Developer Pulls AI-Driven Roguelike from Steam, Citing Concerns Over AI’s Impact on Economy and Environment

A developer who incorporated AI-generated assets into their roguelike card game, released on Steam in June 2025, has announced plans to pull the game from sale by the end of the month, citing a realization that “AI is bad.”

In a post on January 10, the developer, Rakuel, stated that the free-to-play roguelike titled Hardest will “be deleted” on January 30.

The game’s Steam page includes a disclosure about AI-generated content: “AI-generated assets.”

“I created this game over a couple of months during the summer and thought using AI was a good idea because, in university, students are heavily influenced, and all the tools are available for free, allowing me to generate unlimited images,” Rakuel explained.

“However, I’ve come to understand that AI isn’t truly free and has significant impacts on the economy and environment,” they added. “Some AI companies might use the existence of this game to attract more investment for their ventures, which ultimately benefits no one and drains resources from hardworking individuals.”

Rakuel emphasized that they coded everything themselves and expressed a desire to create a new game with genuine assets in the future. “The current version of this game is a disgrace to all game makers and players. The only ethical choice is to remove it from Steam,” they concluded.

This shift in perspective regarding AI was reportedly influenced by “the girl I’ve been dating for a month,” who helped Rakuel recognize the real and potential dangers associated with AI.

Since its launch, Hardest has received 31 mixed reviews on Steam, with 54% being positive. Rakuel describes the game as a “rock-paper-scissors” card game roguelike where players can “stop time, summon tsunamis, shoot with bubble guns, feed cards to mimic, and collect rare negative cards!” It was initially intended as a learning project, with Rakuel promoting the public GitHub code repository in the Steam description, ultimately turning into a personal lesson about AI.