After GOTY pull, Clair Obscur devs draw line in sand: 'Everything will be made by humans by us'

Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨tonytins@pawb.social⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.polygon.com/game-awards-expedition-33-disqualified-did-it-use-ai-response/

The gaming world appeared ablaze after the Indie Game Awards announced that it was rescinding the top honors awarded to RPG darling Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 due to the use of generative AI during development. Sandfall Interactive recently sat down with a group of influencers for a private interview session, where the French studio was probed about recent AI controversies. Game director Guillaume Broche clarified some of the misinformation surrounding the studio and reiterated what other Sandfall developers have said about generative AI usage during interviews held earlier in the year.

Transcription of the Q&A comes courtesy of gaming content creator Sushi, who was one of the handful of influencers who were present at the session. Twitch streamer crizco prefaced his question by recounting the storm surrounding Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios’ admission about using generative AI during game development.

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astropenguin5@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
So if I’m reading it right they basically just tried it out and then decided to not use it, removing anything that used it? I can see how technically that it ‘was used at all in development’, but also seems a lil silly to pull the awards based on it.

They probably should have clarified how they used it a lot earlier, but I also don’t blame them for trying out a new tool.

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- SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The rules required disclosure, and they failed to properly disclose. Whether this was on purpose or by accident, they were disqualified quite fairly. It’s a shame, but fairness must apply equally to all studios.
  
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- DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  It was only the "indie’ games award. A small ragtag group that was completely in niche discussions online until they pulled this stunt to get all the gaming outlets to bait about
  
  "omg E33 got an AWARD PULLED???!
  
  Nobody knew or gave a fuck about the “indie” game awards until this happened.
  
  Because this paid off, expect more smaller groups to pull similar ideas to feign “outrage” for exposure
  
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Jax@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I think that the amount of love that went into Clair Obscur eclipses any use of AI. If you’re under the impression that background textures they replaced must mean they used AI everywhere else — you must not have played the game.

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- UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I’m hard pressed to name a nominee that wasn’t made with love. And it seems weird to insist a game as lauded as E33 needs another awards show genuflection to reaffirm it’s status.
  
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  - Jax@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    That’s a fair point, Skong was made by like 3 people and it’s probably one of the best games of all time.
    
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  - Mikina@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    While there’s no doubt that they have technically break the rules, just the fact that they afaik patched the few textures before this controversy (as far as I know, it’s possible that it was a reaction to this?), this simply sounds like a (very succesful) PR attempt by Indie Game Awards.
    
    There’s no doubt that Clair Obscire isn’t a AI slop that cheapened on artists or art with GenAI, whis is the spirit of the rules IGA has. If you don’t take the rules literaly, they deserve the award. And that’s IMO important.
    
    I’ve never heard about IGA before this, so it worked to draw attention to them.
    
    I’m very OK with having rules in place to reject work where you replaced artists with AI. But this is not the case.
    
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- Mikina@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  It’s IMO pretty clear that the purpose of the rule is to rule out AI slop and games that cheapened on artists and replaced them by genAI.
  
  Expeditin is neither. It feels like an (succesful) AI stunt by a lesser known award show not many people knew about.
  
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  - DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
    
    … It feels like an (succesful) PR stunt by a lesser known award show not many people knew about.
    
    Exactly this.
    
    Expect this shit to be more frequent
    
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cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Would have been fine if they’d been up-front about it. Some people still wouldn’t like it, but some people wouldn’t play a game made by French devs. Maybe. I dunno. People are free to have preferences, even if we think they’re weird or don’t agree with them. I think Clair Obscur had a ton of great ideas. Game really wasn’t for me, but I respect the hell out of it. It’s a shame about the genAI. Nice that they’re committing to avoid AI, but they really just need to be honest about what you’re getting. I think if they told people what the AI was used for, it would have gone over better.

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andyburke@fedia.io ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
They lied or misstated during their submission.

We will never know what would have happened if they had been open and honest.

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