House House Addresses AI Usage Concerns Regarding Big Walk Development

House House has officially clarified its use of generative AI tools during the production of its upcoming title, Big Walk. The developer confirmed that AI was used “sparingly” during the final stages of the game’s development to resolve specific technical challenges. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, this statement follows a public protest by a group of 2027 Independent Games Festival (IGF) jurors, who announced they would decline to vote for any submitted games that utilized generative AI.

Clarifying the Implementation

According to the studio, the AI tools were used exclusively to assist with third-party code issues. House House detailed a specific instance where an LLM chatbot helped suggest a fix for a complex shadow-casting problem within the Unity URP, which was causing significant performance drops. The studio clarified that “well under 0.1%” of the game’s total code involved snippets derived from LLM responses, all of which required extensive modification by the development team. The studio emphasized that no other generative AI tools were used during the creation of the game.

Future Policy Adjustments

House House acknowledged that the game was created without an internal AI usage policy, calling that omission a failure. While the studio stated that this disclosure is not an endorsement of generative AI, they expressed concerns that voluntary reporting could inadvertently lead to the normalization of such technologies. Moving forward, the developer has committed to establishing a more comprehensive internal policy regarding the use of AI tools. Big Walk is currently in development for PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Why it matters

This situation highlights a growing tension between independent developers and industry awards bodies regarding the ethics of AI integration. For players and developers, this sets a precedent for how transparency—or the lack thereof—influences the eligibility of games in prestigious showcases like the IGF. As platforms like Steam do not currently mandate disclosures regarding chatbot or code-assistance usage, developers are increasingly caught in a space where they must navigate their own internal ethics against the evolving standards of judges and the gaming community at large.

The IGF finalists are scheduled to be announced in January 2027. Fans of the studio should monitor how such policies impact the eligibility and reputation of upcoming indie releases, as the industry continues to debate where to draw the line on AI-assisted development.