jennifer reflected on with us backstage.
“I love Maelle so much, and I loved her from the moment I read the script,” Jennifer told GAMINGbible.
“Jen [Svedberg-Yen] wrote the most human, complex, nuanced character that's also a teenage girl. And I feel like so many relate to her, including myself. [...] It's been one of the greatest honours of my life to play her.”
Jennifer has been on a pretty generational run, transitioning from starring in Baldur’s Gate 3 to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
I was keen to discover what she’d taken away from that former experience portraying the beloved Shadowheart.
“Everything,” Jennifer said. “I learned everything and put it all into there, and I'm so lucky to have had that platform to jump off and on playing Shadowheart again. It actually changed my life. Both characters did, but Shadowheart, you know, she's my OG.”
She continued, “I learned so much about acting as well as video game acting just from playing that part over that many years. I'm really lucky to come to do both.”
READ MORE: Clair Obscur Star Charlie Cox Talks Potential Stardust Game Next: 'Oh Wicked!'