‘I Was Exhausted’: The Story Behind Expedition 33’s Beloved ‘Whee Whoo’ Moment

Alright, so here’s the thing. Writing a novel? Mostly a solo gig. You can lock yourself away, perfectly content with just your thoughts. Screenplays? Sure, they’re only about 120 pages—unless Scorsese’s involved, then buckle up. But a video game? Whole different beast. It’s like cramming endless content into a sprawling universe, all while juggling a team of other writers who’ve got their own ideas. Sometimes it’s like, at 3 a.m., you find yourself just throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping something sticks. But hey, sometimes that spaghetti’s pure genius.

So, there’s this game, Clair Obscur, right? It’s got all these quirky little French-inspired tidbits that players are loving. But the real star? Esquie—the big, chatty bird, I guess. Oh, and there’s this one camp scene where Esquie’s going on about his buddy François. François used to be fun, all “Wheeeee!” but now he’s more “Whooo.” Esquie elaborates on that in the most ridiculous way, and somehow you’re deciding between “whee” and “woo” in this dialogue tree, wondering why life can be so silly at times.

“I came up with that in the dead of night,” says Svedberg-Yen, chuckling. “Had seven of these scenes to whip up for Esquie!”

Now, get this—Svedberg-Yen claims the script for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a whopping 800 pages. And that’s not counting all the random chatter from NPCs or the heaps of lore scribblings that make up the backbone of the story. So, where does one even find that much creative fuel? Svedberg-Yen just pulls it from wherever. Like, Monoco, another character in the game, is fashioned after her dog. No joke. When her dog was due for a cut, she turned it into a scene. “You look like an overgrown mop,” became dialogue—an exact repeat from real life!

“I swear, the ‘whee whoo’ bit? At 3 a.m., it was nonsense. But it clicked.”

Svedberg-Yen admits, balancing fantasy with a touch of reality is her thing, crafting characters from the mishmash of her own experiences—even the bizarre ones. A tragic game like Clair Obscur needs some humor, because, well, life’s like that. “Was it too much? Maybe. But when words escape me, I just dive into what I’m feeling. And that’s as real as it gets.”