Today may be Mario Day for Nintendo fans, but it's Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2026 week for the rest of the video game industry. On top of B2B-focused announcements from companies like Razer, this week also brings us plenty of insights into the video game industry and some of the biggest games from the past year, like 2025's Game of the Year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Developer Sandfall Interactive is one of many hosting talks during GDC 2026, and during a talk it hosted, it revealed a significant aspect regarding how the studio put the game together, and for a game that has an incredible and intricate art style with what is regarded as some of the best visuals and storytelling we've seen in video games for years, it's a lot simpler than you might've imagined.
Elan Ruskin, a developer at Insomniac Games, attended a talk held by some of the developers from Sandfall, and shared a slide that revealed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 uses Blueprints, the basic gameplay scripting system in Unreal Engine, for "all gameplay systems."
It's how the studio was able to avoid writing in C++ in Unreal Engine and better streamline the game's development. Of course, by using a system that is purpose-built to help developers without the coding expertise required to write the kinds of gameplay systems Clair Obscur includes on their own comes with some drawbacks, with some of the users on X (formerly Twitter) attributing it to why the Clair Obscur has some performance issues in the responses to Ruskin's post.
But ultimately, this is another example of how Sandfall Interactive was able to build the game it wanted to with the proper scope, leaning into its strengths (like artistic design and storytelling) and finding creative ways to solve issues it had in other areas of development.
Clair Obscur is currently tied with Resident Evil Requiem for the highest user score on Metacrtitic, has more Game of the Year awards than any other game in history, has been praised by iconic video game industry veterans, and has sold millions of copies. Blueprints coded or not, it's all a testament to Sandfall's talent and a huge accomplishment.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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