Consume Me review – an autobiographical indie gem

One of the best indie games of the year Is very different from the usual roguelikes and Metroidvanias, as you navigate the difficulties of being a university student looking for love.

This is only our second attempt to go through the year and review interesting games we missed the first time round and yet both have proven to be PC-only games by a lone developer. That is all they have in common though. Look Outside is a macabre Lovecraftian survival horror mixed with EarthBound, while Consume Me is a semi-biographical simulation of the trials and tribulations of being a teenage student with an eating disorder.

Although primarily attributed to Jenny Jiao Hsia, there are a few more people credited as helping out with Consume Me, but not enough to form any kind of dedicated studio. Jiao Hsia has been making a name for herself since she was a student, winning a number of awards, but this is her most acclaimed work so far.

It’s also more involved than her other games, while still very clearly being an indie title, with low-tech graphics and absolutely no attempt to jump on any bandwagons or utter a single buzzword. But there’s a lot more to praise it for than just that.

It’s pointless to try and assign a genre to Consume Me but it has elements of a life simulator, a role-playing game, and… WarioWare. You play as Jiao Hsia’s fictionalised, teenage self ‘Jenny’ as you maintain a tight timetable of activities that are meant to maximise a range of stats, including mood, energy, and money. Jenny struggles with an eating disorder, so meal time and exercising are of prime importance to her and, along with other activities like doing her make-up.

If you’ve read all that and are now thinking that this is not for you, we’d recommend giving it a chance. Video games are all about playing a role – putting you in the shoes of someone you are not – but all too often that means only a generic action hero and very rarely anyone with any recognisable, real-world problems.

Mario can jump really high no matter how portly he is and Kratos is a god, so while he does have sad dad issues middle-age spread is not a concern. Jenny is just an ordinary person though and, as a teenager, is riddled with self-doubt and plagued by societal pressures over her appearance.

Jenny has an overbearing mother who wants her to be as thin and conventionally attractive as possible, in order to attract a boyfriend. Jenny kind of wants that too and so trying to stick to a strict diet becomes one of the game’s main concerns – something you don’t need to be a teenage girl to sympathise with.

Meal time is an unlikely spin on the Resident Evil 4 suitcase puzzle, as you try to fit together as many Tetris-shaped food items as possible, to hit an energy goal, while at the same time eating as few ‘bites’ as possible.

Although very brief, these minigames are fun in their own right, where if you end up eating too much you have to waste your spare time on exercising instead of socialising. Conversely, if you don’t eat enough you end up chowing down on something invariably unhealthy – which puts all your plans askew.

At first it seems like this is all the game’s going to be but soon enough your schedule becomes unmanageably busy, as you have to leave enough space for studying and doing chores – to earn a pittance in payment from your mum. Once Jenny does get a boyfriend you have to make time for dates and quality with him too, as the game becomes a sort of tragicomic version of Persona.

Most activities have a minigame associated with them and this is where the WarioWare comparisons become more obvious. They’re all very simple, with more than one being essentially a QTE sequence, but they’re amusingly absurd while also neatly portraying Jenny’s increasing frustration. While many games that try to portray the mundanities of modern life take the form of walking sims, or other barely interactive experiences, Consume Me is a very much a traditional video game, just with atypical subject matter.

Trying to schedule Jenny’s time is genuinely difficult in the later stage of the story. Unlike something like Dispatch, all your choices matter, with many of them having perks associated with them that let you cut corners in your routine or extend the amount of time you have available (staying up late naturally comes with its own problems).

Although there are multiple endings all the ones we’ve got are a little anticlimactic, but then even if you do navigate Jenny’s tumultuous, late teenage years the implication is that nothing ever gets much easier. As such, Consume Me could easily have come across as pretentious or preachy but it’s not at all. It’s witty, charmingly honest, and very relatable, no matter who you are.

At times it’s a bit unclear where it’s going, and there’s definitely some pacing issues, but it’s so unique and original it really doesn’t matter. Even the visuals, that almost look like they were drawn in Microsoft Paint, are great and fit the tone perfectly.

Consume Me won the Grand Prize at the Independent Game Festival (IGF) this year and it’s easy to see why. Not only is it a great game but it’s unique, accessible, and something that could only ever exist as an indie title. If you don’t think it will suit your tastes, we urge you to give Consume Me a go anyway, because it’s a perfect example of what many people claim they want: something different, that is completely divorced from the cynical and overly monetised reality of modern triple-A gaming.

Formats: PC
Price: £12.79
Publisher: Hexecutable
Developer: Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken ‘coda’ Snyder
Release Date: 24th September 2025
Age Rating: N/A

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