The indie game community is in disarray over AI and Big Walk
Some Independent Games Festival (IGF) jurors published a statement yesterday saying they would not vote for games that use generative AI in "any capacity." Soon after, the developer of indie hit Big Walk has published a statement saying it "sparingly" used AI in the "final stretch" of the game's development to "help work through difficult […]
The indie game community is currently divided over the use of AI in game development, as evidenced by the controversy surrounding Big Walk, an adventure co-op game developed by House House, the studio behind Untitled Goose Game. House House utilized AI sparingly during the final stages of Big Walk's development to overcome complex technical issues and bugs.
According to the jurors' statement, the increasing use of generative AI in many games this year has sparked intense debate and disagreement within the indie game community, with no clear consensus.
Six jurists affiliated with the Independent Games Festival (IGF) released a statement, expressing their disapproval of using AI in any capacity. The jurors, including Sam Barlow (creator of Telling Lies and Immortality) and Lena Raine (composer of Celeste), highlighted their concerns regarding the negative effects of generative AI, the non-exceptional status of AI-generated code, and the lack of a universal acceptance of AI tools in the industry.
They emphasized that their statement does not represent the entire IGF organization or all jury members, acknowledging that some jurors were concerned about facing professional repercussions for signing the statement.
Big Walk's developers explicitly stated that they used AI "sparingly" to address difficult technical challenges and bugs, with an estimated usage of less than 0.1% of the game's code. The studio aimed to research and troubleshoot issues with third-party code by consulting LLM chatbots, which proved to be an effective solution for resolving a problem related to shadows in the game.
House House disclosed their AI usage during the IGF submission process but chose not to mention it on Big Walk's Steam page, as the platform does not request such information.
House House clarified that their use of AI was not a deliberate endorsement of or support for the technology. They expressed concern that voluntary disclosures might contribute to the normalization of AI tools or be perceived as an inevitability in the industry. The studio acknowledged their failure to establish an AI policy during Big Walk's development and vowed to create a more comprehensive policy in the future.
The controversy surrounding Big Walk highlights the complex and contentious nature of AI's role in indie game development.
Written by urgent.news from The Verge's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
