Short answer: In November 2026 House House published a FAQ answer, “Was AI used to make Big Walk?,” stating that in the final stretch of development LLMs were used sparingly to work through difficult technical challenges and bugs, that well under 0.1% of the game’s code had anything to do with that use, and that generative AI was not used in any other context. The studio gave a worked example of about 10 lines inside Unity URP, said it has not made a Steam disclosure because “the platform does not request disclosure of code or chatbot usage,” and said the game was developed without an internal AI policy, which it considers a failure. Steamworks documentation, read on 12 November 2026, focuses the generative-AI part of the Content Survey on content that ships and is consumed by players, not on efficiency gains from tools in the development environment. If you ship a game, keep the disclosure text as you posted it, the build that actually shipped, and a copy of any survey answers. A TimeBind cannot complete a Steam form, prove how code was written, or stop a wave of reviews. It can date those files.
Last checked 12 November 2026. General information for game developers, not legal, platform-policy or festival-rules advice, and not a finding about Big Walk, House House, the Independent Games Festival, We quote House House’s own FAQ and official Steamworks wording. Commentary videos and news reports are cited as demand or secondary reporting only. A dated build does not prove how code was written, and TimeBinder does not detect AI-assisted code.
Table of Contents
What House House said
The official page is specific. House House wrote that in the final stretch of development, LLMs were used sparingly to work through difficult technical challenges and bugs, that in some cases snippets were copied as a starting point and modified, that well under 0.1% of the code had anything to do with this usage, and that generative AI was not used in any other context.
The primary use, the FAQ says, was to research, via chatbots, issues with third-party code. The example is a Unity URP shadow-culling problem that made the game run about 50% slower for around 20 seconds at sunrise and sunset. The studio says it researched the problem, looked at the URP code, and spoke to a Unity engineer who concluded that what they wanted was not possible, then posed the question to an LLM chatbot. After dead ends, a suggestion, extensively modified, worked. The fix “represented about 10 lines of code inside URP.”
House House says it originally wrote a version of that disclosure as a suggested part of its IGF submission, has not made a Steam disclosure because the platform does not request disclosure of code or chatbot usage, and is posting the FAQ as a matter of public interest. The page says this is not an endorsement, expresses concern that voluntary disclosures might normalise the technology, apologises that the usage may not meet others’ standards, and calls the lack of an internal AI policy a failure it will work to fix.
Those are the studio’s words, read on 12 November 2026 from bigwalk.game/faq/ai/. They are not a finding by Steam, the IGF, or TimeBinder.
Steam’s survey, the IGF letter, and what was reported
Steamworks’ Content Survey, read on 12 November 2026, has a generative-AI section. Valve writes that many modern game development environments have AI-powered tools built in, and that efficiency gains from those tools “is not the focus of this section.” The focus is AI used to create content that ships and is consumed by players, including artwork, sound, narrative and localization, with an extra guardrails question for live-generated content. That is consistent with House House’s stated reason for not making a Steam disclosure about code or chatbot usage. It is not a new Steam rule from the last two weeks.
News coverage in the window, treated here as secondary, includes The Verge (Jay Peters, 10 November 2026) and GamesRadar (Catherine Lewis, 10 November 2026). Aftermath (Luke Plunkett, 9 November 2026) reported a statement by 19 named IGF jurors about generative AI, including programming, and reported that the letter is not official IGF policy and does not speak for all jurors. We do not treat that letter as a festival rule, and we do not say that Big Walk was officially pulled or cancelled by the IGF.
Search demand in the last two weeks was substantial. Google autocomplete in the United States on 12 November 2026 suggested “big walk ai disclosure,” “big walk ai controversy” and “steam ai disclosure for code,” among related phrases. An in-window X search found 25 posts totalling 10,015 impressions, including 5,542 on a 10 November post by @PlayDay_One. YouTube view counts measured on 12 November 2026 included Dolan Darkest’s 11 November commentary, “This Is Just Pathetic,” with 953,944 views (the description is about the disclosure), plus other on-topic in-window uploads such as Momus Digital (32,015 views) and Chet Faliszek (5,971). We cite those figures as measured demand. We do not adopt sales, review-count or “cancelled” claims from commentary videos.
Practical checklist for game developers
- Write down what you actually used, in words you would be willing to post. House House’s FAQ is useful as an example of specificity (what was used, how much, in what context, and what was not used). It is not a template you must copy, and it is not a finding about your game.
- Keep the exact build that shipped, plus the repository state or archive that produced it. If a later discussion is about what players received, you want the shipped bits, not a later patch folder. See what to date before you share game assets.
- Keep a copy of any Steam Content Survey answers as they stood. Re-read the official page. As written, the generative-AI section is about content players consume, not every efficiency tool in the engine, with an extra guardrails question for live-generated content.
- If you submit to a festival, keep the submission pack and any disclosure the form asked for. Festival rules differ, and a letter from some jurors is not official policy.
- If you publish a statement, keep the text as posted and the date. Screenshots and a plain-text copy of the FAQ or news post are easier to show later than a page that has been edited.
- If reviews or social posts misstate what you used, keep samples and the date, and do not overwrite the shipped build while you reply. A TimeBind will not stop a review wave. It can date the build and the statement you actually made.
- If you did not have an internal AI policy, write one you can follow, and date it when it comes into force. House House called the lack of a policy a failure. A timestamp does not write that policy for you.
- Date the pack you would actually hand to a publisher, a platform or counsel. A TimeBind of the shipped build, a source archive, the survey answers and the public statement lets you show that those exact files existed no later than a recorded time and still match.
What a TimeBind does and does not show
A TimeBind is a dated, checkable record that an exact file existed no later than a recorded time and still matches. The SHA-256 fingerprint is made in your browser and the file is never uploaded. The record is anchored to Bitcoin (a Merkle root in an OP_RETURN). Your first Pooled TimeBind is free; after that, TimeBinds start from US$5, and an ASAP TimeBind is US$15. See how it works.
Here it is useful for a shipped build, a source or asset archive, a saved survey form, and the disclosure text as it was posted. See also timestamping for game developers and dating code before you open-source it.
A TimeBind does not prove how a line of code was written, does not detect AI-assisted code, does not complete or correct a Steam survey, does not bind a festival, and does not stop or reverse reviews. It is one piece of a timeline.
Limits
This article quotes House House’s FAQ and Steamworks documentation as read on 12 November 2026. News reports and commentary videos are secondary, and we do not treat a letter from 19 IGF jurors as official festival policy. We invent no review or sales figures, and we take no position on whether the studio’s use of a chatbot was right or wrong. This page is not legal advice and is not a finding about any game.
Tools that can help
Use the bulk SHA-256 manifest for a build folder, a source archive or a set of shipped assets, and keep a dated copy of the disclosure text you posted.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
What did House House say it used AI for?
In its FAQ, the studio said LLMs were used sparingly in the final stretch to work through difficult technical challenges and bugs, that well under 0.1% of the code had anything to do with that use, that generative AI was not used in any other context, and that a worked example was about 10 lines inside Unity URP after other research, including a conversation with a Unity engineer, had not solved a shadow-culling performance problem.
-
Why did House House say it did not disclose this on Steam?
The FAQ says the studio has not made any disclosure on Steam because the platform does not request disclosure of code or chatbot usage. That sits consistently with the Content Survey wording summarised above, as read on 12 November 2026.
-
Was Big Walk officially removed from the Independent Games Festival?
We do not say that. Aftermath reported a statement by 19 named jurors and reported that the letter is not official IGF policy and does not speak for all jurors. Unless the festival or the studio posts a formal decision, treat that letter as what it is: a statement by those jurors.
-
Do I have to disclose AI-assisted code on Steam?
Re-read the current Content Survey. As of 12 November 2026 the official wording says the generative-AI section is not focused on efficiency gains from tools in development environments, and is concerned with AI used to create content players consume, such as artwork, sound, narrative and localization. This article does not complete your form.
-
Can a TimeBind prove my game was not made with AI, or stop a review-bomb?
No. A TimeBind does not detect AI-assisted code and cannot change reviews or a store survey. It is a dated, checkable record that an exact file existed no later than a recorded time and still matches.
Sources checked
- House House, “Was AI used to make Big Walk?,” https://bigwalk.game/faq/ai/ (fetched 12 November 2026); FAQ index https://bigwalk.game/faq/
- Steamworks Documentation, “Content Survey,” section on generative artificial intelligence, https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/gettingstarted/contentsurvey (read 12 November 2026)
- The Verge, Jay Peters, 10 November 2026, https://www.theverge.com/games/1030994/big-walk-independent-games-festival-igf-ai; GamesRadar, Catherine Lewis, 10 November 2026; Aftermath, Luke Plunkett, 9 November 2026 (19 jurors’ statement reported as not official IGF policy)
- X in-window search: 25 posts, sum 10,015 impressions, including @PlayDay_One, 10 November 2026, 5,542 impressions
- YouTube, yt-dlp view counts on 12 November 2026 (on-topic, in-window): Dolan Darkest, “This Is Just Pathetic,” 11 November 2026, 953,944 views, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCWeDT2JAV8; Momus Digital, 32,015 views; Crierlon Games, 18,222; Biskey Games, 12,854; Terminally Online Leftist, 12,664; Chet Faliszek, 5,971
- Google autocomplete, 12 November 2026 (US): “big walk ai disclosure,” “big walk ai controversy,” “steam ai disclosure policy,” “steam ai disclosure for code,” and related suggestions
Date the build and disclosure you keep yourself
Your first Pooled TimeBind is free, with no credit card required. After that, TimeBinds start from US$5, and an ASAP TimeBind is US$15. Click here to start, or see plans and pricing.
Related: itch.io deleted AI “slop” and added a No AI filter: what game developers should keep.
