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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
  • 393857
  • 107
  • 3727

Posts

author=MagiaVW
author=orange-
Just make the characterset bigger :-D I think RPG Maker MV is fine with whatever size characters as long as the file can be divided 3x4.

If you have troubles with it, I recommend just taking my character sets and drawing over them.
Oh, I have been just trying to de-chibi them and they come out all pixelated.

Oh? You mean you just made the character sets bigger? Of course it makes it very pixelated. Then you just gotta draw new sprites over them.
author=orange-
Oh? You mean you just made the character sets bigger? Of course it makes it very pixelated. Then you just gotta draw new sprites over them.

And was what I was afraid of... Thank you, anyway.

Actually, your art style is kind of what I am looking for for my game. Is it ok to PM you to talk about it so I'm not clogging up the forum?
author=MagiaVW
author=orange-
Oh? You mean you just made the character sets bigger? Of course it makes it very pixelated. Then you just gotta draw new sprites over them.
And was what I was afraid of... Thank you, anyway.

Actually, your art style is kind of what I am looking for for my game. Is it ok to PM you to talk about it so I'm not clogging up the forum?

Yes of course!
I was under the impression this was a roguelike? I've never played a roguelike before where save did not imply quit and where quit did not imply save. So you can imagine my surprise and upset when I went to save and quit around 2:09 AM having spent a lovely 40 minutes surviving physically and mentally as an erotophobic knight, only to find that...

REALLY you cannot save your progress in this at all? Like regardless of how difficult it is or how many times you die, I don't care about that, but whatever the playtime of the game is, you need to have that much free time in a cohesive chunk, or at least split up in a way that never requires you to let the program stop running? Just to be 100% clear, I'm not talking about saving being necessary because you might die in the game, I'm talking about saving being necessary because you might have a job, or a human need for sleep, or your computer might be prone to crashing.

I think it's obvious from all the bold and the "REALLY" that I think this kind of goes beyond masocore or Soulsian and into the realm of simply annoying. But above and beyond that, this game is described as a roguelike and GIVES NO WARNING to a player when they're about to quit like your game is saved in EVERY OTHER ROGUELIKE. Major problem, man!

Possibility. that I'm being dumb and missing something: at least 11%. In which case, forgive me
Saves are possible, but you have to go to a specific location or find a specific item.

I'd also be for a system that lets you generate a save when you quit, and then deletes your save when you load it, but right now the saves don't get deleted when you load them, making them pretty powerful.

As-is, they currently function as kind of a beachhead. If you can get far enough in and drop a save, you can be a lot more risky with exploring the deeper parts of the dungeon because you can keep reloading that save when you get eaten by a giant lake newt.
This game is still mad interesting and I intend to check it out further but...for a roguelike, not giving people the ability to save/quit and load/delete is fucking weird and inconsiderate. And for any videogame, not taking into account the fact that people have jobs, familial obligations, bodies to feed, water and rest, and computers that might crash is just plain bad game design. I have gotten really furious at always-online games (I think the Souls series was guilty of this) that literally don't even let you pause in single player/offline mode. It's like fuck I need to go to the bathroom do I really need to get murdered by these abominations because I need to--

erm, anyway.

author=kumada
As-is, they currently function as kind of a beachhead. If you can get far enough in and drop a save, you can be a lot more risky with exploring the deeper parts of the dungeon because you can keep reloading that save when you get eaten by a giant lake newt.

I've really enjoyed this mechanic in other games, but it doesn't really address the basic need to save your progress for reasons totally unrelated to the game's difficulty.

Anyway, my next run through is definitely going to be as a Dark Priest. I don't want to make any effort to be a remotely good person in this fucked up world, now that I've read up on the game a bit more. That said, I do think I found a bug in my short time with the game:

My erotophobic knight (don't know if it's normal, but I got dealt a phobia right off the bat) was standing right in the middle of a giant bunny-mask orgy, trying to talk to the people involved, etcetera, without any appreciable loss of Mind. The Eyes-Wide-Shuttening bothered me more than it bothered my character, and it didn't particularly bother me (although don't get me wrong, it was weird...the time and effort that must have went into rendering all that pixel porn is mind boggling).
Yeah, the game has a very particular style to it. It's weird and hard to represent with buzzwords, but I wouldn't describe it as a roguelike.

It's sort of Berserk-but-you-don't-play-as-Guts, dunked in Dario-Argento-style horror.

The RPG stuff is kind of just the trappings on it.
Hey StormCrow! I really appreciate the feedback. Save system is sure to raise some emotions in players. I can completely understand that and the issue you brought up is something that would bother me a lot too if I didn't know all the tricks of the game. Like kumada said, there are few ways to save the game and because saving is so powerful in the game, I kinda like the huge reward it brings to players, when they discover the ways. You are right that it is bad game design in traditional sense, but there is a part in me that really hesitates, whenever I even consider more common alternatives.

Maybe a good way would be to not advertise this as a roguelike like you suggested. I've considered that otherwise too, as I don't think the game hits all the other roguelike-marks either. Dungeon Crawler would be more accurate, or the way I see it, is more close to survival horror or something. That's the way I've developed the game at least.


and kumada, sort of Berserk-but-you-don't-play-as-Guts, dunked in Dario-Argento-style horror sounds about right ;D
I'd say "survival horror" is spot-on for the kind of audience you want to attract. Dungeon Crawler is also good.

Maybe Survival Horror Dungeon Crawler?
WOW, this is a really good survival-horror game. One of the best I've played - it is truly challenging/unforgiving (especially if played blind) and doesn't hold back on the horror themes at all.

*Spoilers Below*



The atmosphere is well-done, and the gameplay really focuses more on surviving than fighting, which is something a lot of "survival" games lack; the main character(s) in this game are generally weaker than the basic "grunts" (prison guards), let alone some of the strong enemies (crow-man, mine-crawlers, "bosses") forcing you to be strategic.

The resources that you get are scarce enough such that you need to manage them carefully, unless you are lucky. As an experienced item-hoarder in most RPG games, I can say that resources are just right for a good challenge.

I actually really like the fact that you can't just save and reset for good items, which would get rid of the coinflip factor - randomization and the coinflip mechanic give the game replay value. Saving gives you limited reset value only.

Since you can coinflip a save pretty early on in the game (roughly 15 minutes at most), I'd say keep it like this, since it preserves the challenge. Alternatively, make a "quicksave" option if you can - have the save file be somehow hidden from the player (to prevent manual copy), and have the quicksave be deleted after it is loaded to prevent resetting.

One issue - a couple of areas had movement-permission errors. For instance, in the city that you reach through a book, I managed to walk partway through a house. Not game-breaking in the slightest though.

Another possible bug - In the catacombs, I killed a *legless* skeleton, and resurrected with Strong Necromancy (learned from Forgotten Memories), and it did not join my party.
Previously, every skeleton that I resurrected with normal Necromancy joined me, even after I hacked off their legs.


I will definitely write a review for this, after playing some of the other missions, since I only played as one character.


My experience:

After about a dozen tries where I died/quit as black mage, I finally made it, rescuing both the knight and the girl (with each losing a left arm)! I'm quite happy with that, since I got the result I was hoping for (saving everyone) in a pretty challenging game, blind. I feel that black-mage was *easy* though, since you can repeatedly summon skeletons, which are very powerful w/ meat cleaver.

As black mage, got lucky w/ multiple explosive vials early on, letting me kill guards and make a disguise. Then, even got a enlightenment book.
However, I got stuck in the mines, and had to leave several times due to low sanity before I finally used explosive vial on a mine floor, which let me proceed... but crow-man showed up and trapped me in the wolf-feast area, forcing me to fight him. After losing Skeleton, I threw a rock with Girl, and realized crow-man was not immune to stun (since most bosses are status immune)! So I then got a critical hit on Torso, and won without losing a character except Skeleton to peck instant-kill.
This part was really thrilling and tense, since I thought I finally lost, but got saved by a miracle.
Then, it was actually rather easy - just straight progression and escape.

Also, PLEASE make beating the floating head wizard + darkness (in the flesh walls room) a real event, beating a super-boss.

Right now, after defeating them, nothing happens, making me think they weren't meant to be defeated.
IMO, I don't think they can be defeated before you get to the mines, but after you go to the mines, you should be able to come back and beat them for a reward.

Moonless has bleed-strike, and the Wizard has low stun-resistance, so you can easily prevent him from summoning (pretty hard to summon when rocks are being thrown at your head), while bleeding him to death. If bleed does 3% damage per turn, then Wizard has 9000 HP, Darkness has 10k HP.

Hey thanks for the feedback cherub_enjel! I really love hearing about experiences and epic moments like yours :D I tried to set up random events just for moments like those, but of course I cannot control them precisely, so I'm happy to hear them working every now and then.

The skeletons are bugged at places, I'll be sure to fix them up! Thanks for the reminder!

Beheaded wizard will have more value in the coming versions for sure! Funny enough I came up with some good storylines for him just the other day. You were not supposed to defeat him yet, but good job on actually managing to do that! Really creative use of rocks, I didn't even think of that.
Wait, you can recruit Moonless?!

TEACH ME YOUR SECRETS
orange: great! I really look forward to the final result.

kumada: when you encounter her in the mines, be sure to have 2 "rotten meat" - select "talk" and give her the rotten meat (and have an empty party slot), and she will join you.

She's uncontrollable, can't equip anything but very strong (far stronger than Ghoul):
*2x normal speed, so goes first
*2 attacks per turn
*bleed-strike
Oh man, that's way easier than I was expecting, and she sounds like an awesome party member. Thank you!
I've played a bit more, and here are some suggestions I have, which are not difficult to implement. Roughly ordered in terms of importance, IMO.

(1) Battle Mechanics:

(a) Nerf Locust Swarm stun rate - currently, stun rate is definitely 100%, which is too high for a spread move, stunlocking everything. ~75% is reasonable for a weak spread move, making it a very strong move (since getting it involves some work), but not just ridiculously OP, since there is no guarantee of disabling a specific body part.
(b) Increase Torso health of most enemies - although head attacks have low accuracy, torso attacks have high accuracy, and can often kill just as quickly. Increasing Torso health of all non-boss enemies, maybe some boss enemies even, by ~50% will balance better, making Torso attacks take a turn longer to kill than head attacks.
(c) Buff Crow Mauler - as the main "antagonist" of the game, Crow Mauler should be less easy to cheese with head-stunlock. Would recommend increasing head stun resistance (50% resistance seems reasonable), as well as greatly increase left-arm health. Should also give him at least one other move/attack.

(2) Gameplay:
(a) Make crafting books more easy to obtain - Books are really limited in this game, and being able to craft makes things doesn't make things "easier", but just way more interesting/fun.
(b) More randomized traps - right now, there are few traps in the game, but traps must be in a dungeon like this.
(c) Give double coin-tosses in certain situations (or just better chances) - some situations involving coin tosses are very dire, like the guard reaching for you. I feel giving 2 coin tosses would be more fair in a situation like this - two chances to avoid instant kill.
(d) Implement quick-save - make saving the game anywhere an option - as long as that save file is deleted upon loading. Saves using Enlightenment or the bed can be retained, as they are. Sure, players can manipulate, but that takes effort/ruins the point of the game.

(3) Serious Bugs:
(a) There is an area in the Thicket which you can drop down into, where there is a single ladder (going down), but you cannot approach that ladder, and are trapped. Probably a movement permission issue.
(b) Blood Golem - Blood Golem seems to stay in your party for a few battles after being summoned. The problem is that there is no picture for blood golem to load, resulting in error upon opening menu.

(4) Miscellaneous
(a) Draw certain limbs "damaged" instead of "missing" - for example, it is in reality very very difficult for a human to sever a limb as thick as that of Prison Guard's (as opposed to yellow mage). The limb-targeting system is actually very good, but it doesn't necessarily have to involve dismemberment.
(b) More "Super-bosses"! As far as I've discovered, the game has two "Super-bosses" (Wizard head and "The Tormented One") who can be quite challenging. Very strong enemies who can nevertheless be defeated by special strategies.

All the best, and I hope this game keeps growing even after an official release.

Thank for the additional feedback cherub_enjel! I'm thinking along the same lines with you on most of what you said here.

- Torso health addition sounds pretty good and I didn't actually consider this so much before.
- There will be more to Crow Mauler for sure! I was thinking of the same buffs as mentioned here pretty much. + one addition that might be a bit too much. Dunno yet.
- I agree on the crafting books.
- Double coin toss, I'm not so sure about. But there will be some major new additions to give players chance to evade one hit kills in future. Depending on how they affect the overall balance, I might consider double coin tosses too. It might be an interesting system to add anyway.
- I was aware of those bugs, but thanks for the reminder!
- I was thinking of using this game system for a more mainstream game in the future, where I thought about using damaged limbs instead of severed, but maybe on some occasions it could be do-able in F&H too.
- AGREE on super-bosses!

Thanks for the support, I plan on expanding the game for sure even after it's "full release" because big part of its charm is all the small details and random events/characters/secrets you can discover even after playing through the game multiple times. To be honest, I'm kinda looking forward to that phase, because it's pretty daunting at times to add so many new places and make them functional, would be so much easier to worry about single events only.
please tell me you yourself draw all the graphics for the game?
author=majong2017
please tell me you yourself draw all the graphics for the game?
Yeah! A friend of mine did a couple of the animations earlier on, but other than that it's all me. That's why it takes ages for me to make new areas because I draw everything like the battle backdrops too.
I asked because I really like your style. He is so charming)))