Arabic
Guillaume Broche, director of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, has sparked controversy after speaking openly about the development team’s experimentation with AI tools during the early stages of work on the game, emphasizing that this experience was not comfortable for him on a creative level and often felt like a wrong move.
These statements came in the wake of the controversy that accompanied Clair Obscur winning one of the Indie Game Awards before the award was later withdrawn due to rules prohibiting the participation of works that used AI tools in the production of their content without disclosing them.
Broche explained that the Sandfall team used AI in a very limited way and was not intended to replace artists or developers, but rather to be used as an auxiliary tool in some early experimental stages only. He added that these tools never entered the final version of the game and that all elements shown to players were made by human hands.
The director noted that the controversy surrounding the game prompted him to deeply rethink the relationship between human creativity and artificial intelligence within the game industry, emphasizing that Clair Obscur’s artistic identity was from the beginning based on a human sense and that any use of new technologies must be done with extreme caution and full transparency.
The case has reopened a wider debate within the gaming community about the future of development and the limits of the use of AI – is it merely an aid to speed up certain processes or a direct threat to the spirit of artistic creativity?
In the case of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, this experience seems to have left a clear impact on the game makers themselves before it reverberated to the players and may be an example of the ethical and creative challenges that will accompany the industry in the coming years.
