Consume Me Triumphs at IGF Awards with Multiple Wins

"Consume Me," a quirky yet thoughtful game about teenage struggles with food and identity, cleaned up at the 2025 Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards. The team behind this personal narrative game walked away with three major awards during the March 20 ceremony at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Led by Jenny Jiao Hsia and co-director AP Thompson, the game snagged the Seumas McNally Grand Prize (basically the IGF's "Best Picture"), the Nuovo Award for innovation, and the Wings Award, which celebrates games from gender-marginalized creators.

In "Consume Me," you play as Jenny, a high schooler juggling the chaos of teenage life – dieting, exercise, studying, chores, and crushes – all while chasing that perfect "glow-up." The game cleverly turns these pressures into gameplay mechanics that show how these obsessions can take over a young person's life.

The development wasn't a solo effort. Jie En Lee crafted much of the background art, Violet W-P handled the sounds that bring the world to life, and Ken "coda" Snyder composed the music. There's even a cool musical scene featuring Thompson's guitar and vocals. Thompson took care of most programming while Hsia focused on character art and story.

What really makes the game pop is its look – bright pinks and oranges create a candy-colored world that feels at odds with the heavier themes. This "cute but dark" style is Hsia's signature move, pulling players in while hinting that something more complex is happening beneath the surface.

The game started as Hsia's graduation project at NYU's Tisch Game Center before Thompson joined in 2017. Taking inspiration from games like "Papers, Please," Hsia wanted to turn her own teenage dieting struggles into game mechanics that show the gap between what we plan and what actually happens.

"We wanted to create something that feels authentic to the teenage experience – sometimes funny, sometimes painful, often both at once," Hsia explained in a previous interview about the project.

Other winners at the IGF Awards included Caves of Qud for Excellence in Narrative, Hauntii for Visual Arts, Tactical Breach Wizards for Design, and Despelote for Audio. Meanwhile, at the Game Developers Choice Awards happening alongside the IGF, Balatro dominated with four wins including Game of the Year.

"Consume Me" is being published by Hexecutable and is currently listed on Steam with a release date of "coming soon." The game promises to be a 6-8 hour journey that will have players laughing one minute and getting unexpectedly emotional the next – much like actual teenage life.