The game director of *Light and Shadow: Expedition 33* recently stated that the game was created entirely by hand, not by AI.

Recently, there has been a major uproar over the decision by Six One Indie, the organizer of the Independent Game Awards, to revoke the “Game of the Year” and “Best New Game” awards from *Light and Shadow: Expedition 33*, the winner of the TGA Game of the Year award, after it was confirmed that the game had concealed its use of generative AI during development.

At the same time, however, Guillaume Broche, the game director of *Light and Shadow: Expedition 33*, recently addressed questions regarding whether the game uses generative AI and the advantages of such technology during a closed-door Q&A session. While this was not an exclusive response to the aforementioned award revocation, it does offer some insight into the team’s stance on generative AI and serves as an indirect response to the controversy surrounding whether AI was used in the development of *Expedition 33*.

This Q&A video was compiled by YouTube creator Sushi with authorization from developer Kepler and features a wealth of behind-the-scenes stories about the development of *Expedition 33*. One particularly pointed question asked: “We’ve all heard that Larian used AI tools during development. To what extent was AI utilized in *Expedition 33*, what advantages did it offer, and how do you plan to use it in the future?”

Guillaume Broche replied unequivocally: “Yes, we are aware of the full story. But I can say with absolute certainty that every aspect of *Expedition 33* was created entirely by hand. We had already begun developing this game when AI was officially introduced in 2022.”

"At the time, it was just seen as a novel tool. We tried it but didn’t like it—it felt very unnatural. We initially used this content as a temporary placeholder while we were missing textures, but we removed it pretty quickly. Yes, everything—including the concept art and voice actors—was created by hand. It’s hard to predict what the future of this industry will look like, but ultimately, everything will be created by us humans."

Of course, it is currently difficult to define the exact concept and scope of AI in gaming, but the general consensus is that generative AI content appears in games and becomes an integral part of the gaming experience. Therefore, the practice of using AI content to fill in placeholders during the development cycle and then actively removing it afterward is indeed questionable.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time a popular game has been embroiled in controversy over AI-generated content. The previously wildly popular *Paloo* was also accused of using AI to boost development efficiency, given that it produced a massive amount of content despite having a very small development team. Currently, many game developers are incorporating AI tools into the early stages of game development to generate a wealth of inspiration and assets. Given this, the debate over the use of AI in game development is likely to continue for quite some time.