Ben Esposito’s latest game Donut County couples comical gameplay with a charming style, literally about raccoons who use holes to steal people’s trash. Under publishing front Annapurna Interactive, it launches on Steam, PlayStation4, and iOS on 28 August.
The project is a zany single-player, physics puzzle game following a raccoon named BK and his best friend Mira. The pair work together at a donut shop with a criminal trash-stealing side business run by the Raccoon Company. While Mira turns the other cheek, BK picks up the job of opening up holes to steal his friends’ houses. Eventually, the plague of holes ruin their town and the story accelerates rapidly from there.
Beneath its light-hearted surface, the title deals with gentrification and societal dispute. Controlling a hole in the ground and swallowing up the rural American bit by bit. Starting with small appliances and moving up to cars or houses, players will eventually swallow literally everything. The unlucky inhabitants who fall in the hole gather and share humorous stories by a campfire in a cave underground.
Donut County is a self-proclaimed passion project that Ben Esposito has worked alone on since 2012. Racoons running around his Los Angeles apartment, ” sleeping in laundry machines, stealing pool floats, and howling from rooftops”, inspires the creator’s narrative for the game. Combining work on popular titles, What Remains of Edith Finch and The Unfinished Swan, the developer’s imagination will not stop.
The team up with Annapurna Interactive is a perfect fit. The publisher is well known for releasing quirky games, alike aforementioned What Remains of Edith Finch or Gorogoa. Certainly, Esposito’s experience on the former plays in turning his small project into a potential indie-hit. Donut worry though, this title looks like it will fill that empty void with witty characters and an appealing aesthetic. If our review of Edith Finch is anything to go by, this raccoon tale is sure to impress.
Those who pre-order Donut County on the PlayStation Store will get the “Throne Room” dynamic theme for free. Esposito’s personal design features striking art style additional to chill music and non-intrusive sound effects from the game to enjoy.
Prepare yourself to be gobbled up by Donut County from 28 August 2018, releasing on Steam, PlayStation 4, and iOS.
