this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
393 points (95.6% liked)

Games

44739 readers
630 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Rules

1. Submissions have to be related to games

Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.

This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.

2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.

We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.

3. No excessive self-promotion

Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.

This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.

4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.

We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.

5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.

No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.

6. No linking to piracy

Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.

We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.

Authorized Regular Threads

Related communities

PM a mod to add your own

Video games

Generic

Help and suggestions

By platform

By type

By games

Language specific

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Dremor@lemmy.world
JonsJava@lemmy.world
fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Dremor@jlai.lu
PerfectDark@lemmy.world
393
A Steam dev is deleting his own game after girlfriend made him realize AI is bad (www.polygon.com)
submitted 6 days ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/games@lemmy.world
70 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] etchinghillside@reddthat.com -5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Meh - sounds like they saved some money by not going heavy into custom assets.

Seems like for a first pass at an indie game you should use asset packs and/or Gen AI. If the game has legs - you make another pass with a bigger investment into it.

Obviously if you enjoy the asset/model/whatever aspect then delve deeper into it.

[–] peanuts4life@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I don't know how I feel about celebraing an indie dev deleting their game while the biggest games such as arc raiders succeed despite overt ai use that actually displaces voice actors at the company.

[–] HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 25 points 6 days ago (2 children)

The developer gives a pretty decent reason for the deletion, imo:

"I have realized the AI is not actually free, and it has a major effect on the economy and environment," Rakuel wrote. "Some AI companies can use this game just existing as a reason the get more investment for their AI companies, that benefit[s] no one, but rather suck resources from the economy from hard working people," he continued.

There's nothing he can do about Arc Raider's success, but taking ownership of what he did, I gotta say, respect.

[–] Electricd@lemmybefree.net 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Companies drive AI development. Your usage doesn’t really matter that much.

[–] HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Your usage still gives them justification to continue being global parasites. "Our daily active users is (X + you)."

[–] Electricd@lemmybefree.net 2 points 4 days ago

Yea that’s probably true

[–] LwL@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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).

[–] HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

https://balatrowiki.org/w/Music

And here it is being played at the Game Awards.

[–] LwL@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

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.