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.
I think personal translation is fine tho. Heck partly even commercial translation if you would have just went with MTL or google translate in the First Place. But as you said if you really wish to translate intent too then hiring a decent translator is key especially when the translation carries some intent or idiom etc. That is not easy to translate to another Language.
There’s a really big issue in the scanlation scene of people putting up paywalls for MTL scans that don’t even translate sfx, and hobbyists that take a great deal of care in getting every bit of cultural nuance right for free.
You’re never gonna beat the MTLers, people just read whatever comes out first without care for quality. Why even bother putting up with this BS anyways?