The Indie Game Awards, a usually delightful and low-controversy annual celebration of the best of indie games in a given year, has found itself having to retract three different awards handed out in last week’s event, including its Game of the Year prize. That originally went to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which also won Best Debut Indie, both already controversial choices given the game is not “indie” by pretty much every understanding of the term, but was withdrawn on the allegation that the developers, Sandfall Interactive, were not honest about the game’s use of AI when it was submitted. The other retraction is for an Indie Vanguard recognition of a Game Boy-like game that is only available on weapons dealer Palmer Luckey’s ModRetro devices.
A big part of the IGAs, organized by Six One Indie, are its progressive values and its desire to support the indie scene in a positive way, making its intentions and selections potentially different from those of other award ceremonies out there. One of those values is to not endorse games made using so-called “generative AI” tools. In a video posted to BlueSky over the weekend, Six One’s Mike Towndrow stated that Sandfall told the IGAs that no gen-AI had been used in the creation of Clair Obscur, only admitting that in fact it had been on the day of the awards. (We have reached out to Sandfall and owners Kepler to ask for their side of events.)
In a statement posted to the IGA’s FAQ, the point is reiterated.
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.
As a result, Blue Prince has been given the Game of the Year award, while Debut Game goes to à la mode games’ Sorry We’re Closed.
The other rescinded award is one of the IGA’s Indie Vanguard selections, Gortyn Code, a Greek indie developer which made a Game Boy game called Chantey. However, since the announcement, the IGA team learned that the game’s physical card is only being produced and sold by ModRetro, a retro gaming company owned by Oculus-founding billionaire Palmer Luckey, who also runs the arms-dealing Anduril Industries. And to make sure there was no ambiguity left, it announced the Anduril Chromatic, a retro gaming device made from the same metal used to build the company’s military drones.
In the IGA’s FAQ it’s stated, “The IGAs nomination committee were unfortunately made aware of ModRetro’s nature and principles the day after the 2025 premiere with the news of their upcoming handheld console. As the company strictly goes against the values of the IGAs. [sic] Due to the ties with ModRetro, Indie Vanguard has also been retracted as we do not want to provide the company with a platform.”
However, it goes on to add that “the decision does not reflect Gortyn Code, but ModRetro alone. Chantey remains a wonderful throwback to the Game Boy era,” encouraging people to seek out the game via its Itch.io page, where it can be played.
Some might argue they would prefer their award organizers not allow ideological positions to determine their criteria, and those people will be able to take comfort in the news that this is the case for almost every other ceremony out there, while recognizing that the IGAs are independently owned and run by Six One Indie, which can do whatever it pleases. You can watch all the original announcements for the IGAs in the video below, for which replacement acceptance speeches will be recorded by the new winners.
