A willingness to play with Sauron’s One Ring is a signal that they’re not all that bothered about playing with Sauron’s One Ring.
Did you know that most domestic abuse cases don’t actually start with some guy beating his future wife on their first date? That kind of behavior builds up over time.
If you’re sending emails related to the development of the game you’re developing to other people developing that same game, you’re NOT developing the game? What kind of bullshit mental gymnastics is this?
Then most just won’t go on the Game Awards, and devs will go on using Cursor or whatever they feel comfortable with in their IDE setup.
I’m all against AI slop, but you’re setting an unreasonably absolute standard. It’s like saying “I will never use any game that was developed in proximity to any closed source software.” That is possible, technically, but most people aren’t gonna do that. It’s basically impossible on a larger team. Give them some slack with the requirement; it’s okay to develop on Windows or on Steam, just open the game’s source.
Similarly, let devs use basic tools. Ban slop from the end product.
Then you’re going to get almost no games.
Or just get devs lying about using cursor or whatever when they code.
If that’s the culture of the Game Awards, if they have to lie just to get on, that… doesn’t seem healthy.
How have we all forgotten that games were made perfectly fine for decades without AI? Better games even.
I’d rather give an award to a “worse” game that didnt use AI, than to a game that did.
Devs can lie, but the truth always comes out eventually.
“the truth” being that a few generated placeholder textures were accidentally left in and promptly replaced? crazy
A willingness to play with Sauron’s One Ring is a signal that they’re not all that bothered about playing with Sauron’s One Ring.
Did you know that most domestic abuse cases don’t actually start with some guy beating his future wife on their first date? That kind of behavior builds up over time.
A stance that is perfectly relatable in 2025, but not as much when Expedition 33 was in early development.
Why didnt they just buy placeholder textures?
Games were made by a single person not sleeping for a week.
But people expect more now and one person can’t do it fueled just by passion. The other people want to get paid now, not when the game is released.
Limiting the tools people can use to make games is ableist, elitist and just stupid.
Theyre not limiting their tools, they’re limiting some awards they could win by doing the art themselves.
No no. The rules didn’t say “art” it was ALL AI use for the whole duration of the project. Planning, emails, research everything.
Not a single drop of AI is allowed.
I’m pretty sure sending Emails isnt considered game development.
That Argument is moot though, because they were in fact banned for using AI Art, not some internal spreadsheet or Emails they sent.
This time yes. But the rule ban any and all AI use during development. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the final product or not.
https://www.indiegameawards.gg/faq
You arent developing a game when you sennd Emails to someone. Same as you’re not a developer when you do the finances.
Thats part of the company that arent involved in game development.
Your argument is equal to me claiming piblishers are developers.
They might want to make it more clear for the purposefully ignorant people though.
If you’re sending emails related to the development of the game you’re developing to other people developing that same game, you’re NOT developing the game? What kind of bullshit mental gymnastics is this?
What about AI based autocomplete in an IDE, would that disqualify a game from this specific award?
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Then most just won’t go on the Game Awards, and devs will go on using Cursor or whatever they feel comfortable with in their IDE setup.
I’m all against AI slop, but you’re setting an unreasonably absolute standard. It’s like saying “I will never use any game that was developed in proximity to any closed source software.” That is possible, technically, but most people aren’t gonna do that. It’s basically impossible on a larger team. Give them some slack with the requirement; it’s okay to develop on Windows or on Steam, just open the game’s source.
Similarly, let devs use basic tools. Ban slop from the end product.
Cool, dont accept awards then. Its not the be all and end all.