This piece discusses themes around disordered eating, dieting, and diet culture throughout.
Having spent far too much of my life deeply entrenched in the pervasive narratives of diet culture and all the insidious messaging that surrounds it, the early chapters of the new life sim Consume Me felt like a terrifyingly accurate time capsule. This compelling game serves as a semi-autobiographical take on co-creator Jenny Jiao Hsia’s adolescent years in the early 2010s—from her final year of high school into college. All the while, she navigates bog-standard teenage woes like dating, chores, an ever-increasing mountain of schoolwork, and an all-consuming focus on dieting. It’s frankly shocking how many parallels I was able to draw between Jenny’s experience and my own: the self-deprecation, the ever-piling goals for what is ultimately an unattainable lifestyle, the not-too-subtle comments from family members, and the accidental transformation of restrictive eating into one’s entire personality.
Core Gameplay and Simulation Elements
As Jenny gets older, her goals shift and grow in number, yet one central theme anchors everything: food, and the relentless pursuit of eating less of it. Calories are represented as “bites,” and various food items are puzzle pieces that must be meticulously slotted together, all while staying under Jenny’s “bite par.” Each food piece comes with its own bite count—more conveniently shaped options often cost more bites, while unorthodox ones cost less. Should you exceed your par, exercise becomes the immediate recourse. Quick bedroom aerobics offer the most efficient burn, or you can kill two birds with one stone by taking the dog for a walk. Consume Me cleverly frames each aspect of Jenny’s life as a series of engaging mini-games nested within a comprehensive management simulation. Each activity consumes a certain number of daily turns, and you can extend your free time through actions like drinking coffee or expending an energy meter to stay awake longer. Managing Jenny’s energy, mood, and “guts” (a key in-game metric) demands an increasing amount of effort as the chapters progress.
Engaging Gameplay vs. Unsettling Realities
As TechTalesLeo, I found myself delighting in trying to provide Jenny with what I perceived as the “perfect” life, even as the entire endeavor proved increasingly unsustainable. It was a familiar cycle, echoing my own struggles with disordered eating, sometimes hitting a little too close to home just how seriously I was trying to optimize every single part of Jenny’s lifestyle. This compelling drive is partly fueled by how genuinely delightful the game’s various mini-games are to play. Watching Jenny’s limbs comically stretch and retract during the aerobics sequence, or observing her shakily transform her dry, spot-riddled face into a perfectly made-up mug, remains captivating even after several hours of gameplay. These charming interactions almost made me forget that, ultimately, I was piling an awful lot of expectations onto Jenny.
The game does occasionally hint at the detrimental effects of this lifestyle. For instance, I spent an entire chapter desperately trying to outcompete another girl Jenny had declared her rival, only to discover she was a friend terribly upset with Jenny for ignoring her all summer. However, I did wish the game offered more direct criticism of Jenny’s behavior. There are seemingly no repercussions for going dangerously under the bite par, and she experiences very few tangible negative effects of her continuous, restrictive dieting. It almost made me feel complicit that the game allowed me to push her as much as I did, and I longed to see at least a little bit of blowback for it.
But for what I found lacking, Consume Me more than compensates with wonderfully witty dialogue and a beautiful art style that adds warmth to what can be a very cold subject matter. It’s relatable in both its triumphs and its struggles, and despite my criticisms, I found it difficult to come away without having completely fallen in love with Jenny and her journey.
The management sim Consume Me is out on Steam now, offering a launch week discount for those eager to dive into this uniquely profound experience.