Title: Consume Me
Developer: Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder
Publisher: Hexecutable
Release Date: September 24th, 2025
Platforms: PC (Steam)
Price: $14.99 USD
Introduction
Many video games feature grandiose plots or vast themes that can be entertaining but maybe not as relatable. Indie title Consume Me is a semi-autobiographical game about a teen’s life journey with pressures that most of us have experience (or still experience), including society’s view on body image. Designed with graphics made to resemble a child’s drawing, witty dialogue, and catchy tunes, Consume Me is the perfect balance of light-hearted fun, dark humor, and self-reflection. If you want an affordable, quick-and-wicked game that makes you laugh and then question your laughter, keep reading.
Author’s Note: Consume Me comes with the following trigger warning: “Consume Me is a semi-autobiographical game that depicts dieting, disordered eating, and fatphobia. If you are someone who struggles with or has struggled with disordered eating, it’s possible that Consume Me will be a stressful or even upsetting experience and we won’t begrudge you for giving it a pass. Also Jesus shows up later in the game, but don’t worry! He doesn’t do anything. Additionally, be aware that Consume Me contains some nudity as the protagonist Jenny is occasionally depicted in her underwear“
Synopsis
Consume Me is about Jenny, an average high-school girl who is at odds with pressures and expectations from her peers, her mother, and more importantly, herself. After a battle with her reflection, she’s resolved to diet and lose weight. Jenny must eat the right foods while maintaining satiety, exercise to stay under her bite (aka. her caloric) goal, do chores, and do well in school. It starts off simple enough, and losing weight seems to bring her success (at least in a teenager’s eyes), including snagging the crush of her dreams.
Over time, however, her expectations snowball as her boyfriend moves onto college at Cornell, and Jenny is pressured to be admitted to the same school. When that doesn’t work, she pressures herself to make perfect grades at her safety school in order to transfer to Cornell. These expectations insidiously grow larger with each chapter in her life, and slowly, we witness the birth of a burnout. The increasing chaos and “difficulty” managing her diet and other objectives reflects the narrative goals Consume Me has. Will Jenny finally learn to let all these things go? Or will her diet, among other things, consumer HER?
Analysis
Gameplay
At a high level, Consume Me is divided into several chapters, each consisting of a collection of mini games that you must manage and complete each day of Jenny’s week. These mini-games represent Jenny’s attempt to reach the goals on her calendar, such as a weigh-in day, a date, or a test.
When you begin each day, you can select an outfit, which can grant certain perks. Tiny RPG-like elements are sprinkled in as you must manage Jenny’s happiness, hunger (aka. guts), and energy meters. Various activities and incidents can increase or decrease these meters, and subsequently, impact what Jenny is able to do for the remainder of the day.
One significant mini game is lunch. Here, you play an iteration of Tetris with food. Each food type will be shaped a certain way as well as have a number of bites (calories). Your goal is to fill all the satiety spots with your Tetris skills without going over your bite count. Junk food will pop into your queue, and you must avoid using those when you can.
Other mini games including reading books to gain higher points in academics, completing chores to save money for snacks or other perks, and aerobics. Each activity also takes up limited hours of your free time, so choose wisely. On the other hand, you can consume energy drinks and coffee to increase energy or time; however, eating too much could lead to a headache event. Yes, there are random events that can happen, and one such is a headache from having too much caffeine. As you level up, you can upgrade your wardrobe and other perks to help you achieve your objectives.
While most mini games are relatively similar throughout the course of the game, Jenny’s interactions and goals change depending on what stage in life she’s at. Also, the objectives become increasingly more complex, reflecting what we do to ourselves in real life when we demand more out of ourselves. The more we demand…the more sacrifices we sometimes make at the expense of our health. This provides a decent level of challenge, and I failed a few times to get Jenny successfully through a chapter.
Visual and Sound
I absolutely adore the art and sound design for Consume Me. There is this child-like charm to the hand drawn art style and playful background music. They both fall in line with the themes of the game, primarily, reflecting the lighthearted and humorous side of things. The music can switch on a dime where elements of dark humor are folded in, and both graphics and sound are married beautifully with the writing as well.
Final Score
Consume Me is a true gem of an indie game. On one hand, it is light and fun and can be enjoyed in bite-sized sessions (pun intended). On the other hand, it also tells a strong and dark story that any person alive can experience in one way, shape, or form.
It all starts with a simple diet to make Jenny feel “beautiful” and desirable to others. But then, Jenny demands more of herself. She must maintain the weight or lose her ideal boyfriend. She must maintain top grades and be an ideal daughter. Like Jenny, we all take on these pressures with fresh determination at first; however, if we continue to criticize ourselves and chase the “ideal”, we will never truly be happy. The goal post always adjusts itself, and during this rat race, you may lose a friend, feel isolated, and/or burn out. Even playing through the end credits shows us that once Jenny learns to accept her true self, she doesn’t live that perfect life she once fantasized. Jenny fails sometimes. She loses track of her goals sometimes. She questions her decisions sometimes. But no matter what happens, she is 100% her authentic self, and so should you.
Quick comment on the trigger warnings: I fully believe the developers addressed body image issues appropriately. The game shows one girl’s journey, and we all should know that one journey may not the same as others. Yes, there is also reference to religion as well, but it honestly has minimal on the game, nor does it approach the player in an inappropriate way. All in all, while the topics themselves can be considered “sensitive” in 2025’s standards, Consume Me handles them with impressive tact and respect.
I encourage you to take a self-reflective journey with Jenny and have a few laughs along the way in Consume Me.
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Featured Image Source: Jenny Jiao Hsia et all.
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