Princess Donut Gets a Chocolate Bar and Browser Game Ahead of Her TV Debut

A Cat, Some Chocolate, and a High Score

Princess Donut, the imperious, fan-adored feline from Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl book series, is having quite a moment. Ahead of the character’s live-action television debut on Peacock, Seattle chocolate company Maeve has launched two unexpected tributes: a limited-edition truffle bar and a free retro arcade browser game. Both drop at a time when the Dungeon Crawler Carl fandom is already buzzing about the forthcoming adaptation, and both lean hard into what makes Donut, well, Donut.

The chocolate bar is called the “Virgin Dirty Shirley,” named after Princess Donut’s signature drink from the books. According to the product description reported by Dexerto, the bar starts with a sustainably sourced dark chocolate shell, melts into a creamy white chocolate truffle center, and finishes with dried cherries and popping candy. The popping candy is a deliberate touch. The description frames it as crackling “with fizzy magic,” meant to recreate the flavor experience of the drink itself. It is a weird, specific, delightful idea — and exactly the kind of thing that earns loyalty from a fanbase that already feels like a small, tight community.

Maeve’s Flash Game Goes Viral with the Fandom

The chocolate bar is charming enough on its own. But the browser game is the thing that really caught fire. Maeve released Mama’s Night Off, a free retro arcade-style title in which players control Princess Donut and chase high scores. The game has a deliberately old-school feel, and Maeve announced it with considerable enthusiasm on Reddit’s r/DungeonCrawlerCarl community.

The standout detail: narrator Jeff Hays, who voices the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks and has become closely identified with the series for many fans, recorded entirely new voice lines for Princess Donut for the game. Maeve announced the news with multiple exclamation marks and genuine excitement, writing that Hays “recorded new Donut and ALL lines for it.” The company also noted that its own staff had grown “obsessed” with competing against each other’s scores, which tracks — once a leaderboard exists, someone is going to take it personally.

Hays’s involvement is not a small thing. Audiobook narrators for beloved series often develop their own devoted following, and Hays’s performance of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books has been a consistent point of praise among fans. Having him contribute fresh material to a free browser game tied to a chocolate company is genuinely unusual, and it speaks to how invested the people behind this collaboration are in doing something the community will actually appreciate rather than just slap a logo on.

Timing the TV Wave

Both releases arrive just as Peacock’s live-action Dungeon Crawler Carl series, produced by Seth MacFarlane, has been greenlit, according to reporting from Dexerto. The convergence is not accidental. Licensed food and game tie-ins for streaming adaptations are standard practice, but most of them feel perfunctory. A candy bar based on the main character’s favorite fictional cocktail, made by a small Seattle chocolate company with actual popping candy inside it, sits in a different category. It feels like something a fan thought of.

Mama’s Night Off is playable for free in a browser, which means the barrier to entry is zero. No download, no account, no purchase required. For a fandom that skews toward readers who discovered the series through audiobooks and word of mouth, that accessibility matters. The game is not trying to be a full experience. It is trying to be something you play for ten minutes, beat your coworker’s score, and post about. That is a reasonable and honest ambition.

Princess Donut has always been the breakout character of a series full of them. It turns out she also pairs well with dark chocolate and dried cherries.