itch.io

i.... i loved this holy crap. i was smiling and reading longingly the whole way through. all of the different sorts of dolls, all of the different wants and desires, all of the different rooms to explore... i couldn't help but want to help them all. 

i love how much the materials of the dolls informs their stories. it's easy to see a doll and see it for the character it becomes, so getting to have my attention drawn back to what allows it exist in the first place is grounding and charming.

thank you so so so very much for joining the jam, i will be playing this many, many more times...<3

p.s. it's hard to pick a favourite from such a lovely cast of dolls. i think the soldier will bounce around in my head right now, but i can't help but feel so attached to each sort of doll for their own material right!!!

a great little peek into some good questions and observations~ its always interesting to see dissections of the roles you can associate with "doll"hood, so i appreciated getting to see a glimpse into that!

thank you for joining the jam~~~

ouuughhh this is really lovely, and freakishly familiar. i agree, its an opportunity to perform for yourself be something so customized and inhuman, it feels so refreshing and honest to yourself..... ahhhhhhhh i love you kigu

thank you so very much for joining the jam!!!!!!

What a beautiful, lovely, sweet, outstanding game. I cannot stress enough how touching this is.

Each moving piece to this creation works with each other perfectly. Nothing felt out of place-- I can tell that everyone involved really put their best foot forward and connected to create something so touching. The desk growing cluttered with dolly materials was awfully familiar hehe...

I will be playing this over and over again to see what combinations I may end up with, but attached is my first :,3 Thank you all for creating something so spectacular, and thank you so very much for participating in the jam!!!

Thank you so much for joining in on the jam!!!!!!!!

I'm honoured that this is your first published comic, that's so exciting and I hope there's more to come~

I loved how the doll thinks through its existence. What makes a puppet different from a doll? A doll different from a human? A human different from a creation? Perhaps it all comes down to autonomy, or maybe even love...

this is gorgeous!! the photo is striking and the professor's commentary is fascinating. i'll absolutely be gazing upon this next time i have to take some faeries apart...

thank you so much for joining the jam <3333

woahhh the doll designs are gorgeous. i gotta draw some x1 fanart... i love a good bug doll...!!!!!!

the artwork is lovely and certainly can be dissected and read with a variety of meanings!! I'll be stewing on it for a while~

thank you for your submission!! i'm sorry that some personal stuff had to conflict but i hope to see more doll content from you in the future~

I got glimpses of various aspects to your development but never quite knew what exactly was being cooked up.

Turns out you were cooking an absolute FEAST.

This is so insanely awesome. It's crafted with layers of love and passion, thought put into every single corner, intention behind every mechanic, and made with all of your heart. Words cannot describe just how cool this is. I will be printing out character sheets and making all of my dolls with it, I will be begging people to play this with me, I will be learning how to become a PetiDuel master.

Thank you for joining the jam, but a special thank you for coming up with something AWESOME and insane for a 1.5 month deadline. Please play toys with me. Signed, Oomfitsu and Jijipop truther

Hihi!! Thank you for your interest in the jam!!

While this isn't a competitive jam and there's no prize pool, changing the deadline to include late entries would be rough on anyone that had to shrink/adjust the scope of their entry to meet it without having the option to submit late.  For that reason (unless youre just like a few minutes late to the deadline for time zone reasons), there won't be any late entries added.

THAT BEING SAID!!! Please consider submitting a demo, a preview, a totally unfinished game file, just anything. You are more than welcome to throw something--anything--into the submissions with a full intention to finish on your own time and to later put a link to the finished work in your demo's description or something. 

(Also I'll repost almost anything under the #dollandkigujam tag on bsky lmao just keep posting on it if you got stuff to share)

brutally canadian. poignant, relevant, dystopian but somehow a little hopeful. things suck. but at least we have each other.

this was an absolute treat to play!! the backgrounds are rich and paint the scene beautifully, the character art is (pleasing to the eye wink) expertly executed, and the story perfectly builds its world up and delivers a clear tale that is enjoyable multiple reads through. my first route was the swordmistress, but i think it was the empress that ultimately captured my heart the most <3

first of all, thank you so very much for participating in the jam!! while i'm very glad that so many non-kigus have been joining in, it makes me so happy to see another kigu create something to show what it means to them personally...!!! 

i really love how this turned out. i love the composition and collage, and i love how many textures get to shine through. lace, lycra, skin, fabric, leaves and shadows: you can feel it all through the screen!!

ahhh but to be a cat sleeping on a petticoat cloud <3

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh my god!!!! huge!!!!!!!!!!

i had been looking forward to this after seeing a preview on bluesky-- just the few pages i had seen had already hooked me in, and finally getting to see the full work has again, absolutely blown me away.

the story is painfully realistic. i unfortunately entered the world of kig after that era, so while i never got to experience it first hand, i recognize this story in so many of the friends i've made and people i've met through it all. i really, really appreciated that you portrayed it so truthfully through that period-appropriate no-homo filter :,)

and the formatting!!! good lord!!!!! the layouts are FANTASTIC. the backgrounds, the art, the texture, everything adds onto the already-great text. you can absolutely tell when someone has fun with graphic design, and that radiates from each page of this zine!!

thank you so very very much for participating in this jam...!!!! i hope you're able to get to try on a hotaru of your own someday soon <3

AUUSUDUGUUGUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH this turned out so good. this turned out so freaking good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

each panel's composition couldve been its own piece in its own right, the colour continuity is absolutely to die for (i'm biased though, i love a strict palette), the flowing of the scenes showcasing zumi's experience is delightful, and the poem... it's so sweet and charming, says exactly what it needs to with just enough characterization to show whole character backgrounds in one sitting. i knew this would be good, but i'm truly blown away with the outcome.

thank you of course for participating but more importantly thank you for forever immortalizing our fortnite parodies into your itch page

i loved how many combinations and paths you could take to explore the different meanings of dolls and transformation!! i was hooked replaying over and over again to see what led into one another..

the face really, really got me. i didn't notice it until my eyes suddenly focused and i nearly jumped out of my seat. amazing.

wonderful and heartfelt work...!!!

this was terrific.!!! the atmosphere was constantly palpable and really drew me in, from the visual effects, frame and neatly crafted worldbuilding. nikko is ridiculously adorable and so easy to cheer on regardless of the sort of fight she's in. i was absolutely not expecting the story to go the way it did, but i absolutely ate it up and loved every second. huge win for the robot doll community!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know thats right!!!!!!! i know two freaks love to get their freak on together!!!!!!

this was terrific!! i read through the comic once, loved it, read through the extras and your thought process, loved that, then read the comic a second time and loved it even more. i could absolutely tell you were having fun with every panel and scene, both in topic and in shapes and layouts. what an absolute blast!!!

thank you so much for joining the jam!!!! and +100000 thank you points for kigu shibari thank you lord jesus thank you god

my heart was so big and warm reading through this, my face was stuck like 🥺 the entire time.

this is so incredibly sweet and earnest, and is clearly made with love for both your characters AND a pure love of dolls and miniature creation. the different angles (the mirror shots!!!!!!), the stage continuity, the little effects, the speech bubbles, just everything is so unbelievably charming. i really, really love how it turned out!! i'll absolutely be checking out the carrd and further adventures of these two lovely characters <3

doll photo comics have always had such a special place in my heart, so to see someone make one for this jam feels like a full circle moment!! thank you!!! 

p.s. as soon as i read that you made the needlepoint rug in the end slide, i had to re-read it just so i could view it in all its glory again. absolutely amazing!!!

i love the idea of a collage featuring your personal thoughts and experiences...!! this is SO cool!!

i have been meaning to schedule a dentists appointment soon. i hope it turns out like this.

thank you for your interest in the jam!! yes, that would be more than enough for visual elements! i look forward to reading it ^_^

feels like getting punched in the stomach repeatedly for an hour. everyone involved in this game brought their absolute 100% to it. play this game if youre excited to feel like theres bodily viscera caked under neath your fingernails

Thank you kindly for playing!!! I tried my best to have my dolls distinguishable without relying on hair/clothes, which was a very fun character development practice!!

THANK YOU so much wah!!!! Thank you so sincerely for the template, it was a great css refresher and would love to make more with it in the future!!! Thank you so much for playing and having fun with it :D!!

yes <3

I ask that submissions include visual elements in one way or another, but primarily written media can certainly fall under that! Off the top of my head, that could be a word-heavy zine with visual elements, a basic ren'py VN without any art assets, some sort of collaborative effort, etc. 

No word or page limit though! 

sorry for rambling a little on the last reply hehe. To respond to the second part of your post, I really like that perspective! I agree that I'm personally less impacted by a magical mask that magically transforms you, but for me I think that has to do with satiating my love for reality. 

I really like your idea of the audio mixer.. That's such a good way to put it. When I put mine on, I'm definitely amplifying some aspects of myself, muting others (love to not have to talk for a while lmao), and keeping some of those audio channels the exact same since at the end of the day, I'm still me! Me can encompass both me in the mask and me without the mask. Maybe we should all just take a little mask vacation ^_^

Thank you for your really thoughtful post!! I'm really happy that this jam has already made people start to get gears turning in their heads... I really want to treat this more as a gallery exhibit than a itch dot io jam LOL, and I think you just put a very cool museum plaque on the wall for people to stand in front of, hands behind back, and ponder. Best of luck in making your submission, I look forward to seeing what you come up with!!

Hihi, thank you so much for your interest in the jam and your thoughtfulness!!! Congrats on your mask!! :DD I'd love to see it sometime~~

I'm going to be SO honest: the "media that sucks" statement was me typing on my computer with bitterness and being a little bit of a brat :,) Mostly I was thinking of the outcome of that one impact-font meme-generator image of the Love Live kigs captioned something like "Why are you scared, isn't this what you wanted?" and how the uncanniness of masked cosplays became synonymous with cheap horror. I was also thinking of how the few pieces of kigu media that aren't in that vein just feel... lacking in love, I suppose.

....Which reminds me to steer clear of falling into hypocritical pitfalls!!! Really, I don't expect the majority of people interested in this jam to own a doll or a mask. That shit's expensive!! I also can't expect everyone to be dedicating their life to the study of these hobbies, or that they perform them in the exact same ways I do.  I've asked everyone to be earnest in their submissions, which I stand by, but really, who am I to decide what is earnest or not? Someone who learned about BJDs last week can pour their heart into something, no matter how it ends up looking, and is just as earnest as the old hag who thinks they deserve capital punishment because they didn't know the difference between vinyl and resin dolls.

TLDR; maybe I should've left out the suck and maybe re-emphasized care or respect. It's not tangible, but I think you can tell when something isn't made with heart. You don't have to treat the hobbies kindly to be caring--god knows there are in fact very real flaws and horrors within them (looking forward to being dissected on a certain board someday </3)--but seeing them as something people have spent a lot of time and effort is the easiest way to show heart.

Unfortunately I have no plans on making a discord for this jam, currently the only "official" forms of jam communication is this community board and the hashtag 🤧

MAIDNIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what a lovely little treat this was. beautifully done, amazing visuals, superb music and sound design, nostalgic dreamcast themeing, and a poignant reflection on low-paying service jobs. the trailer got me incredibly hyped, and i was certainly not let down. milfeulle i love you <3

soooooo so so so so so cute. i would like to dress her up every day

The character designs were lovely, the setting was well fleshed out, I thoroughly enjoyed playing!! I just got one more ending to go~

i really, really love how you used choice boxes in this. it added so much to the feeling of being trapped in endless rooms, unsure of what exactly you can do anymore

the sheer volume of words, effects, writing, story, and misery to be experienced through this game is truly astonishing. i'm not sure how you all put this all together in such a short time frame, but you did it and i am beyond impressed. good job team. this will linger in the air for a while

flipping between drab colours to blindingly bright ones was great and totally draws you in, i feel so much was said about these characters in so little of words. great job to the team!!

everything felt like torn pieces of paper, crumpled and folded and unable to be straightened out. i'm filled with the kind of existential dread that only exists in a dream where you find out whatever horrific predicament you think youre in is painfully, miserably real--at least until you wake up.

can I buy merch of eileen

Absolutely obsessed with how expressive and charming the sprites are, bringing it all to life. Topical, relevant, and perhaps the most insane and  nauseating coffee order I've ever heard of

If you told me there was a massive team with an unlimited time behind the creation of this game, I would believe you. This is undoubtedly a beautiful, polished, thrilling, and ingenious game. How this ambitious of a project was pulled off with flying colours for a fast-paced jam is astonishing. I am beyond impressed.

The story was captivating, only amplified tenfold by physically being captivated by interactivity and needing my physical input to continue. There are certain scenes that I was just blown away with the presentation.

Play this game and tell Rue I love her.