Donut County is one of those titles that seems to always be on sale, and for relatively cheap. It was initially released in 2018; created by one-man developer Ben Esposito, who recently launched Neon White with publisher Annapurna Interactive.
It stars a pesky raccoon known as BK who has set up a shop selling tasty treats in the titular town of Donut County. The problem is that BK has confused the round pastry snack with sinkholes, so has been unwittingly sending his customers and their properties to the centre of the Earth. Instead of fixing the problem, BK doubles down, sending more unwitting customers to the depths below. This is where I came in… playing as the hole itself, swallowing everything in my path. Move around the levels, gobbling up the environment, means the hole gets bigger as the entire town is eventually enveloped.
It’s a wacky premise to be sure, but the plot of Donut County shines in between the handful of levels. BK’s human assistant, Mira, sets about trying to rectify the catastrophic damage and educate BK in the error of his ways. It’s here that the script really excels as BK takes everything on the chin, often with a ‘lol’. As the story develops, it becomes clear that there is some heart in our destructive trash panda.
The game only lasts a couple of hours and is best played over the course of a Sunday morning. I’ve not experienced a plot that had me in stitches from the get-go and held my attention throughout the entirety of the game in a long time. I realised just how many problems can be solved by sending an ever-growing vortex to gobble up the issues.
Donut County is frequently on offer somewhere, and is worth taking a dive. It’s one of the best short games I’ve played in a while and despite this, I can see myself coming back to it over and over again. It is well recommended despite its short run time.