My Experience with Donut County
I got this game about two weeks ago on a Tuesday night when I was supposed to be studying for my biology exam. My roommate Lily told me it was the only paid app she kept on her phone, so I figured I’d give it a shot. Honestly? It’s the most relaxing way to waste an hour when my brain is fried from homework. The whole thing is you control this hole in the ground that swallows up stuff—trash cans, trees, even people’s houses. It sounds weird, but the story is actually funny. The characters are these cute raccoons and a girl named Mira who runs a donut shop. The hole starts small, like the size of a coin, and grows bigger as you eat more things. I played it while waiting for my laundry at the dorm last Friday, and I almost missed my cycle because I was too busy laughing at a raccoon falling into the hole. It’s not a hard game, which is perfect after a long day of lectures. The graphics are super colorful and kind of remind me of a cartoon I watched as a kid. The soundtrack is really chill too—I put my headphones on and just zoned out. But I will say, it’s not the kind of game you play for hours. It’s more like a nice little break. I finished it in about a week of casual playing. The ending was surprisingly sweet, and I felt like I got a tiny story instead of just a game. For a student with limited time and money, this felt like a good buy.
Features Worth Noting
The touch controls are really simple. You just drag your finger around the screen to move the hole, and it automatically eats whatever is in its way. No complicated buttons or tutorials that take forever. I liked that I could play it with one hand while holding my coffee. There’s also a special power you unlock later where the hole can do things like spit objects back out or make a big vacuum sound—it’s not super useful but it feels fun. The levels are designed in this clever way where you have to figure out the right order to eat things to solve a puzzle. For example, one level I kept failing because I ate a trampoline too early, and then I couldn’t reach a key that was floating in the air. Another feature I appreciated is the checkpoint system. If you mess up, you don’t have to restart the whole level—it just resets to the last checkpoint. That saved me from throwing my phone across the room. There’s also hidden secrets in each level, like a little coin or a special object. I tried to find them all but gave up because I just wanted to finish the story. The game saves your progress automatically, so I could close it anytime and pick it up later without losing anything. That’s clutch for a busy student.
What Needs Work
So here’s the bad part. The game is really short. I mean, I finished all 12 levels in less than 8 hours of total playtime. For a paid app, that’s kind of disappointing. I wish there were more levels or maybe a random endless mode where the hole just keeps eating stuff forever. Also, some puzzles are way too easy. I solved most of them in under two minutes, so it didn’t feel like a challenge. Once you understand the pattern, it’s pretty predictable. Another thing that bugged me is the lack of replay value. After you finish the story, there’s not much to do except maybe replay levels to get the hidden items. But I’m not the type to do that. I deleted the app after I saw the credits. And my biggest frustration: I tried contacting support about a weird glitch where the hole got stuck on a rock in level 8. I emailed them through their website, and it took four days to get a reply. The reply was just a generic message saying “try restarting the app.” I had already tried that. It was pretty useless. They didn’t offer any real help or compensation. So that left a bad taste in my mouth. For the price of a sandwich, I guess I can’t complain too much, but still—support should be faster.
Pricing
The app costs $4.99, which feels steep for a student who’s used to free games. But compared to other paid puzzle games I’ve tried (like Monument Valley which was $3.99 but way shorter), this one gives you a solid 6-8 hours of content if you take your time. There’s no in-app purchases or ads, which is a huge relief. I absolutely hate games that beg you for money every five minutes. You pay once, and that’s it. I bought it using some leftover gift card balance from Christmas, so it didn’t come out of my actual spending money. But if I had to pay with my cash, I’d probably wait for it to go on sale. It’s a fair price for a complete game, but not a steal. For students on a tight budget, I’d say it’s a good treat for a weekend or a break week.
Developer Notes
The developer is Annapurna Interactive, which is the same company that published other cool indie games like Florence and Stray. They seem to focus on artistic, story-driven experiences. I noticed the app is updated pretty rarely—there’s been no new content added since I started playing. I checked the App Store reviews and saw some people asking for more levels years ago, but nothing happened. So don’t expect updates or new features. It’s like a finished book, not a social media feed. I do appreciate that the game runs smoothly on my iPhone 14. No crashes, no lag, even when the hole gets huge and swallows whole buildings. The battery drain was also pretty normal. I played for like 30 minutes and lost maybe 10% battery, which is fine. One weird thing: the game asks for access to your photo library when you save screenshots. I denied it and it still worked fine, so that’s good.
Security & Privacy
This is important to me because I’m paranoid about apps stealing my data. The app doesn’t collect any personal information that I can see. It doesn’t force you to create an account or log in with Facebook or Google. It just runs locally on your phone. There’s no online multiplayer, no leaderboards, and no ads that track you. I checked the privacy policy on the App Store, and it says the app does not collect any data. That’s rare these days. Most free apps are selling your data, but since this one is paid, they don’t have to. I felt safe using it. The only thing is that the game saves data to your iCloud if you have that turned on, but that’s encrypted and your choice. Overall, I’d say it’s very clean from a privacy standpoint.
