Feast is a storytelling / role-playing game about power, identity and memory that's played during a communal meal and uses eating and tasting as game mechanics. It was inspired by was inspired by Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Untitled (Portrait Of Ross In L.A.).
You can download the game here.
Press
Feast won the "Most Innovative" at the Indie Groundbreaker Awards by the Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN) in 2018, and was nominated for "Game of the Year".
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Feast was featured at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, in the exhibition "Tag: Proposals on Queer Play and the Ways Forward", organized by curator and Artist Nayland Blake. In the catalog, the game is described as such:
"Feast takes the form of a potluck dinner in homage to the work of artist Felix Gonzales-Torres (1957-1996)/ Players use taste and narrative to describe the absent memories of characters that the players devise, but then consume."
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Feast won the Dark Horse Award at IndieCade 2017.
The IndieCade jury announced the award as such:
"Here at IndieCade, we consider ourselves arbiters of good taste when it comes to games, so it's only fitting that the game that surprised us the most this year actually involves your sense of taste. 'Feast' is a game that transforms the experience of a potluck dinner into a collaborative storytelling experience, where different foods are used to convey particular emotions. In these sour times we live in, it's easy to be salty, but sometimes you need a sweet palate cleanser of a game to stop the bitterness from consuming you, so you can fully appreciate the rich umami of existence. Bon appetit!"
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Spencer Hayes, writing for the itch.io blog:
"Feast is a game that forces you to grapple with it, and by extension, yourself. It’s a game that oscillates between thinking about your favorite memories of food and thinking about the game you’re playing in the moment. It’s a fantastic experience and one I hope everyone gets to try."
Khee Hoon Chan, writing for Unwinnable:
"Underpinning this game is a exercise on how our food, and our almost instinctive responses to their tastes, reveal our perception and self-identity..."
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The initial version of the game was selected as a finalist for the 200 Word RPG Challenge. in 2017. That version of the game can be found here.
Kate Bullock, a judge for the 200 Word RPG Challenge, described the game as:
"By far one of the most powerful games I saw, Feast is having an intense conversation about appropriation, control and the erasure of culture by colonialism and invasion. Food as a mechanic points out the consumption by the powerful and the remnants of the powerless, and allows for a unique experience while playing. The game demonstrates clearly how powerful colonial cultures consume and appropriate other cultures and then spit it back out (by talking about it) with their own twists and views on it. The questions provide food for thought on being infected, and how many times conquered cultures begin to assimilate the culture of the conquerors."
Feast at IndieCade East
Feast at the ICA
Feast at IndieCade West
