1 - idk what engine you're using, but I'm using UE4 and in UE4 we can blend animations with ragdoll using " Blend Weights " in where it's between 0 and 1, the 0 means fully animation only and 1 means fully ragdoll and any number in between is a blend between a ragdoll and animation, there's another method called " Active Ragdoll " which's pretty similar but got different ways to do it
2 - well, I can't really tell how it happened because I myself don't know how it happened xD
basically I just wanted to make a Demo for my game so followers can check my game instead of waiting for full release (which I had very few followers) but somehow my game got alot of attention in itch.io which caused sudden rise in downloaders and then few youtubers started playing it which also gave me extra players for the game which I appreciate^^
that's all I know of how I got many downloaders XD