An indie game developer experienced a moment of profound moral clarity, and is now deleting his partially-AI-made game from the digital storefront Steam.
The game, dubbed “Hardest,” is a free-to-play “rock-paper-scissors” roguelike card game released last July to mixed-to-negative reviews (of which there are barely thirty total.) Some users called it “soulless” and disparaged it for using AI art.
Now the developer, Eero “Rakuel” Laine, appears to agree with those haters. On January 10, Laine posted a surprise update to the Hardest page announcing that he would be deleting the game by the end of January, sounding penitent for his mortal sin of indulging in an AI shortcut.
“I made this game during the summer in [a] 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,” he explained. “But I have realized [that] AI is not actually free, and it has a major effect on the economy and environment.”
“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,” he added.
Laine clarified that he didn’t vibe-code the whole game, and actually programmed “everything myself,” so he’s ready to make a new game in the future with real, human-made assets. But his current game, he says, “is a disgrace to all game makers and players.”
“The girl I’ve been dating for a month made me realize this,” he added, in yet another wild twist.
The use of generative AI has been a hot button issue in art and entertainment, and game development has been no exception. In recent months, the debate over how it should be used in the industry, if at all, has been reignited over its role in the creation of several high profile titles.
When the fantasy RPG sensation Claire Obscur: Expedition 33 racked up a historical number of accolades at last year’s The Game Awards, including game of the year, concerned observers noted the fact that the creators had openly admitted to using AI assets during its development, though no AI is said to have made it into the final product. Then the Indie Game Awards announced that it was rescinding its GOTY award given to Expedition 33 because of its AI usage, blowing the debate wide open.
Adding to the swirling discourse, after dropping a trailer for its upcoming title Divinity at the Game Awards ceremony, the CEO of the Baldur’s Gate 3 maker Larian boasted that the studio would be using AI to “explore ideas” and “develop concept art.” The message seemed to be that AI in game development was here to stay, and would not be an obstacle to games having both critical and commercial success, as further evidenced by the popularity of new fan-favorite Arc Raiders, an multiplayer extraction shooter that uses AI to generate the voices of both player characters and NPCs. Perhaps the entire industry is overdue for an epiphany like Laine’s.
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