An independent developer behind a Balatro-look AI-powered The roguelike card game launching in 2025 announced it was removing the game from Steam after a girl he was briefly dating helped him realize it was a “disgrace to all game creators.”
On January 10, the independent card game store page The hardest on Steam released a surprising update. According to developer Eero Laine, it will remove The hardest completely from the Steam store on January 30. According to the update, The hardest was made in the summer of 2025 using free tools provided by the developer’s university, and according to him, at the time he did not realize the effect that AI technology could have on people’s jobs and the environment. The hardest was released on Steam in July 2025 and is free.
“I did[[The hardest]during the summer in a few months [sic] “I thought about using AI because at university there is so much brainwashing on students and all the tools are provided for free, so I can generate unlimited images for free,” the developer said on Steam in a post titled AI Is Bad. “But I realized that AI is not actually free and has a major effect on the economy and the environment. Some AI companies may use this game as a reason to get more investment for their AI companies.[sic]which benefit no one, but rather suck resources from the economy away from hardworking workers.
According to Laine, he coded “everything” himself in The hardestso in the future it might try to create a new game with “real assets” using its old non-AI code. Laine concluded the Steam update with: “But the game existing in its current form is a disgrace to all the game’s creators and players. Ethically, the only logical reason is to remove the game from Steam. The girl I’ve been dating for a month made me understand that.”
I’m not 100% sure, but I think this might be the first time someone has removed a game from Steam because their new partner convinced them it was a shame and should be taken off the planet. Hard, but in the case of AI-powered slope, precise. Congratulations to this young woman for her good work. And I hope Laine’s next game is awesome and not filled with ugly AI-generated art.