Somethings amiss in the sunny hamlet of Donut County. Colorful critters scamper about their daily errands, scuttle down the road on scooters and tend to their gardens, only to get swallowed up by ever-expanding holes. You might assume your job is to save these adorable little buggers, but you’d be wrong. In Donut County, the new physics adventure game developed by Ben Esposito and published by Annapurna Interactive, you’re the ever-expanding hole that sucks the local residents into the abyss.
The first thing I noticed about the game was its sunny color palette and infectiously upbeat vibe, which Esposito says is inspired by his love of living in Los Angeles. The first thing I said when sitting down and putting on my headset was, “ooh, Californy!” And while the visual references might not be immediately clear if you’ve never been to Southern California, there’s definitely no mistaking the vivid, technicolor ambiance with say, New York or Detroit.
The game’s premise is simple, and the controls accessible. You’re the nefarious mystery hole wreaking havoc all over Donut County. Using the control pad, you maneuver under an object to swallow it up. You start off with small items: leaves, flowers, potted plants. But the more you consume, the bigger the hole becomes. As you progress, you gain the ability to engulf steadily bigger objects: squawking hens, boulders, even buildings. Objects will wobble, tip, or fall down and shatter if you catch them from the side. Zipping around to make the contents of the screen tumble down into nothingness is oddly satisfying, and while I found myself loosely planning out an order in which to tackle my spree of swallowing, how you approach it is up to you.
Much of Donut County’s charm comes from the gleefully sadistic pleasure to be found in sending adorable talking animals tumbling into the abyss. A startled lady fox will shriek and flail as the hole edges toward the legs of her chair. After engulfing a campfire, the hole begins to emit billowing smoke, enticing you to maneuver beneath an unlucky fellow minding his own business in the basket of a tethered hot air balloon. Stick around long enough and he’ll float away screaming into the big blue beyond.
While the giggle-inducing gameplay of Donut County is the source of most of its appeal, there’s an interesting premise behind the game’s level design left me wanting to see more. Basically, stages are interspersed with scenes showing the former inhabitants of Donut County, trapped underground and left to ponder how it all went down. Some people blame holes, some people blame snakes -- everyone’s got a slightly different take on how the disaster went down, and each level is a kind of flashback, opening up interesting gameplay possibilities. In one stage, after swallowing up some snakes, the hole sprung a waggling snake-like appendage, allowing me to smash objects and send chickens flying into the air. It’ll be interesting to see what other kinds of riffs on the basic gameplay mechanics will make it into the final version of the game.
You can check out the trailer for Donut County below. There’s not yet a firm release date for the project, though Esposito aims to have it out later in the year. You can also find out more on the game’s official site, here.
