HUNGER

I decided to play on the cycle of hunger that I struggle with when dealing with my own executive dysfunction. In a way, there are two cycles; one you can break from and one you can’t. The meaning gap might not be fully clear from the beginning as it seems to be just about being hungry for regular food and the only hint that this isn’t the hunger being referred to is the odd wording. However, when the choices of things to eat are revealed, it becomes clear that the hunger is not for food. 

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

It is a metaphor for how we consume ourselves in the hopes of gaining something, the cycle of self-sabotage. With it being a cycle inside a cycle; being stuck between hunger and exhaustion to then break through the inaction only to end up in a far more vicious cycle, it is meant to show how some bad habits are part of a larger issue. When playtesting, I wanted to see if it would in fact pass on the sensation of tiredness, of not having any energy. In the beginning I had tried doing this by simply separating the text into chunks, thinking that using delayed text might make it feel too long. However, one of the people who tested it out said that it wasn’t really giving much of this feeling, so I made the switch to delayed text and asked both them and a person who hadn’t tested the prior version to try it out again. The one who tested it before said this helped and the other person said it made the cycle frustrating to go through. After discussing with them a bit more, I decided to keep the delayed text, as I felt this frustration made the experience more true to how I feel when stuck within this cycle. While unpleasant to others, I do believe it might be cathartic to others who, just like me, struggle with something similar and find comfort within the gruesome.