It was a placeholder texture that was always intended to be replaced by actual art made by a human. It was overlooked accidentally and promptly replaced. So no, it isn’t a very different thing. It was never supposed to be part of the game or even a significant part of its development.
The only takeaway is that the Indie Game Awards’ rule is overly restrictive. Woops, one of your contracted artists used a GenAI model to generate a music playlist to set the mood while he was working on your game, you’re disqualified and the fact that you didn’t come forward with this information immediately makes you a liar. Obviously absurd. If they’re going to take a strong anti-AI stance, it should be more realistic. At some point, maybe even already, every single competitor should be disqualified but isn’t aware or forthcoming about it, so what’s the rule actually doing except rewarding dishonesty?
If you mostly play Souls games, I have to lean towards E33 due to the real-time parry mechanic. Both games are amazing and you won’t regret playing either.
Or… the whispers were reported by the other party, or detected by an automatic abuse detection system, they paid off his contract because he was suing them for it and they weren’t confident it was a good investment to fight
Obviously it helps that it’s a great game. But I had fun with the bugs. I had one guy who, when pickpocketed, would instantly bolt out the door and down the street at the speed of sound.