Agenda

Starting as a one-person effort, the programming team for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 then ramped up to four members over the last three years of production. With a scope of 30+ hours of story content and an equal amount of side content, the technical team aimed to give designers maximum creative freedom by enabling them to create and combine gameplay elements. This session will explore the technical choices made to support that goal, the challenges encountered along the way, and concrete examples drawn from gameplay systems and content of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Takeaway

Attendees will discover how the scope of features and content of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was delivered by a small team with limited programming resources. Starting from production constraints, they will learn approaches for using Unreal Engine with a "vanilla-first" mindset, how the programmers can empower designers to build game content, and how some of the systems of the game were implemented under these constraints. They will also learn production tips and methodologies useful when working as a small team.

Intended Audience

This talk is mostly aimed at gameplay programmers, tech designers, as well as project managers interested in optimizing programming priorities in small teams.