IGF Games Debate Erupts Over AI Use in Big Walk Development

A group of jurors for the Independent Games Festival (IGF) has drawn a firm line on generative AI, and the debate has quickly centred on Big Walk, the co-op adventure game from Untitled Goose Game developer House House. Jurors said they will not vote for any game that uses generative AI "in any capacity" in the 2027 awards. House House has since said it used AI tools in a limited way during the final stretch of Big Walk's development.

The jurors posted a statement on social media noting what they described as "a significant increase" in submitted games developed with generative AI tools. They said the IGF discussion had produced "fairly intense discussion and disagreement" with no universal consensus. The statement says it does not speak for the IGF as an organisation or for every jury member. Signatories include Sam Barlow, creator of Telling Lies and Immortality, and Lena Raine, the composer of Celeste.

What House House has said about Big Walk

In a statement given to Aftermath and posted on its website, House House said it used large language model (LLM) chatbots "sparingly" to help solve "difficult technical challenges and bugs". The studio estimates that well under 0.1% of the game's code relates to that use. It says generative AI was not used in any other part of the game's creation.

The studio described one specific case. Its team needed to cull shadow casters by distance, but the Unity Universal Render Pipeline only supported culling in the camera's forward direction. That caused shadows behind the player to render at an effectively infinite distance, slowing the game by around 50 per cent for about 20 seconds at sunrise and sunset. After extensive research and a conversation with a Unity engineer, the team asked a chatbot, which suggested a fix that was modified heavily before it worked. The studio said the fix amounted to about 10 lines of code.

Disclosure and criticism

House House said it wrote a version of the disclosure for its IGF submission, where such disclosure was suggested. It did not disclose the AI use on Big Walk's Steam page, saying the platform does not request disclosure of code or chatbot usage. The studio said it is now posting the information because it has become a matter of public interest.

The studio said plainly that the use was "not an endorsement of, or argument for, the use of AI tools, however minimal". It also voiced concern that voluntary disclosures could contribute to the normalisation of the technology, and it apologised that its usage may not meet the standards of those opposing generative AI. Coverage has described the response as divided: some see the use as a disappointment, especially given the game's other stances, while others see it as a sign of the times and worry the reaction could unfairly penalise a game widely expected to appear on award shortlists.

Barlow later said Big Walk was not the trigger for the jurors' discussion. He said it became a "tricky edge case" that raised questions about minimal AI use in a favourite game or by a favourite team. He added that the jurors were not calling for a boycott of any game or studio.

What happens next

House House said Big Walk was developed without an internal AI usage policy, which it called a failure, and that it will work toward a more comprehensive policy. Submissions for the 2027 IGF closed on September 13, and finalists are due to be announced in January 2027. Whether the jurors' stance will change how other entries are judged has not been formally set out by the festival, which the jurors said does not speak for the IGF as a whole.

For now, the discussion remains focused on how awards should define "indie" work and where the line should sit on minimal AI assistance. The IGF has not published an official response to the jurors' statement in the material available.

Read more: Walker also published a long blog post on his position on AI and the IGF awards.