The Secret Lives of Games 149: Making A Meal Of It with Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson (Consume Me)
Nov 7, 2025
Jenny Jiao Hsia, a game designer known for autobiographical titles, and AP Thomson, a collaborative developer, dive into their award-winning RPG, Consume Me. They explore the ten-year development journey, balancing humor with heavy themes like disordered eating. The duo discusses turning personal stories into engaging minigames and the complexities of authenticity in game design. They also touch on cultural pressures, the concept of overachievement, and creative inspirations, revealing how these elements resonate universally.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Mini Games Grew Into A Full Game
- Jenny began with mini-game prototypes like Food Tetris and diary comics and shared them widely online.
- AP joined to help stitch those prototypes into a vertical slice that became Consume Me.
Cohesion Emerges From Many Parts
- The final cohesive system required many elements (mood, energy, goals) to be present before the mechanics made sense.
- Inspirations ranged across Papers Please, Long Live The Queen, Animal Crossing and indie prototypes.
Limit Public Sharing While You Build
- Avoid posting every development detail publicly while designing an autobiographical game.
- Stop performative journaling so you can develop honestly instead of optimizing for likes.