Clair Obscur won multiple awards but used generative AI art as placeholders during production.
The Indie Game Awards revoked Clair Obscur’s Debut and Game of the Year after the AI disclosure.
IGAs reassigned the awards (Blue Prince, Sorry We’re Closed) and reignited debate on gen-AI use.
But that is then something else you compare to. Indie refers to be indipendent from publisher when developing the game. At some point at the end of the development, the game has to be published, but that’s not what indie means. And major first party store holder are excluded from this for obvious reasons. But if you want, then count Valve indipendent. That’s not our discussion here.
Indie games aren’t made in a vacuum then shipped off to publishers. Publishers help with playtesting, QA, translating, certification, and in many cases even marketing in the middle of development. Even by your definition it’s not as clear cut as you think.