Indie dev sees the error in his AI ways
Rakuel will delete his game due to his use of AI
On July 1, 2025, solo dev Rakuel released a little game called Hardest. It’s a free-to-play “rock-paper-scissors card game roguelike.” It has, as of writing this, 32 “mixed” reviews.
Rakuel — real name Eero Laine — made the game himself in Godot4 over a “couple months,” but used generative AI to create all of the game’s assets and art. This is acknowledged in the AI generated content disclosure section of the game’s Steam page.
On January 10, Rakuel announced that he’d be deleting the game on January 30 in an update titled, “AI is bad, game will be deleted 30.1.” Apparently, a woman he’s been dating for a month has convinced him that, as he says, “AI is not actually free, and it has a major effect on the economy and environment. … AI companies, benefit no one, but rather suck resources from the economy from hard working people [sic].”
So, a few things here.
First, let’s just acknowledge that it's impressive af to radicalize a dude against AI after dating him for a month. More importantly, though, let’s also acknowledge the invisible labor here, with a woman needing to put in the work to correct a man’s problematic behavior — especially when it’s about generative AI, a technology that’s used roughly twice as often by men and is actively being used to victimize women.
Finally, let’s acknowledge that 20-day grace period. Rakuel says that “the game existing in its current form is a disgrace to all game makers and players.” While that's true, the moralizing is a little harder to buy when it’s announced as part of what amounts to a “LAST CHANCE!” (self-)promotion. It’s a free-to-play game, so it’s not like he’s going to get a sales bump, but he will get attention (like the post you’re reading right now).
I might just be overly cynical here, and I really want to believe that Rakuel has the best intentions. He said that he "thought to use AI because in university there is so much brainwashing on students and all the tools are given for free." In a world where AI is everywhere, being pushed on us from every direction, let's hope that more devs — indies and AAA — follow Rakuel's example.
Deleting the game sooner (like, immediately) would be a great first step.
