take care of it.

About take care of it.

take care of it. is the first game by the artist and writer Peach, who publishes as zealli. It was released free on itch.io at the end of December 2025, where it plays in the browser or downloads for Windows and Mac, and came to Steam in January 2026. It was made in RPG Maker, and the maker says no generative AI was used.

Austin and Riley have been friends since childhood. High school was rough between them, but now, at college, things are going well. Then something happens, and old habits resurface. You play as Riley, and the game is about his guilt, his sense of responsibility and where he draws his limits: he can fall back into old patterns or refuse, and either way it leaves marks.

Most of the story is told in text over hand-drawn character art and more than a hundred images, about 35,000 words in all, with RPG sections where you walk Riley through his days in top-down maps: his job at a cafe, errands at a supermarket, the apartment building where Austin lives, and darker places at night. Your choices lead to one of three endings, and the maker has written an ending guide for players who want them all.

It is a thriller as much as a horror game, about a friendship turning dangerous, and its content warnings are strong: blood, gore, cannibalism, murder, animal and pet death, emotional abuse and manipulation, underage drinking and drug use. Players on itch.io rate it 4.9 out of 5 and compare it to The Summer Hikaru Died. It suits players who like character-driven psychological horror and can take its subject matter.

How to play take care of it.

1. Play it in the browser on its itch.io page, or download it free for Windows or Mac there or for Windows on Steam.
2. Read the story and pick Riley's choices when they appear.
3. In the RPG sections, walk Riley around the maps with the keyboard and interact with people and objects.
4. Follow the day's tasks to move the story on.
5. Play again with different choices to reach the other endings.

Tips

• Read the content warnings on the page before you start.
• Your choices about Austin decide the ending, so save before big decisions.
• The maker's official ending guide helps if you want all three endings.
• On a phone browser some objects may not stay where you moved them; a computer is more reliable.

Questions