Clumsy Bear Studio, a two-person indie development team based in Brighton, UK, released Hungry Horrors, a playful blend of the unlikely subjects of cooking and mythology, on Steam Early Access on January 19th. The game is a card-based adventure game that combines deckbuilding and cooking with narrative and rogue-lite mechanics, drawing inspiration from British and Irish folklore.
Instead of fighting monsters, stimulate your taste buds ?
The most striking feature of “Hungry Horrors” is its novel twist on the standard combat mechanics. Players take on the role of a brave princess, facing legendary monsters threatening her kingdom, but instead of swords, they fight with frying pans.
From Black Annis to the cunning Jenny Greenteeth, you’ll face creatures that have plagued British and Irish legends for centuries, and there’s only one way to defeat them: satisfy their demanding palates.
The core of the gameplay is the “craving” system. Dishes are divided into flavor categories—sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami—and monsters react differently to the dishes themselves and the cravings they satisfy. Proper cooking sequences can create combos that dramatically speed up your progress, but offering a monster a food it dislikes can quickly lead to a complete loss.
Players build their decks using cards representing traditional British dishes like Haggis, Stargazy Pie, and Cranachan. Each dish isn’t just a card; it’s based on a real-world recipe from a particular region, adding cultural depth to the game.
A world of folklore realized in pixel art
Clumsy Bear Studio is a two-person team consisting of Scott Fitzsimmons and Jerzy Pilch, who previously ran Oniric Labs, an augmented reality company that created immersive marketing experiences for major clients like Meta, League of Legends, and LVMH.
The game’s pixel art style is filled with magic and whimsy. Each unique biome offers its own set of monsters, adding to the atmosphere. The art style has been praised for successfully making the monsters both terrifying and endearing. The music also effectively captures the game’s eerie yet whimsical atmosphere.
A game created with the community
Clumsy Bear Studio actively embraces community feedback throughout the development process. The development team has established an open communication channel, allowing gamers to provide feedback in a variety of ways, including through Discord chat, submitting private feedback via Google Forms, and discussing bugs and suggestions on the Steam forums.
The current Early Access version has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, with 100% of 53 user reviews being positive. Reviewers praised the game’s originality and polish.
The game is remarkably easy to learn and understand, with intuitive controls and constant access to relevant information without having to navigate menus. The current version includes Act 1 of the story, five playable biomes, a core progression system, and a variety of folkloric monsters and dishes.
Even though ‘Hungry Horrors’ isn’t a final version yet, it’s still considered a game worth checking out for gamers who enjoy deck-building roguelites, unique cultural settings, and novel gameplay.
Steam Store Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3048840/Hungry_Horrors/
