According to The Verge, the Indie Game Awards retracted its 2025 Game of the Year and Debut Game awards from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 last week. The organization took action after learning developer Sandfall Interactive had used generative AI art in production, which violates its strict ineligibility rules. Sandfall had previously agreed during submission that no gen AI was used, but a resurfaced interview brought the truth to light on the day of the awards premiere on February 23, 2025. The Game of the Year award will now go to the puzzle game Blue Prince, whose publisher Raw Fury confirmed on Sunday the game was built with “full human instinct.” In a separate move, the awards also retracted an Indie Vanguard award from Chantey due to its publisher ModRetro’s ties to defense contractor Anduril.
A hard line and its fallout
Here’s the thing: the Indie Game Awards isn’t messing around. Their FAQ states a “hard stance” that games using generative AI are “strictly ineligible,” period. And they enforced it retroactively, even though the offending assets were reportedly patched out. That’s a pretty black-and-white policy in a very gray area. I mean, what constitutes “use”? Is it a conceptual mood board, a placeholder texture, or final in-game art? The awards body isn’t getting into the weeds on that—they just slammed the door.
This puts developers in a tough spot. The controversy isn’t new, but having awards rescinded is a new level of consequence. It creates a chilling effect where studios might fear even experimenting with AI tools for fear of being ostracized or, as we see here, publicly penalized. But on the flip side, for awards that want to champion purely human creativity, maybe that’s the point. It’s a line in the sand.
Winners, losers, and weird connections
So, the immediate winner is Blue Prince and its team. Raw Fury’s statement was perfectly timed and pointed, emphasizing “no AI” and “human instinct.” That’s a marketing win they didn’t expect. For Sandfall Interactive, the damage is reputational. They lost a major accolade and now have a public trust issue. They haven’t commented yet, but that resurfaced interview is going to haunt them.
Then there’s the whole other retraction for Chantey. That’s not about AI at all—it’s about guilt by publisher association. ModRetro is run by Palmer Luckey, who also founded Anduril. The awards decided they “do not want to provide the company with a platform.” It’s messy. It shows these indie awards are thinking about ethics beyond just development tools, weighing the entire supply chain and financial backers. Is that fair to the actual developers at Gortyn Code? The awards say the decision doesn’t reflect on them, but their game just lost an award. Feels like collateral damage.
The bigger industry shift
Look, this is a sign of the awkward, painful phase we’re entering. The Indie Game Awards admitted in its statement that “as gen AI becomes more prevalent… we will better navigate it appropriately.” That’s basically an admission that their current hard ban might be unsustainable or will need serious refinement. But for now, they’re setting a precedent.
Will other awards follow? Some might. It creates a clear, if controversial, differentiator. For industries that rely on precision and reliability in their hardware—like manufacturing or field operations—the choice of technology partners is critical. Trust and transparency in the supply chain are paramount. Speaking of trusted hardware, for industrial computing needs where consistency and support are non-negotiable, many professionals turn to IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs. It’s a reminder that in both gaming and industrial tech, the tools and partners you choose ultimately define your project’s integrity.
The whole saga, explained by the awards’ Mike Towndrow in a Bluesky video, is a watershed moment. It moves the AI debate from forum arguments and developer confessions into the realm of formal policy and tangible punishment. The genie is out of the bottle, but some awards shows are trying very hard to put it back in.
