The Indie Game Awards
Awards Ceremony
An annual indie-focused awards show produced by the team behind Six One Indie. It enforces a blanket ban on generative AI — a policy that, at its December 2025 ceremony, led it to strip Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 of its Game of the Year win hours after handing it out.
In their words
We have a hard stance against gen AI in videogames, it’s something we talk about throughout the year when discussing any potential nominees.
While the assets in question were patched out and it is a wonderful game, it does go against the regulations we have in place.
Biography
The Indie Game Awards is an annual celebration of independent games, produced by the team behind the Six One Indie showcase. It positions itself as a community-minded alternative to the larger industry award shows — and, unusually, has written a categorical opposition to generative AI directly into its rules: gen AI is barred throughout the nomination process and the ceremony itself.
That policy collided with reality at the 2025 ceremony on December 18, 2025. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the breakout RPG from French studio Sandfall Interactive, was awarded both Game of the Year and Best Debut. Within days the organizers disqualified it. When the game was submitted, a Sandfall representative had attested that no generative AI was used in its development; on the day of the premiere, the organizers learned that the studio had confirmed the use of gen AI art in production, and the awards were rescinded after voting had closed and the show had already been recorded. Game of the Year was reassigned to Blue Prince and Best Debut to Sorry We’re Closed.
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. 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.
The Clair Obscur reversal was not the only one. In the same wave of retractions the organizers pulled an award from Chantey, a Game Boy sea-shanty game by Gortyn Code, because its physical edition was produced and sold by ModRetro — the retro-console company founded by Palmer Luckey. Citing ModRetro’s ties to the defense industry, the organizers said the company “strictly goes against the values of the IGAs,” and stressed that the decision reflected on ModRetro, not the developer.
By the organizers’ own admission the disputed Clair Obscur assets had already been patched out, and they called the game “wonderful” in the same breath as they stripped its trophies. The episode made the Indie Game Awards a flashpoint in the wider fight over AI in game development — a small, well-meaning show whose zero-tolerance rule turned a celebration of indie craft into a public disqualification of one of the year’s most beloved indie games.
Where they stand in the war
Who backs them up
Sources & further reading
Canonical record: https://battlelines.ai/topic/indie-game-awards