For game developer teams, the Independent Games Festival (IGF) is a very big deal. A nomination for the IGF Awards provides a game with priceless publicity, including a showcase at the festival, and a shot at winning one of the industry’s most prestigious independent gaming honors. The Awards are judged by panels of industry representatives—and this year, 19 such jurors have issued a statement declaring that they will not vote for “any game that uses generative AI in any capacity.”

IGF uses different jurors for every award—last year’s festival involved six awards and a total of 46 jurors, and we’d guess there’ll be roughly the same number. (In a blog post published yesterday, developer Austin Walker, who is one of the signatories to the statement, says that there are “50 or so” jurors.) So 19 is not necessarily a majority, although it’s not clear which jurors are on which panels yet, and the statement also notes that other jurors support the stance without having gone public, due to “concern about their ability to safely sign without professional blowback.”

The 19 signatories don’t necessarily represent a majority of IGF jurors. Developer Austin Walker, one of the signatories, estimated in a blog post on Tuesday that roughly 50 people serve on this year’s juries. Their distribution across the various award categories is also unclear, making it difficult to assess how much influence the pledge will have on the outcome.

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