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[Guesclin]

It seems that REDDIT user "Donpoko" is actually Guillaume Broche, CEO & Creative Director of COE33, looking at his REDDIT post history and his Linkedin account we can triangulate a rough timeline of the project;

12/07/16 - Which engine ? (speculation; probably the start of his first game when he graduated from HEC, most likely unrelated to COE33)

"It would be a small game, 2d platformer with some enemies and weapons consisting of 5 levels. There would be a lot of text said by the player character (in form of bubbles appearing while the player is playing) and by a narrator throughout the game (the text would appear at the top of the screen)."

?/08/2017 - joined Ubisoft
?/09/2020 - left Ubisoft

He said in an interview that he worked after hours at night to learn UE5 while he was still at Ubisoft.

Speculation; after working at Ubisoft, Broche probably used his 18 months of unemployment benefits to pursue what would become the vertical slice of COE33.

04/21/20 - Clair Obscur casting call

"My name is Guillaume and I am working with a small team of indie dev on an ambitious AA game planned to release on PC, and possibly PS4 and Xbox One. We are seasoned Game developers who have already work on AAA titles, who started a passion project 1 year ago that is turning into a serious title that we want to release."

02/08/21 - Bag is secured

Project W just got funded so we are hiring for full-time positions either remote or on site. Here are all the open positions for now:

• Technical Artist
• Technical UI Designer
• 3D Animator
• Level Designer
• Character Artist

06/04/21 - Lune metahuman demo face



As they say, the rest is history...

https://www.sandfall.co/team

 

[Baemono]

And they got embrochés (pardon my french)

 

[BennyBlanco]

Guy's a beast. You really have to have a pair of balls to do what he did. They also apparently found the guy who did the soundtrack on soundcloud, and it's an all timer. Their next project might be my most anticipated game now. Ex33 is the best game Ive played in a long while.

 

[Thief1987]

You really have to have a pair of balls to do what he did.

What he did? Developed a videogame? Truly heroic.

 

[BennyBlanco]

What he did? Developed a videogame? Truly heroic.

Leave a steady job to pursue a passion project.

 

[Critical Hit]

They also apparently found the guy who did the soundtrack on soundcloud

No, it was a french local forum. You just read a header

 

[Brakum]

Leave a steady job to pursue a passion project.

Not that i'm agreeing with the other guy but just curious. Do we know that's what happened? With so many layoff i just assumed he was caught in the crossfire at some point, especially since most of the team are ex ubisoft devs, i thought a bunch of fired guys got together to make a studio.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

I thought he was laid off/part of a redundancy as well.

Do you get unemployment benefits in France for quitting your job? For 18 months?

 

[Roman Empire]

Best Studio Staff Manager 2025 will go to Monoco.

 

[Loomy]

Their next project might be my most anticipated game now.

I, for one, am looking forward to posts 2 years from now from people saying they're done with Sandfall because they haven't released anything since Expedition 33.

 

[Ziglax]

I thought he was laid off/part of a redundancy as well.

Do you get unemployment benefits in France for quitting your job? For 18 months?

If the layoff is initiated by the employer, or result of a reciprocal deal between the employer and employee, you can get unemployment benefits, which max duration is 18 months (was 2 years not long ago).
If you quit a job you don't get unemployment benefits, unless you can justify to the employment agency some kind of retraining or starting a new business to get some funding if your case is accepted, which is what might have happened here.

 

[Little Chicken]

Happy for him, I'm sure he had some serious moments of doubt but it has all paid off in spades.

 

[Jinxed]

I, for one, am looking forward to posts 2 years from now from people saying they're done with Sandfall because they haven't released anything since Expedition 33.

If anyone is expecting a new game from Sandfall before 2030 at minimum, they're seriously delusional

I'll have to replay E33 a lot until then, game is peak RPG

 

[Fbh]

I love how some key people in the project that are getting a lot of praise for their work are basically newcomers with no experience in the gaming industry that he met through social media.

The lead writer was bored during covid lockdown and saw a post on reddit asking for people willing to do some free voice acting for a demo, and she just though it sounded like fun. Then she eventually goes on to write one of the best RPG stories of recent years.

The composer was working as music teacher and basically composing as a hobby, he got contacted because of some of his work he had posted on a forum and then goes on to compose one of the most memorable soundtracks of recent years.

Best Studio Staff Manager 2025 will go to Monoco.

He probably did more for the team well being than the entire HR department at an average AAA studio lol

 

[Loomy]

If anyone is expecting a new game from Sandfall before 2030 at minimum, they're seriously delusional

I'll have to replay E33 a lot until then, game is peak RPG

Truly is. Working on the platinum right now.

 

[Hypereides]

The more I think about it, this origin story has some similarities to how Uematsu got recruited. Uematsu didn't have any mindblowing credentials before he joined the team. He was self-taught and just had great adoration for music. He hadn't really done anything noteworthy apart from a few TV commercial gigs. He got approached while working at a music rental shop.

Nomura has a background in advertisement and ended becoming a character designer.

I think more recruiters should adopt this unorthodcox method of scouting "In the wild". At least, they could consider it. We're more connected than ever. There's probably some other great talent/artists to be found on Soundcloud, Deviantart and whatever out there.

I love how some key people in the project that are getting a lot of praise for their work are basically newcomers with no experience in the gaming industry that he met through social media.

The lead writer was bored during covid lockdown and saw a post on reddit asking for people willing to do some free voice acting for a demo, and she just though it sounded like fun. Then she eventually goes on to write one of the best RPG stories of recent years.

The composer was working as music teacher and basically composing as a hobby, he got contacted because of some of his work he had posted on a forum and then goes on to compose one of the most memorable soundtracks of recent years.




He probably did more for the team well being than the entire HR department at an average AAA studio lol

Imo some of the most interesting peeps in this industry just happened to "stumble" into it without any formal background. Just to quote myself here:

(...) The best game designers and creators came from unspecialized backgrounds and delivered games/visions based on their unique life experience, thoughts and perspectives. These so-called game design classes are utter fluff. They're useless. If they don't have the imagination or life experience to apply/contribute to begin with, then they won't succeed in making an interesting video game either way.

That's not to take away from those who did take these kinds of classes and did actually find some level of success.

 

[Last Hearth]

The more I think about it, this origin story has some similarities to how Uematsu got recruited. Uematsu didn't have any mindblowing credentials before he joined the team. He was self-taught and just had great adoration for music. He hadn't really done anything noteworthy apart from a few TV commercial gigs. He got approached while working at a music rental shop.

Nomura has a background in advertisement and ended becoming a character designer.

I think more recruiters should adopt this unorthodcox method of scouting "In the wild". At least, they could consider it. We're more connected than ever. There's probably some other great talent/artists to be found on Soundcloud, Deviantart and whatever out there.


Imo some of the most interesting peeps in this industry just happened to "stumble" into it without any formal background. Just to quote myself here:



That's not to take away from those who did take these kinds of classes and did actually find some level of success.

This is true is almost every aspect of life. Art class can't make you a great painter, film class can't make you a great director, heck, MBA classes can't make you a great CEO. All school can do is give you the basic skills and make you competent, anything beyond that require more.

 

[Hypereides]

Bumping this thread since there's been a recent revelation that Guilliaume Broche also got a Youtube channel. The content primarily consists of dope DMCV combo and parry vids:



Guy is really a gamer at heart.