A Steam dev is deleting his own game after girlfriend made him realize AI is bad
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This is really funny to read.
I'm awesome
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AI in video games is a caustic enough subject that Valve requires developer disclosure if a title utilizes the generative technology. This way, people who have qualms about AI or its impact can opt out of purchasing anything that uses the genAI. One developer, however, is saving everyone from the moral quandary in the first place by just deleting their game altogether.
Hardest is a free-to-play roguelike on Steam that was released in the summer of 2025 with the tagline, "stop time, summon tsunamis, shoot with bubble guns, feed cards to mimic, collect rare negative cards!" Except for a user who says the game helped him bond with his son, Hardest mostly got a negative reception. "I assume the whole thing is AI slop," one reviewer wrote.
You'd think flopping like this would be the end of the story, but half a year later, Rakuel, the developer, has undergone a revelation. On Jan. 10, the indie creator posted an update to Hardest announcing that he would pull the game from the platform by the end of the month.
Rakuel's post on steam is very interesting
I made this game during the summer in couple months and thought to use AI because in university there is so much brainwashing on students and all the tools are given for free, so I could generate unlimited images for free and so.
Emphasis mine. Universities playing a role in this annoys me a lot.
Some AI companies can use this game just existing as a reason the get more investment for their AI companies, that benefit no one, but rather suck resources from the economy from hard working people.
I think this part alone is incredibly important and the real eye-opener for him.
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The announcement suggests the developer wrote all the code, but used the slop robot to generate assets. Sounds like the issue is that making art assets actually takes skill, and is something most programmer types underestimate.
Also, it still kinda feeds the AI narrative if he recodes the AI part.
"See? He used AI to make it faster and get some money then he went back and touched it up, really helpful tool"
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AI in video games is a caustic enough subject that Valve requires developer disclosure if a title utilizes the generative technology. This way, people who have qualms about AI or its impact can opt out of purchasing anything that uses the genAI. One developer, however, is saving everyone from the moral quandary in the first place by just deleting their game altogether.
Hardest is a free-to-play roguelike on Steam that was released in the summer of 2025 with the tagline, "stop time, summon tsunamis, shoot with bubble guns, feed cards to mimic, collect rare negative cards!" Except for a user who says the game helped him bond with his son, Hardest mostly got a negative reception. "I assume the whole thing is AI slop," one reviewer wrote.
You'd think flopping like this would be the end of the story, but half a year later, Rakuel, the developer, has undergone a revelation. On Jan. 10, the indie creator posted an update to Hardest announcing that he would pull the game from the platform by the end of the month.
first time seeing a indie dev go ahead and Remove the whole game because the whole game uses AI.
Until now i only have seen indie devs just use AI to show that its just a tool rather then replacing artists/people, to fit the narrative(the narrative itself is not AI generated) and keep it on the game's backgrounds(and the devs opted to use adobe firefly cause it claims to be "ethical" there were even mods created to remove the AI apparently). -
AI in video games is a caustic enough subject that Valve requires developer disclosure if a title utilizes the generative technology. This way, people who have qualms about AI or its impact can opt out of purchasing anything that uses the genAI. One developer, however, is saving everyone from the moral quandary in the first place by just deleting their game altogether.
Hardest is a free-to-play roguelike on Steam that was released in the summer of 2025 with the tagline, "stop time, summon tsunamis, shoot with bubble guns, feed cards to mimic, collect rare negative cards!" Except for a user who says the game helped him bond with his son, Hardest mostly got a negative reception. "I assume the whole thing is AI slop," one reviewer wrote.
You'd think flopping like this would be the end of the story, but half a year later, Rakuel, the developer, has undergone a revelation. On Jan. 10, the indie creator posted an update to Hardest announcing that he would pull the game from the platform by the end of the month.
Wait, a steam game with vertical aspect ratio??
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Seems like it's all AI-bits
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He says it's all coded by him, it's just the assets that are AI.
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Rakuel's post on steam is very interesting
I made this game during the summer in couple months and thought to use AI because in university there is so much brainwashing on students and all the tools are given for free, so I could generate unlimited images for free and so.
Emphasis mine. Universities playing a role in this annoys me a lot.
Some AI companies can use this game just existing as a reason the get more investment for their AI companies, that benefit no one, but rather suck resources from the economy from hard working people.
I think this part alone is incredibly important and the real eye-opener for him.
The modern private or otherwise profiting university is first and foremost employee farms, with many trying to be ceo farms and, well you can see what universities have churned out in that regard
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AI in video games is a caustic enough subject that Valve requires developer disclosure if a title utilizes the generative technology. This way, people who have qualms about AI or its impact can opt out of purchasing anything that uses the genAI. One developer, however, is saving everyone from the moral quandary in the first place by just deleting their game altogether.
Hardest is a free-to-play roguelike on Steam that was released in the summer of 2025 with the tagline, "stop time, summon tsunamis, shoot with bubble guns, feed cards to mimic, collect rare negative cards!" Except for a user who says the game helped him bond with his son, Hardest mostly got a negative reception. "I assume the whole thing is AI slop," one reviewer wrote.
You'd think flopping like this would be the end of the story, but half a year later, Rakuel, the developer, has undergone a revelation. On Jan. 10, the indie creator posted an update to Hardest announcing that he would pull the game from the platform by the end of the month.
Good on him, but I wonder if he would be doing this had the game been a success
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I went to a rural Canadian school, thank you very much! Please don't run away tho, you went through all the work to set up your lil' soapbox and everything. Let's chat.
Here's why your earlier comment is (in my humble opinion) very silly. You used a bad comparison. And I'm not just talking about the bringing up Hitler bit.
Learning how to shit next to the toilet is stupid.
First off, nobody needs to learn that. That's an inherited skill. Secondly, it's bad in the context of the post. Learning how using AI is wrong is an objectively positive thing, but your example is someone learning negative things. It's bass ackwards, as the kids used to say ('twas me).
What would you prefer the dev do? You can't change the past, so what actions should he have taken to align with your obviously superior moral code? Self flagellation? Volunteer for a drawing-and-quartering position?
You can keep up your current act if you want. Attack anyone and everyone who even tries to better themselves. Pat yourself on the back while you're at it, but I don't jive with the punishment-only model of reformation. If this guy realized he was doing something wrong and changed his ways then I think that's a good thing. Learning should be encouraged, not punished.
P.S. immediately bringing up Hitler as a comparison is silly, and makes you look silly. Try to not do that, and also try to use comparisons more grounded in reality.
Edit: I may have initially misunderstood this bit
He should have developed the AI parts.
I took that to mean before he released, but maybe you meant after he learned. That makes a bit more sense. If that is the case, I will address.
Apparently the AI bits were art assets. That's kinda hard to learn in a hurry, and art is expensive. Mayhaps he could have got by with free assets, but then there's always the chance to get accused of asset flipping.
Also learning anything takes time. Either way, pulling it was probably the quicker and better option.
Edit 2: Electric Boogaloo - Fixed a typo. I'm bad at phone typing, and I feel bad
Oh man, you got jabaited
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I would never judge anyone for using AI to fill in the parts they need to realize their project vision that they otherwise simpy couldn't (without putting in a lot more effort into a thing they probably don't really enjoy), but doing this is still a statement and pretty cool to do.
Not that I'll ever be motivated enough to actually finish a project, but I've thought about the art aspect of making a game, and eventually figured if I'd need to commission more than I can afford, I'd be morally fine with genAI if the game is either free or I use a large portion of profits (if there are any lol) to hire artists to gradually replace the art.
Though I also refuse to give a single cent to all the companies profiting off this so any image gen I'll ever do will be local on my pc (or for free on some service, I guess).
I don't think you deserve this many down votes for this take, but I'll provide a counterpoint. Not being able to afford a real artist is not as large a barrier as you think.
Balatro's music was created by Spanish musician Luis Clemente, known online as LouisF, after developer LocalThunk hired them on Fiverr in 2023.
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I wanted to make this joke but didn't want to downplay the breakthrough they had. But man I wonder what her argument was... How did she manage to convince him?
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We can't understand you with Andrew Tate's dick in your mouth.
Any plans for life after high school, or is hurling oddly sexual insults to others on the internet your only skill so far?
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AI in video games is a caustic enough subject that Valve requires developer disclosure if a title utilizes the generative technology. This way, people who have qualms about AI or its impact can opt out of purchasing anything that uses the genAI. One developer, however, is saving everyone from the moral quandary in the first place by just deleting their game altogether.
Hardest is a free-to-play roguelike on Steam that was released in the summer of 2025 with the tagline, "stop time, summon tsunamis, shoot with bubble guns, feed cards to mimic, collect rare negative cards!" Except for a user who says the game helped him bond with his son, Hardest mostly got a negative reception. "I assume the whole thing is AI slop," one reviewer wrote.
You'd think flopping like this would be the end of the story, but half a year later, Rakuel, the developer, has undergone a revelation. On Jan. 10, the indie creator posted an update to Hardest announcing that he would pull the game from the platform by the end of the month.
Sounds like mental illness to me.
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I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but the main difficulty here is that using AI, even just for temp assets, is a virtue signal that demonstrates bad virtues. That's why it's socially repulsive. It's like inviting someone into your home and watching them stick their fingers in the soup.
It's not that using an AI asset for exactly 5 minutes only before swapping it out, and never even committing it to your git history—it's not that this disqualifies your work from being meaningful in other ways, it's just that being weak on this front, morally, makes you seem like kind of a dipshit. It's a failure to reject the siren's song that leads sailors to their death, you know?
And for what it's worth, I love seeing passionate work. As a proper art enjoyer, a professional liker of things, cubes and cylinders do nothing to dissuade me.
I think he means trying to make a proof of concept to get an artist to do the work.
If I ever get round to making games, I will need an art guy and a sound guy, because I know full well I cant do anything remotely good there. But I cant afford to pay an art/sound guy, so theyre not going to just do work for a random guy on the promise of a cut of the profits because what profits? I'm just a guy with a dream and a promise.
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We can't understand you with Andrew Tate's dick in your mouth.
This is the cowards awful reply...
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Sounds like mental illness to me.
What? Which part? Summoning tsunamis? It's not that fun I'm afraid.
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The announcement suggests the developer wrote all the code, but used the slop robot to generate assets. Sounds like the issue is that making art assets actually takes skill, and is something most programmer types underestimate.
I'd agree with this. I'm a dev, I can make things work, I can't do art/graphics/assets/etc for shit. Give me 5 or 6 hours and I might be able to get you one image that is semi passable if the intended artistic style is "3 year old with crayons"
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He says it's all coded by him, it's just the assets that are AI.
Controversial opinion'
This is kind of a valid take or use I suppose.
And it's something I struggle with as well.
I know how to program and I can make games with really shitty assets that no one would want to play because it looks like crap. I've tried many times and I don't seem to have the artistic skill set to make it happen. I've tried dozens of times to find and pay people on sites like fiverr, with extremely disappointing results.
And as a hobby I can't just afford to pay thousands of dollars to have someone make passable art either.
And someone like this as a student obviously doesn't have the money to pay someone to build all their assets.
So what do??? It seems reasonable to have a desire to finish your passion project in some manner
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It depends on the project, I think. If you require hundreds of pieces to make the concept work (and such concepts have floated in my mind) even hiring an amateur would get pretty expensive. If it's just small scope art (and for most games it will be) I agree, it can be relatively cheap. Though I'm still privileged in being able to afford that, some people couldn't even really spare 200€ for a project that, statistically, is unlikely to make even half of that back.
