Have you ever dreamed about stealing someone’s chair and tossing it into a hole, never to be seen again? What about their lunch, or perhaps their car or house? I know I have, and thanks to Donut County, I was finally able to live out my lifelong dream.
In this thrilling story-based physics puzzle game, developed by Ben Esposito and published by Annapurna Interactive, you get to play as an ever-growing hole in the ground across multiple self-contained levels. Your goal is to swallow up every single object you can and believe me, Donut County makes this WAY more exciting than it sounds.
In this cute indie game you start off playing as BK, a raccoon (and the newest employee of the local donut shop in Donut County). BK has been slacking off playing a game on his phone; instead of delivering donuts to his customers, he uses the app to deliver giant holes that keep swallowing the county’s denizens. And their cars. And their food. And their homes. And trash. And animals.
If BK earns enough points in the game, he’ll be able to redeem them for a quadcopter. BK’s addiction to the game reaches a new low once he deploys a hole that swallows him up and lands him 999 feet below where he used to live, next to all of the missing property and residents who literally fell victim to him. The residents, including his friend Mira, waste no time swapping their personal accounts of the holes that destroyed their lives (and you’ll get to switch out and play as the hole for each).
The group, along with Mira, also eventually ask BK why he caused all this chaos and attempt to stage an intervention. BK begrudgingly reveals his shocking reasons and, with them, sets the rest of this delightfully mischievous puzzle game in motion with the goal of setting things right once again. Gameplay progresses steadily, bouncing back and forth between BK, Mira, and the holes, and only takes about 60-90 minutes on average.
Levels start out simple, requiring you to devour everything you can. You’ll need to begin with smaller items—like cups and grass and pebbles—and work up to larger items—including tables, vehicles, homes, telephone poles, and county residents—as you continue to get bigger. It’s not unlike the oh-so-unique game, Katamari Damacy REROLL.
Eventually, tougher puzzle aspects begin to appear, and you won’t be able to just mindlessly consume whatever you can see. See those toys floating on the water? You need those, but in order to get them, you’ll also need to swallow all that pond water, too; you won’t be able to swallow anything else unless you drain that pesky water, so you’ll need to find something to remove the water (which is the one thing the hole can’t devour, for some reason). You may even need to repeat this process. Later on, you might need to figure out how to use a catapult or combine objects to spit them back out or achieve a different effect, so be prepared to get creative!
Donut County has a terrific art style, fun plot and dialogue, and puzzles that range from fun to truly thought-provoking. You can play it all in one sitting if you have a few hours to spare or pick it up and set it down as needed if you don’t. It’s easy enough for gamers of all ages to play, but younger kids might need additional help to figure out some of the late-game puzzles.
If you’re interested in playing Donut County (and I genuinely hope you are), it’s available pretty much everywhere, including on Steam, GOG, Mac, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox. It’s $4.99 on mobile platforms and $12.99 elsewhere (no difference in gameplay or features, despite the price gap—I’ve played it on multiple mediums), making it an affordable little Indie treat with infinite replayability for any time you feel mischievous or the need to devour the entire world.