Sandfall Interactive has detailed its limited generative AI experimentation for placeholder textures in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, following the game's disqualification from Game of the Year and Best Debut Game at the Indie Game Awards 2025. The studio, which patched out the assets shortly after launch, vows all future projects will be fully human-made.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the French studio's acclaimed RPG that swept The Game Awards 2025 with a record nine wins (as previously reported), faced backlash at the Indie Game Awards (IGA) 2025 on December 18. Initially awarded Game of the Year and Best Debut Game, the titles were revoked after organizers cited a strict no-AI policy, triggered by a resurfaced interview confirming early AI use.
IGA organizers from Six One Indie stated: “In light of a resurfaced interview with Sandfall Interactive confirming the use of gen AI art in production being brought to our attention on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination.” The awards were reassigned to Blue Prince and Sorry We're Closed.
In response, Sandfall clarified that it relied on pre-existing, non-AI assets from the Unreal Engine Marketplace. Team members briefly experimented with early AI tools in 2022 for temporary placeholder textures missed in quality assurance, but removed them within five days of the April 2025 launch. Director Guillaume Broche addressed the issue in a Q&A hosted by publisher Kepler Interactive: “We tried it and we didn’t like it at all. It just felt wrong. We had originally used it as a placeholder for textures we missed, but we took it out as soon as we saw it. But yeah, the concept art, voice actors, everything is human-made.” Broche added: “It’s pretty hard to predict what the future of the industry will look like, but everything will be made by humans from us.”
This development, building on prior coverage in this series of the initial revocation and public reactions, highlights persistent tensions over AI in game development, including scrutiny of AAA titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6.
