I found it interesting reading this VN because when I was working on my own doll VN (put onto hiatus because of a concussion lol) I ended up with some similar ideas at the core of it. A boy who is turned into a doll. Amputations, and a glass eye with eyepatch. Even made him a catboy. But the way that I tackled the dollification was worlds apart. Many aspects of my project focused on/displayed a kind of apathy and disgust for people, and the character who is turned into a doll is just treated as a plaything with no agency for other characters to satisfy their own desires with. That boy had no real desire to become a doll. In contrast, your story has a kind of tenderness and kindness to it. A boy who thinks he must hold up the world on his shoulders is told by a mother figure "It's ok to be weak, it's ok to be fragile, let me take care of you." Alyosha wants that so desperately, even as he fights against it, until he eventually accepts it, and is made even more weak and fragile, lobotomized into the state of a child. And yet... this doesn't feel like a bad end for Alyosha. This world is filled with autistic queers who, when confronted with the reality that this is a world which requires you to work to live because of capitalist expectations, a world which wants to shun people who are not able to be a perfect cog in the machine, there are people who, like Bellmer desire nothing more than to slip through the cracks. I know plenty of queer people who find their queer family which allows them to live and exist, even though they are unable to have a job themselves. Folks who decide to support one another, be there for eachother, allow eachother to live. This is just another angle of that, queer found family, just more extreme than most folks end up doing. But ultimately, still the same. Acceptance that someone can be weak and cared for, and that this is alright. Anyway, I enjoyed this VN. I always find it interesting when these things can be described with such tenderness and care. I haven't figured out yet how to do that myself, heh.

Easily one of the poignant VNs I've ever read. The prose is absolutely beautiful and I love how even though Bellmer descends into what could be considered depravity, its done purely out of love and tenderness. I adore her and Alyosha both. You're an absolutely amazing writer.

i'm here after this was linked in broken core's menu! i really enjoyed this one, your prose is super dreamy and engaging to read... the imagery of that one scene near the end where alyosha is playing with the buttons was incredible and vivid, i really loved that. there's a couple things in here that were really Rough to read in a way i love. (i'm only very slightly familiar, but was ms bellmer's name something to do with hans bellmer?) you played with the text presentation in such fun ways here and i'm very excited to go through more of your games

ouuuughhhhhhhhhh uwaaa

What an amazing read. I just finished the game and am still working out my feelings, but that was amazing. As always your prose is excellent, and honestly makes me feel a little dumb in the best way possible. Found myself googling several different things along the way. This jam has kinda been my first real foray into doll/kigu community, and I really enjoyed the philosophical discussions on dolls and their meaning/significance to people. I always find it so fascinating how you're able to weave both philosophical analysis and literary allusion into your already compelling narratives. I actually chuckled a little at Ms. Bellmer asking Alyosha is he'd caught the bug, because this jam has definitely made me catch it. I found the ending to be a lot (and I feel somewhat uncomfortable using this word to describe it) better than perhaps what I was expecting? Especially for how the middle part of the story goes. It at the very least leaves a possibility that Alyosha is happy, which after everything definitely felt earned and honestly like a relief. I don't want to say it was a "good" ending, but perhaps it was the best ending he could receive given the circumstances? It's something I'm still thinking about and will probably have more thoughts on later after I've mulled it over more. Amazing work as always.

i may be scarred for life but it is my fault for playing another deaddeaddeath vn. it made me feel both despair and lightheartedness at the same time and idk i cant describe it, maybe its because of the moral ambiguity? a visual novel made me discover new emotion i guess. soundtrack and visuals are genius, the vivid style writing is sick as always just here to write some compliments

Part 2 electric boogaloo and tasty. 21:42 The only bad part about visual novels is, sometimes you pause to look something up, only to realize the term would have been explained if you just pressed on 21:44 Damn the sick observations once again from the unlicensed therapist™ 21:47 Imagine studying philosophy, why not go into a field with soooo many job opportunities and so much less introspection: computer science :3 21:48 Does America not have like child protection and shit? 21:50 I feel like that analogy is missing the part where Sisyphus was happy 21:50 OK now I am done, I have misread the name so often it's actually getting to me ALYOSHA not Alysha or Alisha or Alisa ughhhh 21:52 Maybe because no one else is dealing with this (life) on their own???? 21:53 Ahh the wish fulfillment of some noble and knowledgeable person descending from heaven offering divine solutions. Really, the deus ex machina I am hoping for. Especially since the idea of someone else offering the help first partially alleviates the guilt and societal disdain that is so often felt when receiving. 22:00 0800-rauschenrauschenrauschen 22:11 Uh yeah mhm yeah uiuiuiuiuiui 22:13 you really aren't one for wish-fulfilment escapism huh? 22:19 I can not believe I can read scientific philosophy papers in English, but the fucking visual novel author is making me expand my vocabulary and look up words 22:21 Hot take: I think non-consensual drugging is bad 22:22 I don't have any cool observation I just like this time 22:24 This really is a mandatory school reading for students in a 100 years to go wtf? at. 22:28 Btw don't read into what it says about me that I have spent this much time reading and putting dumb comments here Also, it is taking me a lot of will power to not hope someone drugs and obducts me and just does all the hard self-care stuff for me. 22:30 Fun fact: This feels oddly familiar, because for some reason the Young adult novel "Würfelwelt" (which is a minecraft novel and I read at 10 years old because I was a child on the internet) written by Karl Olsberg explores similair themes in a similar style. 22:34 Hmmm who the [censored] do I talk about this game with?! I am really at a loss 22:35 OMG IT IS GERMAN RADIO HOLY SHIT, also hot damn those voice lines 22:39 I would have refused to believe someone could be so ignorant if those werent exactly my thoughts as well. 22:40 FINALLY FORCE FEM FOR THE WIN...sorry XD 22:41 can you stop making me look up stuff and learning? Maybe i should have looked at the required reading... 22:51 I fail to emphasize with the main character right now 22:53 Ah yes very subtly switching angel and devil roles, I don't have religious trauma noooo 22:56 NOT Bertolt Brecht!!! NOOOO (currently in the process of my A-levels needing to read Der gute Mensch von Sezuan) 23:01 You use this medium so incredibly will, I will definetly be stealing these ideas 23:08 The capacity to shoulder burdon means that you must. I guess you are correct in your perspective on the individualistic nature of our society. 23:10 WHAT is that image XD omg how funny 23:12 Oh damn proper body horror, I though she was being metaphoric. So no, not the direction I thought this was heading in 23:21 This is making me consider how I would have properly avoided this if I saw a trigger warning. Anyways crazy stuff, good work

I am splitting this up since I hit the character maximum, sorry not sorry Downloading strange files from weird websites... This will be a recollection of my experiences while playing: 20:43: Doesn't look like a virus, Yippie! 20:44: German jumpscare woah, didn't understand a thing 20:45: Calcination Calcination is thermal treatment of a solid chemical compound whereby the compound is raised to high temperature without melting under restricted su... 20:47: Descriptions remind me of law procedurals. 20:49: if I had a nickle for every social inept cat person of ambiguous gender, I couldn't buy anything — I am from Europe. 20:55 I try to be careful not to infer things about an author from their work. It is my belief, if you know nothing about an author the only thing you can learn from their work is something about yourself. Nevertheless, this game is — at least in my mind —both very German and American at the same time. 20:58 Me when I nitpick others free works of art: Why he look to his right when she tells him to look to his left? 21:02: Woah proper therapy work by some old woman who repairs puppets 21:02: Oh god please tell me this isn't a horror game. The father influence makes me feel quite seen. 21:08 Markus Aurelius can go [censored] himself. I'd go as far to argue most people are more genuine with others than they are with themselves. 21:18 Family is no more sacred than any other social bond, but also no less sacred. "Treasuring" ones family can not work in my eyes. It seems to me to deny the reality of family being a dynamic process, requiring steady maintenance. 21:24 I love when the art which I consume denies me my escapist ambitions and hands me required reading in having to freshen up on my understanding of Kant and Freuds understanding of the self. Although I still don't understand where the "self outside of the self" is coming from? 21:29 Me when I gotta look up the word "gregarious" because it hasn't been in popular use since the late 90s 21:32 surely a doll can not take from a soul if simply references, reflects or depicts it? In a sense it's like a photograph 21:34 WE ARE GETTING FREUDIAN IN HERE I KNEW IT RAHH 21:35 he he doll dysphoria — I am also doll with dysphoria ^^ 21:36 Doll with poor caregiver must also manage that caregivers emotional state, in a sense become their caregiver in a form of parentification, even while established power structures continue to persist. 21:40 It's quite late to say this, but I do really enjoy the multitude of meanings so many lines hold, very fat and tasty.

absolutely cut my strings!! love your prose, love how you structured the narrative, goes without saying i need ms. bellmer in my life, your use of visual and aural elements was deft and sharp, and i am most thankful that you put in the work to so able to incisively articulate ideas that, in my submission to the jam, i feel i could only clumsily gesture toward. this is not to lament inferiority -- i am very proud of my daughter and i love her very much and i wouldn't change a thing about her -- but rather that i hope to one day be able to tailor my expressions with the grace and starkness that you achieved here. and, also, i... needed someone to coherently describe the feelings and needs of someone like Aloysha who i cannot help but see myself in. i think ATTACHMENTDOLL will help me. thank you.

really lovely vn. the alt text doll photos were very well done and my favorite part. i also really loved alyoshka breaking his phone and how it was described, how it felt to him in that moment. you have a wonderful narrative voice that communicated so well the specific cocktail each character is, and how they bounce off each other. fascinating work i'll be thinking about for a while, i almost wish it came with a bibliography. thanks for making + sharing

wow. firstly i had no idea to expect a deaddeaddeath vn to show up in my little homegrown jam, so that was extremely exciting to see pop up in my itch feed! i knew i was in for something truly enthralling. the visuals are stunning. the portraits are incredibly charming, the framing of the jointed hands was great, the effects and the layering had me staring long after a sentence was over. the amount of internal discussion of what makes a doll a doll was fascinating. i really enjoyed how much the concept of dollhood is acknowledged and toyed with, and am definitely reflecting on just how incestuous doll ownership is after all ^_^ exploring these concepts through ms bellmer and alyosha was perfect, too. did i have any idea what i was in for? absolutely not. did i audibly go "OH!" at least three separate times? yes. did i start laughing at the thought of DoA being the true catalyst and origin point of this all? of course wonderful work. i'll be thinking of this for a long time and will absolutely be returning. thank you for participating in the jam and thank you for making something rich, layered, insane, beautiful, and truly heartfelt of dolls <3

absolutely lovely game, i love it so much. the art and visuals are so beautiful. I already want to replay paying full attention to the sprites. They are so cute. The small changes with each expression are so good i got sucked into the text most of the time but i still loved what i saw. aw man the UI in this is so pretty!! i love the colors of everything, the photography is beautiful and i just love the set up of the text. how the text is placed and colored oh my gosh stunning. i really love the sense of the place in this story. The visuals of the city and house combined with the editing and sound design gosh just sucked me into the world completely. played this new years night only the sound of fireworks brought me back to "oh im just reading.". fav visual is the black cut screens i had the tendency to stay on that page a little longer then needed i just loved being in that inbetween, i dont know what exactly that screen is supposed to be but it feels very familiar. i love the story and characters in this so much. been trying to pin point what i connect with here but its really everything. the rambling way the characters speak trying to express as best they can what they mean in words ( i had to look up so many words when reading this but they never felt unneeded they were exactly the words the characters needed to use ). i really love the alt text descriptions of doll photography the last image of the doll holding the owners hand really got me beautiful stuff i was overjoyed when it came back at the end so so so lovely. i adore Alyosha the fantasy of the perfect potential pet, seeing him get trained is ough so perfect i adore his already small sense of self being torn down. from the first day he's trapped you know no one will ever look for him i adore it. i adore cura so so so much as well was incredibly happy when it clicked for me that " oh oh old lady owner!!! " was going to happen. i adore the descriptions of her hands through out first as she repairs dolls and again as she "repairs" aylosha. that combined feeling of thoughtful delicate touch that would fear could break you without. golly its so wonderful. i could say so much more but if i tried id just be describing what i love about every click of this vn. so simple- love this game! amazing work also the cat on your website is cute.

i'm a broken doll