The biggest issue with the topic is that E33 is absolutely by nearly any metric the best game that came out in 2025.

lmfao downloading a 100% save instantly got me most of the achievements in the game sorry kamiya

need to cut the shit, download a 100% save, and do a proper NSIC run because i always run out of gas halfway through hard

As you mentioned Pat this situation with E33 feels especially vindictive given we knew about the AI use months ago. It also feels like the game and studio is just kind of being used as an example since it won awards to pushback on GenAI more, but it feels like the gun is pointed at the wrong people.

It doesn't help that the level of knowledge of GenAI is so bad, that people get mad when the term AI is used even when it's not even related to GenAI as if AI hasn't existed before 2022.

I personally dislike GenAI and hate all of the aspects of it that are destroying both the planet and multiple industries.

but this level of general hate towards anything that even touches it for minute reasons is going to reach the point that even the most harmless uses is gonna snowball bad

kinda related tho i do think devaluing their older work is actually incredibly shitty and disrespectful to the actual level headed people who worked on them before the whole shift to AI bullshit but maybe that's just me being overly sympathetic

Even a company like Square Enix (still weird with AI as seen with the QA stuff) had to make a point of saying “we won’t use this creatively at all” after Foamstars. It’s important to see if devs learn their lessons after such AI dabbling. Time will tell how it goes for Sandfall

It’s important to draw a line in the sand with regard to AI. No matter how loved or acclaimed a studio is, using AI creatively should be pushed back on. Especially since Sandfall failed to disclose the placeholder to the Indie Game Awards. This is a learning experience for them & all devs.

also for the record game awards are meaningless to begin with, especially the ones from the game awards