|
 Let's Play Donut County, Half Blind! What is Donut County? Donut County is a charming gem of a game from a year full of them, developed by Ben Esposito and published by Annapurna Interactive. The game's Peter Molydeux inspired development was a long and sometimes unfortunate journey, mostly involving Mr. Esposito evolving from a tone-deaf twat into a regular twat with an incredibly earnest love for his home town. We'll discuss this in a bit more detail later on in the playthrough. No, like, what is Donut County? It can loosely be defined as a puzzle game, though the gameplay itself is basically just a silly vehicle the player uses to explore the LA-fever dream within. Barring a handful of obscure easter eggs that are a bit out of the way, there's no reason not to just relax and focus on taking it all in for the few hours it lasts. As for explaining how it plays, I'll leave that to the original inspiration shown below:  Format and Rules -This will be a video LP with commentary from one person who's played the game (yours truly) and a buddy who has never seen it before, hence the moniker "Half Blind". -Don't spoil stuff until we show it in the LP, though I'd be very surprised if we had an issue here. The LP will be over before you know it, and it's hard to put most of it in context unless you've seen it yourself. -Be civil -Try not to get too hung up on the handful of social commentary threads the game has. The story is very loosely related to gentrification, but by Mr. Esposito's own estimation it's at most "a good starting point for thinking about the problem, about how you may be affecting it one way or another." This is a very serious topic deserving of serious discussion, but a Donut County LP isn't the place to have it. Update Schedule I'll be posting one or two videos every few days. Some videos ended up being very short, so I'll likely be doubling up more often than not. Updates Update 1: RIght here! Update 2 Update 3 Update 4 Update 5 Let's get to it! Episode 1: When Dogs Fly  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEVlT4tasa0 Episode 2: This Story is Full of Holes  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtHqS384Vz8 Episode 3: The Bird is the Word  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feS5VbgvTN4 Episode 4: A Tale of Two (Hundred) Rabbits  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCZ9-CTYV7A Episode Five: Seth freakin' Rollins has come to Joshua Tree  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2pdlS1Sh8U Factory Davey fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Jan 22, 2019 |
#
?
Jan 14, 2019 07:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 19:57 |
|
|
Reserved for some stuff towards the end.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2019 08:00
|
|
|
Update Two! Stuff you might have missed Not a ton just yet. The bones on the threshold of Potter and Pupper's house are kinda cute I guess.  Episode 2: This Story is Full of Holes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtHqS384Vz8
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2019 02:52
|
|
|
...Like a Katamari straight to hell
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2019 08:53
|
|
|
Godna posted:...Like a Katamari straight to hell This is very close to the original thread title  Update Three! Stuff you may have missed last time As my co-commentator, who we can refer to as WhollyHeyZeus for now in case you were wondering, pointed out some of the trash siting around Salt's trailer strongly resembles stuff you'd find at an In-N-Out restaurant.  Note the design of the cup compared to the actual In-N-Out cup design below, and the red tray that I didn't get the best shot of on the other side.  And since LA was invoked in the playthrough proper, let's chat a little bit more about this game's origins. The info I'll discuss here is sourced from this Engadget article if you'd like to take a look.  As discussed before, the game that would become Donut County (then known as Kachina) appears to be very similar in concept gameplay-wise. However, instead of building the world you drag to hell out of his love for his home town, Mr. Esposito had the unfortunate idea of using "Hopi folklore" as his inspiration. Two issues: 1) the teepee and totem pole you see in the promotional image above have absolutely nothing to do with Hopi culture and 2) calling indigenous people's religious beliefs "folklore" is tone-deaf and lovely. When called out in a blog post written by the American Indians in Children's Literature's Debbie Reese, Mr. Esposito took the predictable route of doubling down on his initial stance and prove that he could, somehow, channel his fascination with the aesthetics of Kachina dolls into an authentic presentation of Hopi culture. After another year or so of misguided work and reflection on Kachina Ben had a revelation: if you want to make an authentic experience you've gotta make what you know. Ultimately, no amount of well-intentioned textbook research is going to magically grant you a genuine connection to a way of live you've never lived. This change of thinking ultimately led to the pivot in focus from Kachina's take on Hopi Culture to Donut County's take on Los Angeles. I think we can all agree this game's very much better off for it. But enough learning about how Ben Esposito became "woke." Episode 3: The Bird is the Word https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feS5VbgvTN4 Factory Davey fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Jan 17, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2019 05:00
|
|
|
Update Four! Stuff you may have missed We've now seen: A dog:  A dog-boy who only barks:  And a full-grown dog woman:  Which I feel is kinda hosed up. Anyway Episode 4: A Tale of Two (Hundred) Rabbits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCZ9-CTYV7A
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2019 03:27
|
|
|
Maybe I just got here too soon, but Youtube says the video is unavailable.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2019 04:06
|
|
|
Nidoking posted:Maybe I just got here too soon, but Youtube says the video is unavailable. Thanks for letting me know, looks like it never switched off draft status. Should be good now!
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2019 04:13
|
|
|
Update Five! Stuff you may have missed Not a whole lot, so let's look at another one of Ben Esposito's other inspirations in making Donut County: Windosill.  Windosill is a lovely 30-or-so minute puzzle game made in 2009 by an artist named Patrick Smith. Ben Esposito described Donut County as a "whimsical physics toy," and I can't find a better description than that for Windosill. The game's style took inspiration from a myriad of artistic styles including surrealism, metaphysical paintings, Fleischer Studio's animation and art from the Italian Renaissance. I can't pretend to really appreciate what any of that means, but I can say this game is a wonder to see in motion, and its art style and general focus on exploration and discovery as opposed to designed challenge has served as inspiration for several popular games in the decade since its release including Donut County and Monument Valley. Do yourself a favor and spend the three bucks and half and hour of your time it takes to experience it. I'd like to add a few screenshots here, but it's such a compact experience that it's provide a glimpse without giving away the game on one of it's levels. Just try it out, I promise you won't be disappointed. Now Then. Episode Five: Seth freakin' Rollins has come to Joshua Tree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2pdlS1Sh8U Factory Davey fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Jan 22, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2019 05:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 19:57 |
|
|
This is a very weird game.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2019 06:13
|
|
