That was a real evolution because the main character of the story changed a few times. How early on did you decide to center the story around that character? The main character is a mischievous raccoon who is responsible for Donut County’s destruction. The whole structure of the story and characters is made to make the destruction of this place feel meaningful and matter to the characters. I knew I wanted to make a weird but really consistent and character-full world that you’re throwing into the hole, because if you don’t care about the objects, the game doesn’t really matter. The interesting part is the stuff you put inside of it. One of the lessons I learned early on was that when you’re playing a game about being a hole in the ground, the hole itself isn’t really the interesting part. Was having such a quirky cast of characters always the plan or did that evolve in the process of making Donut County? It’s this kind of phsyics-y puzzle game but the rules are always shifting and every level has a different gimmick or idea behind it.Īnother huge aspect of this game is the story and characters, which may be a bit of a surprise for a game where you play as a hole. The other major inspiration for the game was a game called Windosill by Vector Park. Also, I love Katamari, so I knew I was going in the right direction in terms of the way the game would feel if I was using that as inspiration. That’s where I came up with the idea that you start super small and get bigger. That’s where I drew from Katamari’s scale-ordering gameplay because that’s so satisfying to start really small and get really big and pick your path through all the objects and unlock new scales of objects you can collect. I ran into a wall very quickly with the game where it’s fun to put stuff into the hole but there’s no progression or challenge to it. Katamari was one of the things on my mind when I started working on it. Were you inspired by that game or any others? I compare Donut County to playing with blocks and trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. It was not hard to get the hole up and running, but I think the challenge that made me interested was that it’s a game about getting a very tactile feel and even though its very abstract, it has a very human appeal because when we’re children we need to play with physical objects to learn the rules of how the world works. Luckily, it’s a concept that’s pretty concrete in terms of how to start building it. How do you take such a nebulous, strange idea and translate it into satisfying gameplay? It is an abstract idea, but I think you pulled it off. I didn’t realize how long that would take. I picked the one where you play as a hole in the ground, because how the hell do you do that? So, I built it and realized there was something really interesting and satisfying and weird about this and I knew I wanted to pursue it further and see it through to the end. The account was tweeting out impossible to make game ideas that were visionary and amazing and things that would just make you cry, so we did a Game Jam based around making those games. He’s well known for promising life-changing video game experiences that maybe don’t always live up to that expectation. I did the Game Jam where we made a bunch of joke games based on a parody Twitter account of Peter Molyneux. Where did the idea for Donut County from? In addition to offering unique, addictive gameplay, it also sports an endearing art style, lots of humor and a deeper message below the colorful characters and wacky adventuring.Įsposito caught up with Heat Vision to talk about his struggles making the game, his many restructures for the title and the state of indie games and their creators today. 28 for the PlayStation 4, Steam, GOG, and the iOS and Mac App Store.ĭonut County, a puzzle platformer in which players control a hole that gets progressively larger as they swallow more objects, was one of the highlights of this year’s E3 convention. While he may have been undercut, Esposito continued undeterred and set his own title for release Aug. The clone, called Hole.io, shot to the top of the App Store, proving that Esposito was, indeed, on to something with his idea. Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson Sees 2023 Pay Package Rise to $20.7M
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