Donut Panic Puts A Horror Twist On The Late Shift
Banks follows an award-winning narrative debut with a game whose horror comes from the routine of a service job, which is why the donut-making had to be authentic rather than a minigame wrapper.
Reporting from 1 source: 4Gamer.net.
At Tokyo Game Show 2026, the SELECTED INDIE 80 booth is showing DONUT PANIC, a horror game from Edinburgh solo developer Kyle Banks. The player works a night shift at a struggling diner, frying and glazing donuts to order while spotting anomalies: eyes in the dough, blood on a spatula. Small anomalies go in the incinerator; large ones send you to the panic room.
Banks made his debut with Farewell North, which took Best Narrative at the Debug Indie Game Awards, Best Original Video Game Soundtrack at the Ivors Novel Awards, and the Breakthrough Award at the 2025 British Academy Games Awards. His second game swaps that ground for a run-down late-night donut shop.
The kitchen is a two-hand system: hold the dough in one hand, shape it with the other, fry, glaze, sprinkle. Regulars at the booth found the procedure more authentic than they expected. Anomalies interrupt it. Posters on the wall point to the incinerator for small ones and the panic room for large ones. Behind the phenomena, the game suggests a secret to investigate.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.