‘High Times’ – Dating Mixed With Mood-Altering Donuts

High Times is a donut shop romance game where you can change people’s emotions using the food that you bake and serve.

There are tons of different dating simulators out there, and this is one of the more colorful, quirky ones that ties in cooking and creating alongside romance. You take on a new role at the Hotbox, a special donut shop where the donuts are filled with… “mood enhancers” (seems like drugs), allowing you to change people’s moods with a serving of donuts.

Customers come in looking for something specific, hoping to bring a better mood or have someone listen to them and select what would feel best for them. You do get to choose how you react, driving the story and the romance as well. Your ex comes into the shop, too, to bring a bit of drama! She seems to be in a famous band or something, so you are a bit stuck with her appearing here and there.

In High Times, you do get to create the donuts through a bunch of small interactions (cutting them and cooking them), but it doesn’t feel like a frantic cooking game, instead being a little interaction on the side of a bunch of story-driven narration. At the end of the day, before you go to bed, you can also check the in-game social media (where you often add people when they come into the shop and vibe with you) along with texting people if you are good enough friends.

It’s a neat game that’s super colorful and fun with a lot of romance options. I got the chance to play a demo at Gamescom where I really enjoyed the visuals around the game and the drama of running this donut shop with my ex coming in (while also flirting with random other customers). Although the donuts do seem a little bit suspicious, there is a lot that you can do given that you can alter everyone’s emotions with the food.

High Times is currently in development, but in the meantime, you can grab a demo and add it to your wishlist on Steam.

About The Author

Jupiter Hadley

Jupiter is a prolific indie game journalist, writing for Metro UK, Big Boss Battle, AlphaBetaGamer, and many more, all with a focus on smaller indie gems. She covers thousands of game jams and indie games on her YouTube channel, letting every game have a moment in the spotlight. She runs indiegamejams.com, a calendar of all of the game jams going on in the world, judges many jams and events.