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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<\/em> has been a massively successful debut for developer Sandfall Interactive. It also hasn’t been without controversy. In December, the Indie Game Awards revoked two of its awards for its inclusion of AI-generated assets at launch. (They were quickly patched out.) Now, a French author is claiming the developer is forcing him to stop selling his newly released graphic novel, titled L’ Acad\u00e9mie Clair-Obscur<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a series of posts on X on Friday, author Olivier Gay claimed he “received a lawyer’s letter” from Sandfall, “which orders me to stop selling my comic published by Drakoo titled Acad\u00e9mie Clair-Obscur, supposedly riding on the game’s undeniable success” (via machine translation).<\/p>\n According to Gay, he pitched his graphic novel to Drakoo in 2019 and has a contract from March 2024 with the current title of the graphic novel. (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<\/em> was revealed in June 2024.) Though his graphic novel “has nothing to do with [Sandfall’s] story,” Gay is acquiescing because “I neither have the energy nor the money to engage in a legal battle, especially against French studios that I greatly appreciate.” Gay states his comic will continue under a different name, and he “hope[s] it keeps finding success.”<\/p>\n On Monday, Sandfall Interactive responded with a brief post on X. “Hello everyone, we’ve seen the discussions, thank you for bringing the situation to our attention. We’re in contact with the publisher and Olivier to find a fair solution for everyone.” When reached for comment, representatives for Sandfall Interactive redirected Polygon to the studio’s statement on X.<\/p>\n Gay is right that his book has no similarities to Expedition 33<\/em> in terms of its story or characters; it follows a group of students at the Clair-Obscur Academy, a magic school. As some users on X have pointed out, a sticking point may be the typography. At a passing glance, there are similarities between the way the titles are presented on the graphic novel and in the game. “If I happen to walk past your comic in a store, I do get the impression of dealing with a product derived from the game,” one person said. There are no official Expedition 33<\/em> tie-in comics at this time, but there is a sick vinyl collection and an art book that was mistakenly seized by government officials for looking like an ancient artifact.<\/p>\n Clair Obscur is a French translation of chiaroscuro from Italian art history, originating in the Renaissance period. It’s meant to refer to the juxtaposition between light and dark, which is a visual and thematic fundamental of Expedition 33<\/em>. Sandfall has stated that Clair Obscur is meant to be the franchise name for its debut IP, with game director Guillaume Broche calling Expedition 33 <\/em>“one of the stories that we want to tell in this franchise” in an interview last summer.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n