100
Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage (insider-gaming.com)
submitted 1 day ago by thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net to c/games@hexbear.net
39 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The Indie Game Awards took place on December 18, and, as many could assume, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took home the awards for Game of the Year and Debut Game. However, things have changed and The Indie Game Awards are making a big decision to strip the Clair Obscur and developer Sandfall Interactive of their awards over the use of gen AI in the game.

In an announcement made on Saturday afternoon, Six One Indie, the creators of the show, said that it’s removal comes after the discovery after voting was done, and the show was recorded.

“The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself,” the statement reads. “When it was submitted for consideration, representatives of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

“In light of Sandfall Interactive confirming the use of gen AI on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination.”

Six One Indie ended by thanking the community for being patient and providing feedback on the situation.

“The organizational team behind the ceremony is a small crew with big ambitions, and The Indie Game Awards can only grow with your help and support,” they said. “We already can’t wait for the 2026 ceremony!”

With Clair Obscur’s disqualification, the awards will now go to the runner ups. That means the award for Debut Game goes to Sorry We’re Closed while Game of the Year now goes to Blue Prince.

What do you think of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being disqualified and having their awards stripped at The Indie Game Awards due to gen AI? Leave your thoughts down below and join the discussion in the official Insider Gaming Discord server.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Xette@hexbear.net 18 points 1 day ago

"When it was submitted for consideration, representatives of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33"

It's not just a, "Whoopsie, this snuck through QC," it's outright lying in their submission. Whereas before they could have made the case that, "Oh, it was just François on his own who did that and we fixed it," now they came out and said, "Naw, we were doing that left and right." You don't need AI to make a placeholder asset. It's as simple as just painting your placeholder neon yellow and sticking it in the world. That way you also are less likely to gloss over it when doing your QC because it will stick out like a sore thumb. Its usage was also not disclosed on Steam, which requires disclosing the usage of AI, so it also erodes trust with those buying games. Even if you want to defend using it for concept art, I would push back on that as the point of concept art is to depict new ideas. When using the plagarism machine 5000, you're only going to get some amalgamated mass of rehashed ideas from whatever was fed into it. I don't care about intellectual property or w/e, but what I'm trying to get at is that it's not gonna be a novel concept coming out the other end.

this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
100 points (99.0% liked)

Games

21175 readers
516 users here now

Tabletop, DnD, board games, and minecraft. Also Animal Crossing.

Rules

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
jack@hexbear.net
RiotDoll@hexbear.net