French studio Sandfall Interactive's debut title has officially gone from the year's biggest surprise to its biggest triumph. On Wednesday evening, July 15, 2026, the Develop:Star Awards 2026 took place at Brighton Dome, where Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 walked away with three trophies, including the night's top honor.
Three awards, including Best Game
The turn-based RPG from Sandfall and publisher Kepler Interactive claimed three categories at the Develop:Star Awards 2026:
- Best Game — the ceremony's highest honor;
- Best Narrative — for its storytelling and writing;
- Best Audio — for its soundtrack and sound design.
In the Best Game category, Expedition 33 faced off against some of the season's biggest heavyweights: Ghost of Yōtei, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Blue Prince, Dispatch, Jurassic World Evolution 3, and PEAK. And where other award ceremonies throughout the year had already crowned Expedition 33, the developers' own peers—who vote for the Develop:Star Awards—delivered the very same verdict.
Who else took home awards
The evening wasn't a one-game show. Honors were spread across the industry:
- Ghost of Yōtei — Best Visual Art;
- Sony Interactive Entertainment — Publishing Star;
- Frontier Developments — Best Studio, following a standout year with Jurassic World Evolution 3;
- PEAK — Best Original IP;
- Landfall Games and Aggro Crab — jointly won Best Small Studio for PEAK;
- Crimson Desert — won the technology category for its proprietary BlackSpace Engine.
The diversity of winners reflects the current state of the industry: major publishers, indie hits like PEAK, and the technological ambitions of Korean studios all shared the spotlight with the French phenomenon that few had predicted just a year ago.
Why this is more than just another trophy
Develop:Star wasn't an isolated success—it was the culmination of a remarkable awards run. Earlier in 2026, Expedition 33 won Game of the Year at the Game Developers Choice Awards, taking home five trophies in total, including Best Debut, Best Visual Art, Best Narrative, and Best Audio. The game also enjoyed major success at the DICE Awards. This wasn't simply player-driven hype, but sustained recognition from the people who make games themselves.
For the debut project of a studio with no previous releases on this scale, the achievement is almost unprecedented. Sandfall entered the crowded AAA RPG market with a turn-based combat system—a genre many publishers had long dismissed as niche—and didn't just survive, but emerged as one of the industry's most decorated new studios.
What it means for players and the genre
The biggest takeaway from this awards season is clear: turn-based RPGs are back in the spotlight. Expedition 33's success is a compelling argument for every producer who has hesitated to greenlight an ambitious story-driven RPG without a massive open world or a live-service model. One debut game has just proven that outstanding writing, exceptional art direction, and memorable music can still outperform blockbuster productions.
For Sandfall Interactive, these three Develop:Star trophies are not the finish line—they're a mandate. The studio is no longer expected to repeat a lucky breakthrough, but to consistently deliver at the same level. And that may be the most difficult challenge that follows any major success.
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Follow more highlights from this year's gaming industry in our blog and the esports & industry section. The 2026 awards season has effectively come to a close—and its defining face is a game that wasn't on anyone's radar just a year ago.
