Big Walk Ineligible For IGF Game Of The Year Due To AI Use

Big Walk Studio Explains Undisclosed AI Use Following Indie GOTY Disqualification House House Published Nov 10, 2026, 6:14 AM EST Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. AI use in video games has never been a more hotly debated topic, and much like last year with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, its masked use during development has impacted one of this year’s Game of the Year frontrunners, Big Walk. Turns out AI was used during Big Walk’s development, and it’s the game’s disqualification from the Independent Game Festival’s GOTY consideration that has led to that unfortunate discovery. Big Walk Loses Out On A GOTY Nomination Due To AI Use The IGF posted a statement (thanks, Aftermath) regarding its nominations this year, highlighting that some who vote for its GOTY nominees and award winners simply won’t consider games that used generative AI during their development. It seemed a fairly straightforward, somewhat expected stance. However, it became clear in the hours after that statement was posted that the reason IGF representatives were having such a tough time deliberating is because AI was used during Big Walk’s development. That revelation has led to Big Walk studio House House updating its FAQ to confirm that yes, AI was used during the game’s development process, and to explain how exactly it was implemented. House House Tries To Explain Why It Used AI “In the final stretch of Big Walk’s development, LLMs were used sparingly by House House to help work through difficult technical challenges and bugs,” the new FAQ section reads. LLM stands for large language model, AIs that are trained on vast amounts of text to help summarize, translate, and in some cases generate language. “In some cases, snippets from LLM responses were copied as a starting point to be modified into game code - we’d estimate that well under 0.1% of Big Walk’s code had anything to do with this usage, and generative AI was not used in any other context when making the game.” The updated FAQ section continues, providing examples of when House House turned to AI during the latter stages of Big Walk’s development for help. It goes on to explain that a version of this was sent to IGF to clarify the studio’s use of AI, hence it being seemingly disqualified from GOTY consideration, and the matter becoming public knowledge. Why House House Didn't Admit To AI Use Earlier House House then adds that the reason it didn’t disclose the use of AI during Big Walk’s development until now is because it isn’t mandatory on Steam, and that it is only disclosing the information now because “it’s a matter of public interest”. Letting your players know AI was used during development is arguably always a matter of public interest, not just when you get found out for not disclosing it in the first place, but it’s the arguably in that sentence that makes AI use in video games so divisive. In the explanation’s penultimate paragraph, House House writes, "We have some concern that voluntary disclosures like this might contribute to the normalisation of this technology, or its treatment as 'inevitable'." Again, it might be argued that other studios see this and think quite the opposite, seeing Big Walk’s huge success and turning to AI also, and hiding it, since it worked for House House. Big Walk will now not be considered for IGF’s GOTY award, and this could result in a knock-on effect where it fails to pick up nominations elsewhere. It has already been nominated for the Golden Joysticks GOTY, the winner of which will be announced this week. Even after winning, though, Big Walk might not be safe from having its win revoked. Expedition 33 lost its Indie Game Awards GOTY last year after AI use during development was unearthed after the GOTY had been awarded. The award was retroactively taken back and given to runner-up Blue Prince instead. Released August 4, 2026 Developer(s) House House Publisher(s) Panic Multiplayer Online Co-Op Cross-Platform Play Full Genre(s) Adventure, Exploration, Puzzle