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The full version is out!!
You can buy the Windows and Mac versions from either itch.io, Gamejolt or Steam.


Here is a discord link to anyone interested: https://discord.gg/bJES7Sp
Thanks to Vague/iopiop123 for getting it started!




What is Fear & Hunger

Fear & Hunger is a horror dungeon crawler set in the dark and hopeless dungeons of fear and hunger. Four misfortuned adventurers dwell deeper and deeper to the darkness and uncover the secrets this ancient fortress holds inside. The fortress works as an ancient nexus for different planes of existence. The depths are in an eternal turmoil as both old and new gods struggle for power, it’s up to the players to choose their position and stance in all of this.

The game is a hybrid of survival horror and dungeon crawler genres with its influences ranging from Silent Hill to Nethack. There are roguelike elements to the game as well as a heavy foundation of a j-RPG. Fear & Hunger is heavy on atmosphere and ruthless in its difficulty.


Features:

  • Oppressive and relentless atmosphere

  • 4 different character classes and many additional characters to recruit

  • 9 different endings

  • Different game modes, including a super secret one unlocked upon beating the game

  • Unforgiving and unique gameplay

  • Randomized elements to keep the game fresh with subsequent playthroughs

  • Turn-based Strategic Dismember Combat System

  • Numerous unique gameplay systems

  • Graphical art style mixing pixel art with digital painting

  • Original ambient soundtrack creating the dreary mood


The world of Fear & Hunger is VERY dark. THE GAME IS MEANT ONLY FOR MATURE AUDIENCES! Extreme violence and gore are everyday sights in the dungeons and death is one of the easier ways to go in the game. The game has drug and substance abuse, heavy themes ranging from self-mutilation to sexual violence. None of the themes are taken lightly however. They are all part of the world building and there to create the unique atmosphere where the game measures just how far the player is willing to go in order to survive.

Parts of the dungeon layout, events, loot and enemy placements are randomized with few different variations to keep things fresh with subsequent playthroughs. The game is designed with the classic trial and error formula, so you can expect to start the game over and over again. But as long as you learn from your mistakes, you can quickly find yourself at the deeper levels of the dungeon.

The combat in Fear & Hunger is turn-based akin to classic role-playing games, but with a twist of its own. You can target individual limbs of your enemies to dismember them strategically and thus maximize your chances for survival. However, just the same, enemies can also cut off the arms and the legs of your playable characters if you are not careful. You need to prepare well for every encounter if you wish to stay alive. But don’t forget that running away from threats is often the best solution as well. There are many ways for survival in Fear & Hunger - You can find better equipment, learn different blood and love magic, fuse characters into each other, pray different gods, talk your way out of battles, meet new party members, snipe enemies from distance, use traps to disable them… and so on. The Idea is to use what you got at your disposal and be creative with it.

Latest Blog

Featured Game Give Away!

Oh wow! Fear & Hunger got on the front-page? Wasn't expecting this.

RMN, you have my deepest gratitude! RPG Maker community has a dear place in my heart, despite not being that active member around these parts of internet. I actually started my game making on Don Miguel's forums ages ago and it had a very big impact in me eventually returning to this stuff. And that's also the reason I've stuck with RPG Maker, despite what 99% of internet tells me. So getting featured here really means a lot to me.

To celebrate the front-page spot, here are few free Steam keys for the game. First ones to get them, gets them, sorry :/ Please don't hog more than one!

WBZEF-TA3MW-LA7BY
8J89Y-EW0HJ-YYW40
JC3HQ-E97VA-HR0LN
GWNFX-DZNKR-EC2T4
H96Y6-9KEC2-2HIZ2
IQNYW-8I29F-38XFN
K0YMR-KE9VE-2Z3HZ
YHTRH-PM6IC-6GIJD

Would love to hear what everyone thinks of the game. It's a bit divisive and I don't mind even heavier criticism.
  • Completed
  • Commercial
  • orange-
  • iopiop123
    kumada
  • RPG Maker MV
  • Adventure RPG
  • 01/13/2017 11:40 PM
  • 05/30/2023 01:45 PM
  • 12/11/2018
  • 400924
  • 107
  • 3809

Posts

Encountered a few more things as well as a more or less game breaking bug.
After the marriage of flesh with a ghoul and dressing up as guard, going to the bunny place to restore health makes me end up in a loop when they do the thing all the time, tell i snap out of it, the character flashes up for a second and the scene repeats.

Apart from that here's a few other things I missed before ^^




I could walk there for some reasons x3



Although the first one is said to be a weapon for two hands I could equip both? Or was that because of the marriage? owo Or is it rather the same issue as with the shield? I'm not sure how you handle the weapon system with the body limbs, if it's a script I'm not sure how to help, but if it's evented there might be something you could do with variables and common events?
Anyway still having lots of fun playing the game and there's so much to discover!

More Feedback:

-Ghouls only ever attack torso, making them ultimately useless in battle. Maybe they could attack a randomized location instead?

-Asking the Outlander his name before asking "you seem familiar with evil" results in him naming himself, but the dialog box continuing to call him Outlander.
Design Thoughts:

So, I was ruminating on two things earlier today.

One is that I've never gotten a bow in any run I didn't start with a bow in (i.e. Outlander), which makes all the arrows I pick up totally useless.

The other is that my runs tend to end one of two ways: during the first fight with a guard on floor one, or deep in the dungeon, after discovering and being killed by something new.

Independent of each other, these were both just kind of frustrations with the flow of the game. Together, though, I think they highlight a place where the design could be tweaked to let a little bit more skill and strategy in--and to give players encouragement to finish their runs.

Basically, if I start a run and fail to reanimate my first corpse, don't pick up any good books, and don't get any good gear off of random boxes, I'm probably not going to make it into the mines, and I'm better served just restarting. Run success right now is highly dependent on what randomly drops in the first two areas (books, for example, you get in area 1, area 2, or not at all), which in turn means that to get a viable run you often have to restart a couple of times. This goes contrary to the way the game wants to be played (right to the grisly end).

Being able to choose character class goes a long way towards correcting this, but I think the game would benefit from just a little bit more choice coming out of the starting gate.

Since class determines your starting equipment and skill, how about a small choice of items right after it to represent your preparations before heading into the dungeon?

For example:

Pick 1
-3 Water Vials
-3 Salami
-2 Whiskey
-Shortbow, 2 Arrows
-5 Arrows
-3 Bear Traps
-1 Explosive Vial

This would give players a way to mitigate either starvation or insanity--provided they're willing to give up their equipment pick on Salami or Whiskey. Alternately, it would let players use the (really fun) bow and bear trap sub-systems more often and give them a better chance of surviving their first battle with a guard if they play smart. In addition, it would let people develop distinct playstyles based on their pick and create some pretty interesting interactions with their class choices.

For example, 3 Water Vials is a hedge against future damage, but it's also a good pick if someone wants to do a lot of alchemy. Or maybe someone's playing an Outlander and they want to build their playstyle around volleys of arrows to avoid taking damage or losing limbs in fights. Or maybe someone's hoping to get magic, and they want to use that whiskey as sanity fuel. Even if they don't get spells during their run, they're still safer against going insane. Heck, they might even grab the Whiskey as the Outlander, and use that along with devouring the occasional body to ensure that when they die it won't be from their meters running out.

Etc.

This is all just musing, of course, but I think it would enhance the game while still keeping its core themes and gameplay unchanged. Item management would still be critical, combat would still be very lethal, and proper planning and caution would still be the way to go forward. The player would just have one more option at their disposal to deploy during their first combat or to carry forward in hopes of getting to use it in a later encounter.
-Fucking gr8 game, just don't like that the story so obscure
-Graphics r nice
-Gameplay is paced just right
-Combat is extremely unforgiving and healing is scarce (like they both should be)
-Story is really confusing, while also hard to uncover, would really appreciate it if you would make the story more explanatory/easy to access
Should add a sort of 'easy/story' mode for people like me that are more interested in the story and lore (don't get me wrong the gameplay is gr8 but its just way too obscure and unforgiving even for a fucked up dungeon crawler, I just keep dying and dying over again with little to no added knowledge to the story or wtf I should even be trying to do)
-Basically the only problem I have with this game is that its too obscure and confusing and that I either end up dying or just exiting the game due to the lack of any sort of hint to I just give up and quit after pacing back and forth
-Really intrigued by this game and have high hopes for it :)
The story rolls out in kind of a Soulslike way. Bits and pieces of hints are dropped through dialog and interactions, allowing you to kind of cobble together what might be going on in the world. However, unlike a Souls game, there are books, and these pretty much straight out explain the metaplot.

If you haven't read them, the captain's journals 1 & 2 shed a lot of light on what's going on with the first couple floors. The books of the gods also fill in a ton of broader backstory. Talking to the Outlander (if you meet him in the courtyard) reveals a bit more.

Also, if you're dying early in runs, here are a few tips.

-Don't engage enemies on fair terms. Use a bear trap or the bow. Straight up avoid combat when it's disadvantageous to you. Don't pick fights that aren't going to get you anything (i.e. Gnomes, Guards after you have a cleaver or better, etc.)
-Don't travel alone. Get the Girl. Give her the knife in the courtyard ASAP. If you're playing as the Dark Priest, get ghouls and keep them around as cannon fodder.
-Play the 'which limb is the most dangerous' game. Hitting the head becomes easier as you whittle a humanoid enemy's limbs down, but you can swing for it straight off if you're feeling really lucky. Against guards, always cut off the cleaver arm first. The right arm does a coin flip for an instakill on turn three, and the stinger procs occasionally (starting on turn two) for heavy damage. If you're perilously low on health, get the stinger and risk the coin flip. If you miss the head on turn two, you should probably hit the right arm next. If you take out both arms, the Guard turns into a tacklemonster, so be careful with that.
-Get Hurting. If you're having trouble progressing, a Hurting to the face will make a lot of monsters sit right back down. If you're playing as the Dark Priest, you can mulch a Ghoul (or the Girl, but she's waaay more valuable than a Ghoul) into the ritual circle in the first area to have a decent chance of getting it. You can also get it through books, although the drop rate is scaled back from previous demos.

Depending on where you are in the game, I can give you more specific hints to get you unstuck (or explain the lore. I've got some theories.) Just let me know.
Whew, back on my laptop after few days!

Cunechan,
firstly, thanks for letting me know of all the bugs and issues!

- I’m glad the Mauler is resonating with you. I’m a fan of that monster too! :D Sounds like you had an awesome encounter with him.

- Sounds effects are not that in-your-face, so I haven’t heard many mention them, but I have certainly spent eternities looking for perfect sounds and mixing them up myself. Many of the voices are done by me too :D

- I’m planning on having more interactions with different characters and also if you get them to join your party, you can have different conversations with them.

- The Trorfur scene is very problematic for some weird reason. Many people bring it up, but I have yet to experience any problems myself and I can’t quite figure it out.

- There are a lot of passability problems. I need to address them for sure.

- About characters not jumping over cracking floors - There’s a bug that interrupting main characters from moving occasionally and that’s the reason the characters doesn’t jump back every now and then.

Overall, I’m really glad to hear you are liking the game. More in-depth experiences like yours are priceless. Really keeps me motivated! :-D


kumada,

- I’m really liking your ideas with the fetus. I had something else in mind, but more options are always welcome. I will most likely have some of the stuff you mentioned available in the next version.

- Showing love always results to Marriage of Flesh. However, the Marriage of Flesh doesn’t always end up the same way. For example if you do it once you already fused with some character will result in something different…

- It’s a mysterious bug that Night Lurches don’t always leave a corpse. I’m a little bit worried that I might be experiencing the limits of RPG Maker, because certain sprites like those fail to load sometimes…

Also I’m really liking you design thoughts. You are completely right about the problem of players just restarting the game if things start looking too grim. That’s exactly the kind of meta-gaming I would like to prevent if possible. I was already thinking about something similar to what you mentioned with some kind of starter pack that players could choose in the beginning. Kind of similar thing you can do in certain Souls-games. I’m liking your suggestions.

And again. Your involvement is priceless! Gotta give you more credit, once I actually get to make some kind of credits section in the game :D


Slimy_D6,
So great to hear you liked the game! The storytelling will most likely stay close to what it is now. Because the game is designed to be played over and over, I don’t want there to be too lengthy cutscenes explaining things. Or if there are any, they would be completely optional. However, there will be more defined story later on that is only hinted in the demo. At the moment the story might seem a bit all-over-the-place, but there are certain events which will be more highlighted.
Thank you! I'm glad my thinking out loud has been helpful.
Little bit more feedback.

-Got to the thicket. It's a really cool area, and I love how much it opens out the courtyard. However, there's nothing inside of it. I can get to level 3, the path forks, but neither fork leads to a room. They're both dead-ends. I wandered around trying to interact with the walls for a while, then gave up and left. Should I have encountered something here, or is it not fully implemented?
Aaand just a little bit more feedback:

-Found the tower that leads up to the dungeon. This is awesome.

-Found a part of the Thicket in the Catacombs, but it also doesn't seem to go anywhere. Incomplete area? If the catacombs are eventually supposed to connect to the courtyard, that is some baller Soulsesque level design.

-Mauler spots me, he's two tiles away, has me dead to rights, he alerts, I jink left, he walks past me, saunters around in a circle, then shrugs, walks to the exit, and leaves. THAT'S RIGHT YOU BETTER RUN!

-Okay, so I removed the horn from the Nightlurch, it did its leap attack, I lost the coin flip, and "Dark Priest's anal hole was penetrated". With what? I feel like the coinflip that makes your butt bleed forever should be tied to whether or not the horn is there.

-"Darkness fills the pathway ahead. You cannot proceed." Is there a way through this? Is the area designed yet?

-Oh hey I got to Nilvan and the end of the demo.

-This is a really solid game experience. Even with the nitpicks I've mentioned so far, it is consistently menacing and oppressive, the environments look great, the creature designs are fantastical and eerie, the lore is promising, and the whole thing feels like if Dario Argento and Team Silent made a Souls game together.
Oooh right. The thicket is a full area already actually. It's just not that clear at all what you are supposed to do there though. You can find pathways from walls that lead you deeper and deeper all the way to the the Catacombs.

- You are right on Night Lurch, seems like I forgot that little detail.

- There is no way through the darkness, that's as far as you can go in the demo.

I'm glad you enjoyed the game! I'm also loving those references. That's pretty much exactly what I was going for, so yay!
First i thought to myself, wth is this Game... why is it so unfair hard.
But then i figured it out quick and finished it till the end with full hp and all charackters and tons of items left, i learned it fast and it became really fun ^^
Looking forward to the full game some day <3
What. What? How?! Teach me your ways!

I barely stumbled to the end of the demo after what must have been a hundred failed runs, bleeding terminally from the butt.

What is your secret?!
Dragnfly
Beta testers!? No, this game needs a goddamn exorcist!
1786
I kind of wanna know too. After way too many failed attempts to count I cheated, and still couldn't make it to the end.
author=HeartlessAngel
First i thought to myself, wth is this Game... why is it so unfair hard.
But then i figured it out quick and finished it till the end with full hp and all charackters and tons of items left, i learned it fast and it became really fun ^^
Looking forward to the full game some day <3

Yeah great to hear this! It's kind of tricky balancing this game, because when you know how to get around, you can get to the end pretty easily. I've been thinking if this game needs to be harder, but then I keep hearing the opposite.
Just give difficulty settings. In my opinion I want the game to make me feel paranoid, where I'll be very cautious on every step I do and I have to make a decision where I have to sacrifice something for the result that I seek at the end.

ONLY put the true ending for the hardest difficulty, so people will be encourage to finish it.
I don't know if Fear & Hunger really needs difficulty settings. The scaling on those can be tricky, and roguelikes in particular can get a lot of mileage out of not having them.

Plus, I think it's perfectly fine to have the difficulty curve on the game be "learning how to get around".

Someone on their first run is going to constantly be encountering new situations and constantly out of their depth. Someone who's done a few more runs will be able to push past that early content and go deeper into the dungeon until they hit more new territory and are out of their depth again. That's good, and it keeps dungeon runs fresh and suspenseful.

I don't think good navigation = good player skill creates a problem for game difficulty any more than, like, platforming ability = player skill would in a metroidvania, or reaction time = player skill would in an FPS.

This is a dungeon exploration game. Part of being good can totally be knowing where to go.
author=kumada
What. What? How?! Teach me your ways!

I barely stumbled to the end of the demo after what must have been a hundred failed runs, bleeding terminally from the butt.

What is your secret?!
author=Dragnfly
I kind of wanna know too. After way too many failed attempts to count I cheated, and still couldn't make it to the end.
author=orange-
author=HeartlessAngel
First i thought to myself, wth is this Game... why is it so unfair hard.
But then i figured it out quick and finished it till the end with full hp and all charackters and tons of items left, i learned it fast and it became really fun ^^
Looking forward to the full game some day <3
Yeah great to hear this! It's kind of tricky balancing this game, because when you know how to get around, you can get to the end pretty easily. I've been thinking if this game needs to be harder, but then I keep hearing the opposite.

The Secret to beat the game esay is knowledge of what to do and experince with the class aka charackter you pick, a good step for a good run is a good start.
Use the Outlander class, imo its the most op one.
Being abel to have extra food by eating the enemie bodys and being abel to oneshot
almost any enemie without even fighting them in the tunr based combat.
Example of my case whould be, you go at the start to all the bookshelfs!
- collect all books possible and hope you get a scroll and pen or find the book of forgotten memeorys directly, then learn the skill marksmanship mastery or whatever it was called, after that you use book of elightment = save the game.
From this point on you got a perfect start and are abel to oneshot enemies with arrows of iron, KILL THEM ALL! Then rescure the girl! get all items in all areas.
Personaly i avoid using the gay sex hp recover and the weird charackter fusion.
I play it hardest way and smartest way... but you can do it if you want...
Then later you meet the soldier knight etc and can team up with them aswell!
Once you see that weird guy who enters the room and give a warning you use beartraps to make him unable to move and laugh in his face and the yellow mage you very very slowy engage on the last possible step and shot him with arrow = you not engage turn based battel and not lose your arms by his magic on the map when you go to near... processed fruther and kill anyone with arrows and the weak enemies with the girl and soldier and your own turn by tactical killing the bodyparts!
take all items again and proceed and bang you at the end of the game with full hp and food and all charackters, STILL as human and STILL full health and dont forget give the girl the knife at the second floor outside , hidden behind the bookshelf is the way to go outside... hm ow ya there also bosses who cant be killed by arrows but those are death traps anyway and unkillable buy normal means or arrows.
There you go... esay game if you smart enough ^^
Im used to hard game but this game is heavy rng and can be unfair if you have no tactic at all... so the start is very importan to be perfect... if you fail just try aslong till you got the perfect start and then play serious... ow and pls dont use cheats in this game... come on... where is the fun in that... also this is my personal tactic for the outlander there more for each class aswell but hey i told you already way to much secrets, ( also use scroll and pen to write down all skills you wanna learn or use the pasage of the holy city or whatever it was called for bonus items but be quick its a timed event) =P
Ps: awesome game orange , i hope you doing well <3
0.o

You got the book of forgotten memories and the book of enlightenment in the same run?!

I didn't even know there was a skill that upgraded bow use, or that you could find and recruit the knight, and I always ended up arrow-starved every time I took the bow. This is a really interesting strategy.

It does sound like it sort of falls apart on bosses like the Mother or the giant newt, but this is really cool. It gives the Outlander a way more viable playstyle than I thought it had.
@kumada
I made a mod where you can play as the girl and have 9999 hp and oneshot powers
You can also explore anything without dieng and freely kill even the super bosses...
This mod is only for trolling the monsters and have revenge OR play the game on extrem esay mode and just see the "story" and read all that is to find.
Have fun you with it , lel =P
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SvSlB9cKkkXGptKpzKHt54zG75A-PXLv