A roguelike made with AI-generated assets will soon disappear from Valve's popular PC gaming storefront, all because of the power of love
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.
Kind of an extreme viewpoint in my opinion. I personally have no issue with an indy or first time dev using AI assistance for a passion project, my issue is when large studios are replacing talented folks with soulless slop.
Ethical concerns aside there is a difference between using AI to not have to hire artists/developers and using AI because someone can’t realize their vision because they do not have all the prerequisite skills.
On one hand, you have companies using AI when they can absolutely hire a human to do something; on the other, there is someone who couldn’t have published anything without the assistance of such a tool.
People have different passions, and not everyone can be good at art, programming, etc to create something amazing. The problem is when someone uses a tool as a clutch, or uses it to replace human expression of intention. Then it truly becomes a soulless worthless piece of crap.
The best example is people in the scanlation scene that translate manga. It’s fine to use AI to remove the original text while NOBODY is fine with an AI translation. Why? Because redrawing line art is an activity that doesn’t require human expression (it’s more about preserving the original expression of the artist, not changing anything); while localization of text requires a human to interpret and express intent in a different cultural setting.
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Kind of an extreme viewpoint in my opinion. I personally have no issue with an indy or first time dev using AI assistance for a passion project, my issue is when large studios are replacing talented folks with soulless slop.
Ethical concerns aside there is a difference between using AI to not have to hire artists/developers and using AI because someone can’t realize their vision because they do not have all the prerequisite skills.
On one hand, you have companies using AI when they can absolutely hire a human to do something; on the other, there is someone who couldn’t have published anything without the assistance of such a tool.
People have different passions, and not everyone can be good at art, programming, etc to create something amazing. The problem is when someone uses a tool as a clutch, or uses it to replace human expression of intention. Then it truly becomes a soulless worthless piece of crap.
The best example is people in the scanlation scene that translate manga. It’s fine to use AI to remove the original text while NOBODY is fine with an AI translation. Why? Because redrawing line art is an activity that doesn’t require human expression (it’s more about preserving the original expression of the artist, not changing anything); while localization of text requires a human to interpret and express intent in a different cultural setting.
No AI or death. Give no quarters. The last time we relented, they broke the agreement of the armistice and made ww2.