Expedition 33's Indie GOTY Award

An attic in Prince Bleu with sunlight streaming in from round windows.

Vaspaan Dastoor is an editor for TheGamer. Previously worked at IGN India and constantly tries to get people to make time for LOTR marathons. He can be found giving hot takes to cold responses on @DastorVaspaan

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won all the awards this year, including the big one at the Indie Game of the Year awards. However, it was stripped of the award just hours after the ceremony due to the alleged use of AI in its development, and fans were relatively disappointed. The GOTY title eventually went to the Blue Prince.

The response was pretty strong, as you'd expect, but the Indie Game Awards said it “has a strong stance on the use of Gen AI in the nomination process and the ceremony itself.” As this all went down last night, Blue Prince's publisher and Fury released a statement to clarify that no AI was used during the game's development.

Blue Prince reiterates that no AI was used during development

Campsite and tent at Blue Prince with white trees behind it.

“For people who need confirmation: there is no AI used in Blue Prince,” Raw Fury said. “The game was created and crafted by Tonda Ros with full human instinct [Dogubomb] and his team. It is the result of eight years of development, full of imagination and creativity, and we are extremely proud of what Tonda has achieved.”

The Indie Game Awards explained in an FAQ how Claire Obscur was nominated in the first place and why the award was later revoked. “When it was submitted for consideration, a representative from Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

In Blue Prince the hero wears a crown with a red countdown timer on his back saying 00:00:00.

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Either way, Blue Prince makes for one of the most exciting speedruns I've ever seen

I can't believe this is even possible.

“In light of Sandfall Interactive's confirmation that gen AI art was used in production on the premiere day of the Indie Game Awards 2025, this disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination. While the assets in question were patched out and it's an awesome game, it goes against the rules. We at the IGA have no official results. Withdraw both Debut Game and Game of the Year.”