Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 For Using AI

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 recently remained in the spotlight when it bagged the Game of the Year and Debut Game honours at The Indie Game Awards. But the two awards have now been retracted due to the inclusion of generative AI assets.

What To Know?

As detailed on its FAQ page, The Indie Game Awards stated that they "have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself." 

It stated that a representative of Sandfall Interactive agreed during the submission for consideration that no gen AI was utilised for the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

However, developer Sandfall Interactive confirmed gen AI in production during the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere. This ultimately disqualifies it from the nomination. 

"While the assets in question were patched out, and it is a wonderful game, it does go against the regulations we have in place. As a result, the IGAs nomination committee has agreed to officially retract both the Debut Game and Game of the Year awards," it stated.

The respective honours have now been given to the "next highest-ranked game in its respective category."

This means that the Debut Game award goes to Sorry We’re Closed, while Blue Prince is the Game of the Year.

Why did this happened

A statement from François Meurisse of Sandfall Interactive had started doing rounds on social media over the use of generative AI in the game, according to Polygon.

In June this year, Meurisse admitted to using generative AI in some form to develop the game while interacting with Spanish news outlet El País.

"We used some AI, but not much," Meurisse said, as translated via Google Translate. 

"The key is that we were very clear about what we wanted to do and where to invest our efforts. And, of course, technology has allowed us to do things that were unthinkable not long ago," the official added.

The game is said to have launched with suspected AI-generated textures, but these were later replaced with custom assets through a patch after its release.

On platforms like X and Reddit, several users highlighted the AI assets.

Meanwhile, the acceptance speeches from the developers behind Sorry We’re Closed and Blue Prince will come out early next year.