Screenshots
![[Release Date Trailer] Veins Like Tapeworms trailer](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshared.akamai.steamstatic.com%2Fstore_item_assets%2Fsteam%2Fapps%2F257158039%2F384aded5e2536f3a1d33a75aa7a74ec15195a373%2Fmovie_600x337.jpg%3Ft%3D1750198462&w=640&q=75)
Watch trailer on Steam ↗Veins Like Tapeworms
AwesomeTrinket · Published by AwesomeTrinket · Official site ↗
Content notice: Veins Like Tapeworms is a horror visual novel that is not suitable for children under 17 or for people that are easily disturbed. This game contains heavy themes of: cannibalism, transphobia, gender dysphoria, child abuse, animal abuse/death, blood & gore, vomiting, familicide, body horror, and depression. A full content warning system is provided in both the demo and the full game.
Positive — 95% positive (22 reviews) · 44 achievements
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
While working at their dead-end job and dreaming of what could’ve been, Demian Zhao discovers a flesh-eating parasite who promises to help them finally live free. If you let them, they'll become the monster of your own making - after all, who needs a moral compass when you have a god in the gutter?
£16.75
Lowest price we've ever recorded
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Price history
Action, Indie, Casual · 2025 · More £15 - £30 games
Veins Like Tapeworms challenges you to navigate a morally gray world as Demian Zhao, where letting a parasite take control leads to unexpected consequences. Dive into a unique blend of casual gameplay and intense action, guided by the twisted vision of developer AwesomeTrinket.
About this game
Wishlist My New Game!
If you enjoy or enjoyed Veins Like Tapeworms, please check out my new game - A Case of Missing Identity! Available for wishlist now on Steam!
About the Game
Veins Like Tapeworms is a slow-burn, psychological horror visual novel about disgust, snuffed-out dreams, and the desire to be loved.
When life becomes a monotonous cycle, it's not hard to grasp how someone could be pushed to the brink of violence, all in the name of feeling free. It becomes even more understandable if that person never even began to live, before being shoved out of the nest. With no gentle way out, the only chance to start anew is to snap chains and splatter organs.
Putting it that way, it was only a matter of time until Demian gave in. We can't prevent a tragedy, but we can cause their descent.
✦ A defined protagonist, Demian Zhao!
Take control of Demian Zhao, a 22 year old living on the razor-thin edge between murder and mental break. After moving to Kingsfield Beach in hopes of finding a place to call home, all of their motivation to get out and live a better life has been sapped away. Now, they survive paycheck-to-paycheck, working their miserable job at the Restful Night Motel as a cleaner.
As they become host to an ancient flower god, though, Demian will soon learn that not all is hopeless with their life; they just need to set themself free. If you let them, their humanity will slip away in exchange for their freedom.
The story revolves around Demian's own dreams, fears, desires, and bloodthirsty hatred. Every choice a player can make is a thought running through their mind at that exact moment; no action is out of character.
Will you help them pluck the worms of cruelty from their brain, or indulge in their most violent fantasies?
✦ A slow-burn, dread-filled story told in over 100,000+ words and 8 chapters!
Taking place in the fictional city of Kingsfield Beach, Nevada, Veins Like Tapeworms will present a chilling world for readers to immerse themselves in. Kingsfield is a concrete paradise, where dreams die under gaudy casinos and neon signs. Poor little Demian’s already been swallowed whole by the city, but that doesn’t mean they can’t crawl out of its festering underbelly. All they need is a little push.
Even with a slow-burn narrative told in 8 chapters and 100,000 words, readers will be begging for more by the time the story is over.
The story of Veins Like Tapeworms is heavily dependent on choices made through a playthrough. The way Demian perceives the words and actions of those around them are influenced by the thoughts a player has allowed into their head - a heartwarming conversation in one path can become a harrowing monologue of bloodlust in another.
✦ 6 endings to discover!
With 2 early endings and 4 full endings, the way Veins Like Tapeworms comes to a close is sure to shock or unnerve a player. Can you save Demian from their own violent desires, or will you let them finally give in to the rage that's boiled in their heart for years?
✦ 5 unlockable Bonus Scenes!
Curious about the damage left in your wake? 5/6 endings come with a Bonus Scene to read after the credits roll, taken from another's perspective of the aftermath! Each Bonus Scene is 100% optional, of course - though they can be accessed from the title screen at any time, they're not necessary to get the full picture.
✦ Over 250+ beautiful hand-drawn illustrations!
Written, programmed and drawn entirely by one person, Veins Like Tapeworms has over 250 full-screen illustrations for a player to discover. A gallery in the title screen ensures players can revisit any piece they may have enjoyed, or see what images they haven't unlocked yet.
✦ Immersive ambience!
Tired of visual novels that simply loop one song on repeat, with no regard for sound effects to coordinate with in-game events? Look no further with Veins Like Tapeworms; the game's ambience has been meticulously crafted for utmost immersion, and practically begs for headphones.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Microsoft Windows 8/10/11 or better
- Processor: Intel Core i3-4340 or better
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Compatible OpenGL / VRAM 1GB or better
- Storage: 2 GB available space
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
Happy 1 Year Anniversary of VLT!!
Happy 1 year anniversary of Veins Like Tapeworms' release! I cannot believe I even managed to get here on Steam, much less celebrate my game's anniversary by releasing the demo of my next one. It's been a super exciting ride this whole way, and I'm super excited to see what comes next.To celebrate, I'm putting VLT at its lowest discount yet - 30% off! If you missed your chance to snag it at the Steam summer sale, now's as good a time as ever. And if you want more of my stuff after finishing VLT, feel free to check out the demo of my next game, A Case of Missing Identity!Thank you all for your support! I look forward to making tons of games in the future for you all!Read full article on Community Announcements (AwesomeTrinket)AnnouncementsOfficial
A Case of Missing Identity's Demo is Coming Soon!!
Hey all! I know this is VLT's page, but I just want to get the news out to people who enjoyed the game and are looking for more stuff of mine to play!A Case of Missing Identity is getting a demo!!HAHAHAHAHA! We’re at the home stretch! Literally all that’s left for me at this point is a ton of bug-testing! I’ve gotten it all done - art, scripting, writing, the whole works! I just have to make sure ACoMI’s demo doesn’t implode the moment you boot it up! From this moment forward, I feel comfortable to say that the demo for A Case of Missing Identity has a release date:July 14th, 2026!If, for some insane reason, I have to push this back, you’ll all hear about it as soon as I realize it’s impossible. But! As of right now, I’m on track to perfectly line up the release with VLT’s 1-year anniversary!I’ve done so much this month, but let’s run through a little bit of what I’ve been up to, shall we?Finally got a Steam page set up for the demo and got an official release date ready! When it goes live, you should get an email if you have ACoMI wishlisted, so don’t be afraid to hit that button! It’s quick, it’s free, and it’s the second-best way to support me!Finished all the art in the demo! People, Distortions, CGs, everything!Getting things set up for the grand release! There’s an option at the end of the demo to review it, and clicking on the button will actually open up the Steam page in your browser!Hammered out a lot of the nasty bugs that bothered me on the backend but was probably negligible at best for the average player.Did I mention I finished all the art for the demo? Fun fact: it looks like July is generally shaping up to be the time I publish stuff on Steam. My first game, Veins Like Tapeworms, had both its cleaned-up Steam demo and the entire thing released mid-July. This wasn’t intentional, I swear! Even funnier fact: VLT’s Steam demo released exactly 357 days before the full game. If I’d been a little more patient, I probably could’ve gone for the full year.I’m...Read full article on Community Announcements (AwesomeTrinket)AnnouncementsOfficial
Wishlist A Case of Missing Identity now!
Hey y'all!I'm absolutely overjoyed to announce my second game - A Case of Missing Identity! It'd mean so much to me if you all gave it a wishlist and tried out the demo when it comes out; I've been working really hard on it ever since I finished up on Veins Like Tapeworms, and I really think you would all like it if you enjoyed VLT.Don't forget to check out the trailer below!A Case of Missing Identity is a horror-tragedy point-and-click visual novel about how to be Human when your existence is everything but. I'm hoping to have a demo released at some point in the next few months, and the full game sometime next year or so. ACoMI is surprisingly long - even moreso than VLT, if you can believe that - so it's not going to be a hop and a skip away.🦋 Wishlist A Case of Missing Identity now!Visit the Steam page for ACoMI and add it to your wishlists! Every little bit counts!Read full article on Community Announcements (AwesomeTrinket)Community & EventsOfficial
Officially Participating in the Choose Wisely Festival!
Make your choice. Or I'll make it for you.I'm super proud to announce that Veins Like Tapeworms is participating in the first ever Choose Wisely Steam festival - an event dedicated to all the games where your choices is what drives the story! Ever since I got the idea for VLT as a visual novel, I've always wanted the game to be about placing you in Demian's shoes, and deciding which of their thoughts to allow them to act on, turning them into a monster or something worse depending on what you pick.As such, when I heard about this festival, I knew I had to jump in. I hope you'll all see what horrid and terrible fates are in store for Demian and enjoy VLT! We're actually running the lowest discount I've ever done for the game so far, putting it at 20% off! And hey, if you don't want to spend that kind of money without knowing what you're getting into, there's a free demo that's basically the entire beginning of the game for you to check out!In case you haven’t heard, the full game includes: 100,000+ words8 chaptersOver 250 illustrations!6 unique endings!5 Bonus Scenes that give a glimpse of where the story continues after that! (Completely optional, of course, but accessible on the title screen!) Over 40 Steam achievements! A fully functional Content Warning system accessible at any time in the Options menu! And the free demo includes: The first 2 chapters 13,000 words1 ending already achievable45 illustrations1 Bonus SceneThe Content Warning system Come and see the beautiful descent of Demian Zhao! Just remember: their humanity is in your hands.Read full article on Community Announcements (AwesomeTrinket)Patch NotesOfficial
Demo Hotfix 1.0.3: The Patch That Actually Makes the Demo Work
EDIT 2: It's fine, apparently you just have to uninstall and reinstall the demo if you had a messed up build, it flushes everything out and only installs the good build, instead of nestling everything together. Whoops!I'm... tired, if you can't tell.EDIT: NOPE, THE MISSING EXECUTABLE IS STILL THERE. I'm so sorry. Until I get another update to fix that, please go in through the files and run Game.exe.I... genuinely have no clue how this happened. After absolute radio silence for 4 months straight on the state of the demo regarding players, I was under the assumption that the full game's 1.0.5 fix (and the demo's 1.0.2 fix) meant that the demo was perfectly functional.Unfortunately, that was... not the case. My bad, y'all! The cataclysmic state of the demo probably left a really bad taste in a new player's mouth, but hopefully everything should be working fine now.Version 1.0.3 of the demo fixes the following issues:Fixed the "missing game executable" error that happens if you tried to launch the demo on Steam (vs digging into the files to click Game.exe). Fixed the Content Warnings to stop them from overlapping with each other if you clicked on reading "Full Spoilers" upon first booting up the game.Actually made it possible to go past the opening scene and into the store. (A.K.A. experience the other 3/4ths of the demo.)Updated the ending splash card's call to action, now that the full game has released! It went from urging you to wishlist the full game into saying you should wishlist or buy it.Fixed the game from crashing whenever you tried to pull up the Gallery, stating that it was missing "Pic_Thumb.png."You guys are allowed to tell me if things are messed up, by the way, seriously! I would not have known any of this if I hadn't had someone new to the game reporting all these issues in the demo.Like I said at the beginning, I do not know how this happened on my end. My guess is that I accidentally uploaded a trash build that wasn't meant to go live. Still, that's...Read full article on Community Announcements (AwesomeTrinket)
