Clair Obscur: How a Small Team Shipped UE5

What happened

Sandfall Interactive built Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a turn-based RPG in Unreal Engine 5, with a core team of under 30 people. Blueprints carried day-to-day iteration, while Lumen, Nanite and MetaHumans delivered the cinematic look without a large rendering team.

Why it worked

• Engine features did the heavy lifting: real-time global illumination and virtualised geometry replaced work that used to need dedicated tech art and lighting staff.
• Blueprints kept designers productive without waiting on C++ changes for every tweak.
• The team picked a genre (turn-based combat) where fidelity matters more than systemic breadth.

What we'd take into a client project

• Decide early which UE5 features you will rely on and test them on your lowest target hardware in the first milestone, not at beta.
• Draw a clear line between what stays in Blueprints and what moves to C++, so prototypes do not become production debt.
• Match scope to team size: a small team can hit high fidelity if the number of systems stays small.

Related

• Game development services
• Game development stages
• How a small team made Minecraft Dungeons

Note: Feative Studios was not involved in this project. This breakdown summarises what the developers have shared publicly; the takeaways are our own.