House House Says AI Wrote Less Than 0.1% of Big Walk’s Code
House House says generative AI was involved in well under 0.1% of Big Walk’s code, after some Independent Games Festival jurors said they would not vote for games using the technology. The disagreement has sharpened debate over disclosure and AI’s place in independent game development.
House House said its adventure game Big Walk used generative AI for well under 0.1% of its code, as some Independent Games Festival jurors said they would not vote for games that use the technology in any capacity. The disclosure has intensified indie game community disarray over how AI use should affect awards and game development.
The studio said it used AI during the final stretch of development to tackle technical problems and bugs. It said snippets from chatbot responses sometimes served as starting points for code that developers then modified.
House House described its main use of large language models as researching problems with third-party code. One example involved fixing an issue with shadows, which the studio said it addressed by modifying code suggested by a chatbot after extensive research and a conversation with a Unity engineer.
Jurors disagree over AI use
Some IGF jurors said generative AI’s growing presence among this year’s entries had prompted intense discussion without a shared consensus. Their statement said they would not vote for games using generative AI “in any capacity.”
The jurors said they believed generative AI has negative effects, including when used to produce code, and argued that adopting the tools is not inevitable for the industry. The statement did not speak for the IGF as an organization or all jury members.
Among those who signed were Sam Barlow, creator of Telling Lies and Immortality, and Lena Raine, composer of Celeste. The jurors also said some members worried they could face professional blowback for signing.
Barlow said Big Walk was not the impetus for the IGF discussion, but became “the tricky edge case” in debates about minimal AI use by a game or team. He said the discussion was about what an award should represent, not a call to boycott a game or hurt its developers financially.
Studio plans an AI policy
House House said it disclosed its AI use in its IGF submission. It has not listed the use on Big Walk’s Steam page, saying the platform does not request disclosure of code or chatbot use.
The studio said it had no AI policy in place while developing the game and called that a failure. It said it would work toward a more comprehensive policy.
House House said its disclosure was not an endorsement of AI tools. The studio also expressed concern that voluntary disclosures could help normalize the technology, and apologized to people who believe Big Walk’s use does not meet their standards.
