Vile is not a game that is meant to be fun. Sure, there's a driving curiosity about it, as players click around a 90s-era desktop computer and uncover the owner's secrets, but creator Cara Cadaver is not here to entertain. Interrogating themes of obsession and male entitlement over women, Vile exists to confront, educate, and heal those who play it – and that process is something Cadaver holds close to her heart.
"I'm super grateful that people are liking it," Cadaver says of the recognition Vile, her short itch.io horror game, has garnered in recent months. "It does every time, though, feel a little bit like somebody's reading my journal. It's a very personal game, and that was the point. Everybody that has reached out to me or said something nice, I don't know how better to phrase this, but they get it. Do you know what I mean? Understand it. I kind of worried that it would be misinterpreted, perhaps just because of the nature of some of the content. So I'm really glad that the message is getting across."
