Rejecting the idea of gaming as a vessel for fantasy escapism, Consume Me makes players confront reality instead. The unclassifiable game, which won the prestigious Seamus McNally Grand Prize at this year’s Independent Games Festival, is a work of autobiography that finds co-developer Jenny Jiao Hsia adapting facets of her tumultuous teenage years into a complex life sim. What begins as a story about dieting culture soon turns into a high-stress juggling act of social expectations and mounting responsibilities. Inventive and unexpected, Consume Me is a misfit triumph that embraces life’s messy redirects and unresolved loose ends.

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