In an unprecedented move, the Indie Game Awards has retracted Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 awards, which means Best Debut Game now goes to Sorry We’re Closed and Game of the Year is Blue Prince. The reason is that Sandfall Interactive confirmed the use of gen AI art in production on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025, which disqualifies the game from nomination. The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI, and when Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was submitted for consideration, a representative of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the game’s development.
Although the assets have been patched out of the game, the Indie Game Awards says it still goes against the regulations in place. As a result, the committee has agreed to retract both the Debut Game and Game of the Year awards.
While I understand the sentiment, I don’t think this will age well for the Indie Game Awards. Ultimately, this comes down to believing whether or not a developer used gen AI, which will just become more and more prevalent in the coming years. One could even argue that more indie developers will turn to using gen AI to make their games a reality because, without it, it might not even be possible. Not every developer or team out there can afford a full staff of developers, artists, testers, and more. Whether people like it or not, gen AI is going to help make solo development or development by small teams more possible.
There’s obviously a debate here about how ethical it is for AI to replace actual workers. The reality is, games aren’t cheap to make, and for many, finding ways to save money is the only way the game ever gets made. I just don’t see how the Indie Game Awards can continue with this policy, especially since there’s no real way to validate whether a game used gen AI. What if a developer used it for coding? We’re just supposed to take their word that they didn’t?
At the end of the day, though, these are just awards that really shouldn’t carry a lot of weight if you enjoy a game. It’s unclear to me where you draw the line in the sand on gen AI use. Would a writer using Grammarly be considered gen AI? By definition, that’s gen AI.
