Sandfall Interactive should be celebrating the biggest success story in indie gaming history. Their debut title, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, swept The Game Awards with nine victories including Game of the Year, the most awards ever won by a single game at the ceremony. The French studio of just 33 people had accomplished something that seemed impossible, creating a blockbuster RPG that outperformed massive AAA studios with hundreds of developers. Then, less than a week later, they lost their Indie Game Awards GOTY and Best Debut Indie trophies after the ceremony discovered they’d lied about using AI during development.
The controversy exploded when the Indie Game Awards announced on December 20, 2025, that they were stripping Sandfall of both awards. The reason was straightforward: when Sandfall submitted Clair Obscur for consideration, representatives agreed that no generative AI was used in development. That claim turned out to be false. On the same day as the Indie Game Awards premiere, Sandfall producer François Meurisse confirmed in an interview that the studio had used AI-generated placeholder textures that shipped in the launch build before being patched out five days later. The Indie Game Awards has a zero-tolerance policy for generative AI use, making the disqualification automatic once the truth emerged.
What Actually Happened With the AI Assets
The full story of Sandfall’s AI usage came out through multiple sources over several months. In an April 2025 interview with Spanish publication El País, Meurisse mentioned that some team members briefly experimented with AI tools when they first became available in 2022. These experiments generated temporary placeholder textures for background elements like newspaper clippings and wall scraps. The plan was always to replace them with proper artist-created textures before launch, but some slipped through the QA process and made it into the final game.
Players discovered the AI-generated textures shortly after launch and began circulating images online. Sandfall quietly patched out the offending assets within five days and replaced them with human-made alternatives, but they didn’t make any public statement about what had happened or why. This silence meant most players never knew about the AI content, and the controversy remained relatively contained until Meurisse’s interview comments resurfaced months later in December 2025, right as awards season heated up.
Sandfall’s updated statement attempted to clarify the situation. They emphasized that the AI-generated textures were always intended as temporary placeholders and that the team had experimented with AI tools briefly in 2022 when the technology was new. The studio insisted that no AI-generated assets remain in the current version of the game, and that all final content was created by human artists. They also noted they’d been in contact with El País months before publication to discuss their asset pipeline, including the use of pre-existing 3D assets from the Unreal Engine Marketplace, none of which involved AI generation.
Why the Indie Game Awards Had No Choice
The Indie Game Awards’ decision to strip Sandfall of both trophies wasn’t about the severity of the AI usage or whether the placeholders were still in the game. It was about the submission process and the studio’s response to direct questions. When Sandfall submitted Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for consideration, a representative signed off on documentation stating that no generative AI was used in development. That statement was factually incorrect regardless of intent, temporary usage, or subsequent removal.
The timing made the situation worse. Meurisse’s confirmation of AI usage came on the same day as the Indie Game Awards premiere on December 19, 2025. The awards committee learned that their Game of the Year winner had violated submission requirements on the night they were celebrating the game’s achievement. From their perspective, Sandfall either knowingly lied during submission or failed to properly disclose temporary AI usage that technically occurred during development, even if those assets were later removed.
The Indie Game Awards stated their position clearly in an FAQ update. They maintain a hard stance against generative AI use throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself. When asked if any gen AI was used in development, Sandfall’s representative said no. Once the studio confirmed AI usage publicly, even temporary placeholder usage from 2022, the disqualification became automatic. The awards committee noted that while the assets were patched out and Clair Obscur is a wonderful game, the violation of submission regulations left them no choice but to retract both awards.
The Studio That Defied Industry Norms
The AI controversy overshadows what should be an inspiring success story about how games get made in 2025. Sandfall Interactive operates at a scale that seems impossible for the quality they achieved. The core development team consists of approximately 33 full-time employees, with creative director Guillaume Broche leading a group that’s 90% junior developers with minimal industry experience. Only three people on the team came from AAA studios, all former Ubisoft developers who provided senior-level expertise without the bloated overhead of major publisher structures.
Broche built the team through unconventional hiring practices. After conducting over 200 initial interviews to establish the core group, he started searching for talent on Reddit and Soundcloud rather than traditional industry channels. The VFX artist and character designer had both just graduated from college and were working their first jobs ever. Broche saw this inexperience as an advantage because they hadn’t developed fixed notions about how game development was supposed to work, making them more adaptable to Sandfall’s unique creative process.
The studio leveraged strategic outsourcing to amplify what the small core team could accomplish. Korean animators handled battle animation sequences, while external teams managed motion capture, voice acting including Jennifer English’s award-winning performance as Maelle, music composition, localization, and quality assurance through two dedicated QA firms. The game’s credits list over 400 people who contributed in some capacity, but the vast majority weren’t full-time Sandfall employees. This production model allowed the studio to maintain a lean internal structure while accessing specialized talent as needed.
The budget reflected this efficiency. Reports suggest Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 cost under $10 million to develop, with some estimates as low as $6-8 million. For context, most modern AAA RPGs cost between $50-200 million. The game generated hundreds of millions in revenue after selling over 12 million copies by December 2025, making it one of the most profitable games relative to budget in industry history. Hideo Kojima publicly praised Sandfall’s team size as his ideal, saying that 33 team members and a dog represented exactly what he wanted when creating with a team.
Why This Matters Beyond One Award
The Sandfall controversy highlights how murky AI disclosure has become in game development. The studio’s position is that they briefly experimented with AI tools in 2022 to generate temporary placeholders that were never meant for the final product, some accidentally shipped at launch, and they were removed within five days once discovered. From their perspective, saying they didn’t use AI in development might have felt technically accurate because the final game contains no AI-generated content and the team never relied on AI as part of their production pipeline.
The Indie Game Awards took a different view. Any use of AI during development counts, even temporary experimentation with placeholder assets, even if those assets were removed before most players ever saw them. This strict interpretation creates a challenging environment for developers who might have tested AI tools briefly before deciding not to use them. Does running a single AI image generator test during a five-year development cycle constitute use of AI in development? Where’s the line between experimentation and implementation?
The lack of industry-wide standards makes these situations inevitable. Some studios like Larian have admitted to using AI to explore ideas without facing major consequences. Others have been caught using AI art while insisting everything was human-made, leading to boycotts and reputation damage. Sandfall falls somewhere in the middle, they used AI briefly for temporary assets, removed them quickly, but failed to disclose that usage when asked directly by an awards body with explicit anti-AI policies.
For small studios, the stakes are particularly high. Sandfall’s 33-person team doesn’t have the PR resources or legal departments that major publishers use to navigate these controversies. When accusations emerge, indie developers face them alone with limited ability to control the narrative. The timing of Sandfall’s disqualification, coming immediately after their historic Game Awards sweep, amplified the story in ways that might not have happened if the AI usage had been discovered months earlier or later.
What Happens Next For Sandfall
Despite losing their Indie Game Awards, Sandfall’s commercial and critical success remains intact. They still hold their nine Game Awards including the prestigious GOTY trophy from the industry’s most-watched ceremony. Sales continue to climb, with the game reaching 56,993 concurrent players on Steam in mid-December 2025 following the awards boost and a major free content update. The studio has started work on their next project with no plans to significantly expand team size, preferring to remain small and agile with a strong creative vision.
Broche has stated repeatedly that Sandfall wants to stay around 33 people because they work well at that scale and see no reason to change what’s working. The success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gives them financial runway to be selective about their next project and maintain creative independence. They’ve learned lessons from mistakes made during Expedition 33’s development that they can apply moving forward, though Broche hasn’t specified whether improved AI disclosure practices are among those lessons.
The broader gaming community remains divided on how seriously to take the controversy. Some players feel the AI usage was minimal, quickly corrected, and shouldn’t overshadow the achievement of creating an exceptional game with a tiny team. Others argue that lying on submission forms about AI usage, even by omission, represents a integrity problem that deserves consequences. The Indie Game Awards took the latter position, enforcing their rules consistently even when it meant stripping awards from a beloved game.
The Indie Question Nobody Wants to Answer
An uncomfortable subtext to the entire controversy involves whether Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 should have been eligible for indie awards in the first place. The game is published by Kepler Interactive, a multi-studio collective that also publishes titles like Sifu and Scorn. While Sandfall itself is a small independent studio, they had significant publishing support including marketing, distribution, and financial backing that most true indie developers lack.
The game’s nominations for Best Independent Game at The Game Awards also raised eyebrows. With a budget under $10 million, Sandfall spent more than many indie games but less than most AA or AAA titles. The 33-person core team is tiny by AAA standards but substantial compared to solo developers or small teams of 3-5 people. The extensive use of outsourced contractors and professional service providers gave Sandfall capabilities that shoestring indie operations can’t access.
This ambiguity about what counts as indie creates situations where the same game can be celebrated as an inspiring underdog story while also criticized for competing in categories meant for much smaller projects. The Indie Game Awards presumably vetted Clair Obscur’s indie status before accepting the nomination, only to disqualify it later for AI usage. If they’d been looking for reasons to exclude the game, the indie question would have been easier and less controversial than the AI issue.
Frequently Asked Questions
What AI assets did Sandfall Interactive use in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33?
Sandfall briefly experimented with AI image generation tools in 2022 to create temporary placeholder textures for background elements like newspaper clippings and wall scraps. Some of these placeholders accidentally shipped in the launch build instead of being replaced with human-made textures. The studio patched them out within five days of release.
Why did the Indie Game Awards strip Clair Obscur of its awards?
When Sandfall submitted the game for consideration, representatives agreed that no generative AI was used in development. After Sandfall producer François Meurisse confirmed AI usage in an interview on the day of the awards premiere, the Indie Game Awards determined this violated submission requirements and disqualified the game, stripping both the GOTY and Best Debut Indie awards.
How big is Sandfall Interactive’s development team?
Sandfall Interactive has approximately 33 full-time employees in its core development team. However, the full credits for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 list over 400 people including outsourced contractors for animation, voice acting, music, localization, QA, and other specialized roles. About 90% of the core team consists of junior developers with minimal industry experience.
Did Sandfall lie about using AI in their game?
Sandfall’s position is that they used AI only for temporary placeholder assets that were never intended for the final product and were removed within days of discovery. However, when asked during the Indie Game Awards submission process if any gen AI was used in development, their representative said no. The awards committee considered this a violation of submission requirements regardless of whether the AI assets remained in the final game.
Can Sandfall Interactive still claim their Game Awards victories?
Yes. The Game Awards has not stripped any of Sandfall’s nine victories including Game of the Year, Best Art Direction, and Best Performance. Only the Indie Game Awards retracted their honors due to their specific hard stance against generative AI use during the nomination process. Sandfall retains all other accolades and recognition from The Game Awards ceremony.
Is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 considered an indie game?
This remains debatable. Sandfall Interactive is a small independent studio with 33 employees, but they had significant support from publisher Kepler Interactive for marketing, distribution, and financing. The game’s budget of under $10 million is low by AAA standards but higher than typical indie projects. The extensive use of professional contractors and service providers further complicates the classification.
What is Sandfall Interactive working on next?
Sandfall has confirmed they’ve started work on their next game but hasn’t revealed any details. Creative director Guillaume Broche stated the studio has many good ideas and doesn’t plan to grow significantly, preferring to remain small and agile with a strong creative vision. They intend to maintain their team size around 33 people for future projects.
How much money did Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 make?
While exact figures haven’t been disclosed, the game sold over 12 million copies by December 2025 at a price point around $40-50. This suggests gross revenue in the hundreds of millions of dollars against a development budget estimated at under $10 million, making it one of the most profitable games relative to budget in recent history.
Conclusion
Sandfall Interactive’s journey from unknown French indie studio to Game of the Year winner to stripped of Indie Game Awards within a single week encapsulates everything complicated about modern game development. They achieved something extraordinary by creating a blockbuster RPG with just 33 people, mostly junior developers, on a budget that wouldn’t cover marketing costs for a typical AAA game. Then they lost prestigious recognition because they briefly experimented with AI tools in 2022 and failed to disclose that experimentation when asked directly by an awards body with zero-tolerance AI policies. Whether you view this as a minor technical violation or a meaningful breach of trust probably depends on how you think about AI in creative work and what standards you hold developers to when they answer direct questions about their production process. What’s clear is that the lack of industry-wide standards for AI disclosure will continue creating these situations until someone establishes clear guidelines about what counts as AI use, how temporary experimentation should be reported, and where the line sits between testing tools and implementing them. Sandfall will be fine, their Game Awards victories stand and their game continues selling millions of copies. But smaller studios watching this controversy unfold have learned an important lesson about being extremely careful when answering questions about AI usage, even if you think your experimentation was too minimal to count.