Jennifer Swedberg-Yen, award-winning writer for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, explained that she did not approach the game as if she were writing an RPG.
Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 is undoubtedly the biggest game of 2025, so much so that its awards are becoming a meme in their own right. And a lot of the reason it's such a big game is because of its fantastic story, which has already won awards at the Golden Joysticks and The Game Awards. However, part of this may be due to the game's lead writer not approaching it that way.
Svedberg-Jen asked: Edge's Knowledge Newsletter if the fact that many members of the Expedition 33 team had no game development experience helped that things turned out the way they did. She replied: “I think there are obviously problems here because we are new. [But] we were able to bring into the game our own tastes and views that we had formed in our lives outside of gaming, and bring the best of other worlds to the game.”
She continued: “Many times we don’t know what we don’t know. There are some things that [other] people won't even think about it, but we can just [say]“Yes, why not?” and challenge each other.” Svedberg-Jen explains that she “never really played video games” and instead took inspiration from TV shows and books. “I love sci-fi and fantasy epics with huge, immersive worlds and vibrant societies, so I took a lot of that and put it in the background of the game.” She explains: “I didn't think of it as writing a role-playing game. I thought of it almost like writing an HBO drama.”
Claire Obscure: The leader of the 33rd Expedition says that “any fan of our history” should check out one of the main inspirations in the role-playing game, but first you will have to learn French.
