Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has lost two Indie Game Awards nominations after organisers ruled that the brief use of generative AI placeholder textures during development breached eligibility rules, despite the assets being patched out shortly after launch.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has lost two major nominations at the Indie Game Awards after organisers ruled that its use of generative AI breached the ceremony’s rules.
Fresh from its Game of the Year triumph at The Game Awards 2025, the RPG from Sandfall Interactive was stripped of both Indie Game of the Year and Debut Game following renewed scrutiny of comments made earlier this year by co-founder and producer François Meurisse.
In those remarks, Meurisse acknowledged limited experimentation with artificial intelligence tools during development – comments that resurfaced amid a wider industry debate over generative AI use.
The Indie Game Awards said a Sandfall representative had confirmed during submission that no generative AI was used in production, but the committee has still elected to strip Clair Obscur of its nominations.
In a statement, the nomination committee said: “The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself.
“When it was submitted for consideration, a representative 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 art in production on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination.”
After Sandfall clarified that a small number of AI-generated placeholder textures briefly appeared in the shipped build — and were removed within five days via a patch — organisers ruled the entry no longer met eligibility requirements.
The committee continued: “The assets in question were patched out and it is a wonderful game, but it does go against the regulations we have in place.”
As a result, the honours were reassigned to Sorry We’re Closed for Debut Game and Blue Prince for Game of the Year.
Sandfall has stressed that no AI-generated assets remain Clair Obscur and that the textures were temporary placeholders that slipped through quality assurance.
The studio also said no AI-generated content from external marketplaces was used.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 loses out on Indie Game Awards nominations over generative AI use
