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Indie Game Spotlight: Donut County

Get ready to stuff your hole with this week’s Indie Game Spotlight. We’re talking Donut County, a game where you play as a hole in the ground that grows bigger whenever you drop something inside. You follow a raccoon named BK, who works for a tech company that steals people’s trash using remote-controlled holes.

We spoke with Ben Esposito, the creator of Donut County, about how we came up the idea of the game, Trashopedia, and the deep rivalry between snakes and raccoons. Read on:

Where did the idea behind Donut County come from?

It was actually inspired by a tweet, haha! There’s a parody account [on Twitter] called PeterMolydeux—a parody of the visionary game designer Peter Molyneux. He posts surreal game ideas, and one of them was about a game where you play as a hole in the ground. I thought it’d be really interesting to play a game where you control…nothing.

How did living in Los Angeles effect the game and its story?

I have loved LA since I moved there! I’m fascinated by the way the city exists in cultural memory, anyone who watches movies or TV has seen LA without really seeing it. The city changes so rapidly that our memories get rewritten by the media. It’s the perfect place to make a game that explores erasure. Also, my first apartment had a really serious raccoon problem. That’s probably the reason why the villains are raccoons.

What was your favorite Trashopedia to write?

I loved writing the Trashopedia (though it was tough coming up with 300 jokes for random everyday objects!!). Thankfully my partner and hilarious cartoonist Geneva Hodgson helped write a lot of the entries. It was fun coming up with the voice for the raccoon who writes the Trashopedia entries. What does he love? Trash. What does he hate? Snakes?

I’ve had this really idiotic idea for a while for a “drive-thru haunted house” like a drive-thru Starbucks, but for getting scared. I made sure to express this genius idea in a sequence of entries about cars:

“I’m looking for investors to fund my drive-thru haunted house”

“Imagine a haunted house that fits into your busy schedule”

“The only hard part about designing a drive-thru haunted house: how do you scare the cars?”

What universe crossover would be the most interesting to see with Donut County?

Would love to get The Hole as a playable fighter in Smash Brothers. PLEASE let me know if you have any connections.