Sure, here you go:
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You ever try writing a novel? It’s like a solo gig mostly, right? Just you and your thoughts. Unlike a screenplay—just about 120 pages unless you’re tied up with someone like Scorsese. But video games? Oh boy, those are a beast of their own. You gotta fill countless hours, mold the story around gameplay, and usually team up with other writers to make some kinda sense out of it all. Sometimes you just toss words at a wall, especially when it’s 3 a.m., and bam! Something brilliant can happen.
Take “Clair Obscur” for instance. Super French vibes, right? Players are loving Esquie, especially this one scene where the big dude talks about François. François, a grump of epic proportions, but Esquie recalls, “Franfran used to be all ‘Wheeee!’ And now he’s just ‘Whooo.’” And Esquie keeps defining “whee” and “woo”—all while players can pick their own “whee/woo” path. Totally ridiculous but somehow perfect.
Svedberg-Yen, the brains behind it, found herself slap-happy at 3 a.m. “Had to create like seven relationship chats for Esquie!” she laughs. Made me think of those nights you just laugh at your chaos.
And get this, the script for “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” is like 800 pages! That’s without all the NPC chatter or the heaps of lore stuff. Talk about inspiration from everywhere. Svedberg-Yen’s got this character Monoco, a flying gestral, inspired by her dog. So her dog needed a haircut, and she inserted that in there. Like, “Hey, you look like an overgrown mop.” Said it to her dog, then just used it in the game. Honestly, we do that too, don’t we?
That whole “whee whoo” thing? Made even less sense at dawn, but it felt right. Svedberg-Yen wanted to blend joy and grief, heavy stuff, you know? Tired, just outta words, went with “wheeeeee!”
For her, it’s all about being real. Exploring characters with real emotions, even in fantasy worlds. She trusts even her wildest instincts. Which, when you think about it, mirrors life’s ups and downs. “Maybe I overdid it?” she wonders often. “When words escape me, I channel what I feel inside. Feels authentic. And hey, it works.”
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