Big Walk used AI to fix a bug. Now the indie gaming world is having a reckoning.
Any amount of AI coding is too much for many Indie Game Festival judges.
In recent years, there has been much discussion surrounding the use of AI-powered tools in game development and the appropriate approach to disclosing such usage to players. This controversy reached a boiling point in the indie game development community this week, as House House, the developer behind the popular cooperative puzzle exploration game Big Walk, disclosed minimal AI integration in the game after months of undisclosed usage.
The controversy gained momentum when 19 jurors out of the 50+ member jury for the Independent Games Festival Awards released a signed statement, refusing to vote for any game that utilizes generative AI in any capacity. These jurors highlighted the ecological, economic, psychological, and labor-related harms associated with AI tools, expressing their disapproval of their implementation, which they deemed uncertain in the gaming industry.
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