A horror visual novel with dark themes

Don’t Toy With Me is a free visual novel sold under a name your own price (NYOP) model. It features a distinctive art style with fully illustrated panels and characters for each scene. The game allows the player to make choices that can lead to one of two different endings.

Gameplay-wise, Don’t Toy With Me is a typical visual novel. It is along the same lines as The Letter — Horror Visual Novel and Infinite Stars — The Visual Novel. The game is built upon a 15,500-word story.

An interactive visual story experience

Like other visual novel games, Don’t Toy With Me is a largely passive experience with some elements of choice. The player is told a story through text on the screen, which mostly represents the dialogue between the story’s characters. The player will occasionally be able to make choices that will affect the story’s path. There are only two potential paths the story can go down in this case.

The story

The game takes place inside a dollhouse, centering around a character named Dahlia, who, along with a stuffed rabbit, are the only occupants of the house. The story follows the events after a new toy is introduced — a sad clown puppet named Huxley — and things become complicated after they unfold.

Interesting visuals

The visual aspect of the game comes from fully-illustrated scenes and characters, each of which is displayed on the screen above the text when relevant. The art style in Don’t Toy With Me is well-drawn and distinctive. The level of animation included in the game is limited, but that is the standard for this type of game.

Content warning

Don’t Toy With Me is a game that covers some dark themes, such as emotional abuse and manipulation, so it might not be suitable for all players.