Indie dev is delisting his AI game from Steam because his new girlfriend convinced him it's evil: 'The game existing in its current form is a disgrace to all game makers and players'

A jeering character flanked by two cards in Hardest. — (Image credit: Rakuel)

Our politics are shaped in many ways. Loss of employment might shift your feelings on labor politics. Moving to a walkable city might make you a public transit radical. Or, in the case of indie developer Rakuel, you might start dating a girl who helps you realize your game's AI-generated art is a moral evil that should be destroyed for the good of society.

In a Steam news post titled "AI is bad, game will be deleted 30.1," Rakuel developer Eero Laine says his roguelike rock-paper-scissors game Hardest, which features AI-generated art and music assets, will be delisted from Steam at the end of the month. Since releasing the game in July 2025, Laine says his attitudes about AI asset generation have changed enough that deleting the game is "ethically" the only rational choice.

"But I have realized the AI is not actually free, and it has a major effect on the economy and environment," Laine says. His game's mere existence, he says, could be used to help justify investment in AI companies—companies that he says "benefit no one, but rather suck resources from the economy and hard working [sic] people."

That AI art didn't seem to do Hardest any favors; since its July release, it's only managed a Mixed review rating. But if—despite the admirable efforts of Laine's girlfriend—you're insistent on trying it while it's available, you've got two and a half weeks.

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.

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