I installed it and tried to run it and I only get a glimpse of the hallway then the lights go out and I only see a dot in the center of the screen. Then eventually I just hear horror sound and see my score drop so I can only assume the doll got me in the dark.

Shall I just uninstall it?

Thanks for a good review. When I started reading it I thought our friendly rabbit was back home.

Glad to see someone still taking care and time to do this.

Dollhouse is a survival-horror game released recently in 2023 where you must solve puzzles in a creepy house while avoiding a killer doll as you do so, and has never been given away before on GOTD. The game was made with UNITY and which contains about 10 minutes of gameplay currently. The correct homepage link for the project I found and which contains videos of gameplay is at https://sirdjcat.itch.io/dollhouse and the developer seems very open to suggestions after you play it there should we not get a reply here to comments. Be aware some videos contain spoilers.

Some of the controls for the game are TAB for inventory, WASD to move and Shift to run. E to interact and pick up items, Q to examine items and 1 for flashlight... however the full list is actually in the settings menu and are fully remappable in the game...so a plus for that and the many other tweakable settings for the game. It is recommended to install the game outside of the windows protected folders which it defaults to such as C:\Games instead in order to avoid issues with saving any remapped controls and other adjustable settings. Another plus is that it does have a save/load feature.

The game has some scary based gameplay and so may not be suitable for those that do not like that genre. For those that do, as a non spoiler important first hint to get some enjoyment from the game, remember the library letter and the books having letters such as L, D, and O on them which you can interact with using E or you wont get far in this game at all with the doll chasing you around and the doors locked since its not very obvious. Note also the hit detection isnt perfect so the cursor on screen will turn red when you are able to hit E.

Otherwise its an enjoyable short puzzle based horror game with nice graphics and atmosphere to check out, although for me I prefer puzzles to not necessarily have the direct action attached to them like being chased around right away as in an action game right after a game started vs just the thought of it (hearing voices only to scare or seeing the doll but doesnt see you yet or being able to close a door behind you to avoid at the library etc while you solve the first puzzle). Of course that is what makes this one slightly scary feeling pressure/chased which some might like far more than a interesting puzzle alone such as in an adventure game.

Rating: C+

Note there is an minor update on the itch page should you encounter any important bugs in the gameplay. For me it was just mainly that clicking main menu did not return to the main menu until I overwrote the files with the update but unsure what else might be fixed prior to reporting anything to the developer.

There are additional free games regularly posted in the giveawayoftheday forum and updated regularly, so check back there ongoing, or subscribe to each thread get email notifications as some of the games will have limited timeframe to claim them at no cost.
https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/466757/page/19
https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/467382/page/18