The use of generative AI in video games has become an increasingly complicated topic of debate, and the recent backlash against AA studio Sandfall Interactive for the use of AI in their GOTY-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 highlights just how much critics fail to see the nuance in the conversation.
Recently, the Indie Game Awards announced they’d be disqualifying Clair Obscur for its use of generative AI, which they accuse Sandfall of using despite the studio consistently stating otherwise. Upon the game’s release earlier this year, “AI-generated textures” on a random newspaper were discovered and quickly replaced with the intended textures.
These textures, despite being reported months ago, were used as grounds for Clair Obscur‘s disqualification at the Indie Game Awards due to their “hard stance on the use of gen AI.” Sandfall has since been lambasted for “lying” about their use of generative AI, despite already admitting (via El Pais) that “when the first Al tools became available in 2022, some members of the team briefly experimented with them to generate temporary placeholder textures.”
Clair Obscur Devs Never Lied About AI Use
Sandfall Has Been Transparent About AI From Day One
The notion that Sandfall Interactive somehow “lied” to the Indie Game Awards about their use of generative AI is absurd given the studio’s history of transparency on the issue. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, it’s far more likely that something was lost in translation or the rules were simply unclear or misinterpreted. The Indie Game Awards never once indicated that Sandfall has done anything nefarious or deceptive.
There’s a fine but important line between a game that doesn’t contain any AI-generated content vs. a game that used AI at any stage in development, a distinction likely at the core of the Indie Game Awards’ decision. If you play Clair Obscur right now, however, you’re not going to find any AI content, despite the indie studio using it as a tool in the early stages. As Redditor LukeDies points out eloquently, “using placeholder assets generated by AI is not the same as using AI to generate and place assets.”
If players are going to adopt a zero-AI stance, they’re going to have a hard time finding a game that doesn’t use AI in any capacity. Where is the line drawn exactly when it comes to AI use for video game developers? If an indie dev uses something like ChatGPT (or even Google for that matter) for a quick query in the early stages of the process, does that game become “AI slop” automatically, even if nothing in the game itself is AI-generated?
Whether Clair Obscur‘s use of AI placeholder textures constitutes the backlash among players is up for debate, but it does feel incredibly overblown given the context. While the Indie Game Awards are allowed to enforce their hardline AI policies, I fail to see how Sandfall’s use of AI detracts from the quality of the experience in any way.
Clair Obscur’s AI Use Isn’t That Big A Deal
Indie Studios Will Suffer If Fans Can’t Accept Any Level Of AI Use
It may be an unpopular opinion, but at the end of the day, Clair Obscur developers at Sandfall didn’t do anything wrong with their use of AI-generated textures. For one, the AI content in question was pulled from “Unreal Engine 5’s tools and assets” and was used to “improve the graphics, gameplay, and cinematics” (via X).
Further, the use of AI was entirely a result of Sandfall being a smaller AA indie studio with limited resources, and the game’s development likely hinged on being able to use these tools. The controversy surrounding Clair Obscur‘s AI use is not only contrived and misguided, but could be a huge step backward for indie developers who need to use some level of AI due to lack of funding or resources.
AI can be an essential development tool without replacing human workers/talent, given that it is used responsibly and in targeted ways. The use of AI in video games is an important conversation with a lot of nuance, and while many players are quick to adopt a hardline stance against anything AI-generated, Clair Obscur simply isn’t the sacrificial AI lamb that critics seem to be looking for.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
9/10
- Released
-
April 24, 2025
- ESRB
-
Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
-
Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
-
Kepler Interactive
- Engine
-
Unreal Engine 5
