“AI is bad, game will be deleted 30.1” reads the headline of the latest a Steam update post about Hardest, a rock-paper-scissors-themed roguelike card battler which includes AI-generated assets. “AI is evil, and game will be deleted 30.1” adds the sub-heading of that same update post, just in case the first line didn’t make the situation clear enough.
Developer Eero Laine, who also looks to go by Rakuel, then kicks off the post in earnest by emphasising for a third time that their game – released in July last year – will disappear from the storefront on January 30th. The reason is a change of heart from Laine on the use of AI generation tech.
“I made this game during the summer in a couple of months and thought to use AI because in university there is so much brainwashing on students and all the tools are given for free, so I could generate unlimited images for free and so,” they continue. “But I have realized the 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 they get more investment for their AI companies, that benefit no one, but rather suck resources from the economy from hard working people.”
Towards the end of the post, the dev credits “the girl I’ve been dating for a month” as having helped them come to this conclusion. As much as ‘person meets woman, woman makes good points about the ethical concerns surrounding generative AI, person pulls game which uses generative AI from store’ is a romantic tale worthy of big screen adaptation, I’m both slightly concerned and put off by Laine laying some of the blame at the feet of their university’s alleged AI-positive brainwashing. I’d argue that by the age people typically go to uni, they should be mature enough to at least be somewhat prepared to make their own decisions and scrutinise things before committing to using them.
Regardless, Laine’s come to this decision now. As for Hardest’s future, they added: “I coded everything myself, so I can in the future make a new game with real assets if I feel like it, but the game existing in its current form is a disgrace to all game makers and players.” So, a return without the AI-generated bits sounds like it may be on the cards down the line.
You’d hope this kind of update post is something we’ll keep seeing from time to time going forwards, with developers as prominent as Larian facing vocal scrutiny from players regarding the use of generative AI in game development.
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