itch.io

Even that level is possible with kitten's power!

Yeah, it is a little bit limited in some ways but very easy to use!

Thank you! The soundtrack is made with PxTone Collage!

A true Space Shooter, can you beat my high score of 76390?!

Revealing the caves is more about experimentation and guessing than looking for clues or using logic, so it might not be for everyone. Thank you for trying it out.

Sylvie Lime!

Hmm, I found out I'm getting occasional crashes on the Linux version too, but I'm having trouble debugging it because instead of giving a Game Maker error message, it just segfaults. And it seems inconsistent how long I have to play before a crash happens. I think it might be audio related since it mentions "pulse" (PulseAudio?) in your error.... I'm glad the browser version works at least!

Okay, here is the free version. https://itch.io/t/3451497/gentle-world

Cruel World is now abandonware so I am releasing my own version of the game.

Downloads

Windows: https://sylvie.website/gentle-world-win.zip
Mac: https://sylvie.website/gentle-world-mac.zip
Linux: https://sylvie.website/gentle-world-linux.zip

I only tested the Windows version and I didn't test it that thoroughly. Let me know if I broke something.

Differences From The Original

In Gentle World, every node is a "public node". The title screen text is also changed slightly. Otherwise everything is the same.

In the original game, most "nodes" (which include things like checkpoints, doors to other areas, and tutorial information) were not public and you to HACK them to gain access. Once you HACK a private node, you can MINE it to become an OWNER of the node. This lets you freely use the node and inscribes your name on the OWNER list. However, this makes future HACK attempts by non-OWNERs take longer. This is because HACKing triggers a little auto-battle sequence where you  fight against each OWNER, then finally the "guardian" of the node (you don't actually do anything in these sequences, you just wait and watch the fights play out and hope you don't randomly die and have to restart the HACK attempt). Over time, the OWNER lists on private nodes became very long and making progress began to involve very long periods of waiting. Eventually, a feature was added that lets you HEAL the world by removing your name from OWNER lists, but I'd guess that not many people did this. There was also eventually a PARTY feature which I think let you make nodes temporarily accessible to non-OWNERs, but you would have to CLEAN up the mess afterwards before using the node again.

Public nodes can be used by anyone freely, do not need to be HACKed, and cannot be MINEd, so none of this is relevant in the Gentle World.

Even if you obtain the original game, it's no longer possible to experience the game as it once existed, playing it shortly after release when there was an active community around it and the OWNER counts were smaller. So, enjoy this twisted version I created, ahaha.

See Also

Beaceful World is a rom hack I made shortly after the original release of the game which similarly makes all nodes public, but also has some additional changes and new secret areas based on cut levels. It's missing a lot of the content that's in Gentle World though, since it's based on a very early version of the game (v6, which I think was released on April 2nd 2021).

Can I release it for free?

I created a walkthrough video for anyone who is stuck. You can watch it until you learn something new.

I don't even care about score, I just want to destroy, ahaha.

Ending made me cackle.

I don't know what you tried so far, but you need to stack two crates to reach the floating flame. Remember to always fight with your full strength.

This game is cool. I like the mechanics. I played the original version and it was really interesting, but challenging in kind of a grueling way. The updated version is pretty breezy in comparison, so I had fun playing through multiple times to try to get better at the game. Can you beat my record of 3 deaths?

Nice! I was curious how much was possible with only one item.

Valley - Flooded Chamber should be possible by approaching from the mountain, but I can't think of how to do any of the others.

I don't think SDIRE is a typo, D and P just have the same rune.

Thank you! I wonder how many levels you found. There are 27 in total. That's still a fairly small number, but I think some people don't realize there are that many levels because of how the game is structured. I have a lot of lovely Snake pictures so maybe someday I can share more pictures with the world.

I found the first room of the secret section on my own. I thought that was everything until I watched Tsuneko's video to make sure, and I was amazed that there was more!!

My laptop has both an integrated graphics card and a dedicated graphics card. By default, it launched using the integrated card, and the framerate was stuttering. It ran fine at 30 fps but not 60 fps. However, when I went into the Windows "Graphics Settings" and forced the game to run with the dedicated graphics card, it ran perfectly at 60 fps. You may want to include a hint saying that if the game is stuttering, and your computer has separate integrated/dedicated graphics (which I think is common for laptops), then make sure it is running with the dedicated card.

This game was so amazing. It feels more like a "playground" where you get to have fun playing around with Bobo's moves, compared to the original Bobo where you had to master the moves to get past difficult challenges. Normally, easy games aren't that exciting to me, but it was fun and I felt happy the whole time playing it, and it made my day feel brighter.

After finding 8/8 containers and reaching the flag, I felt like the game was very short and easy, and even though it was really cute, I wished it had a little more depth. But then I found a certain secret area, and I was completely shocked by the contents. My feelings of being underwhelmed completely went away when I found this strange and creative area, and I realized I was playing an amazing game.

I hope more people play this game and find the great secrets!

Cool game, if anyone is stuck on some of the levels, I did a walkthrough video.

It's possible with Girls.

Hello everyone! Thanks for doing Sylvie's Jam #1. I'm happy that a lot of people made Kitten Boat games and I want to try them all.

If you aren't able to meet the deadline for "officially" submitting your project to the jam, feel free to link your game in this thread when it's ready! Meow!

Normally I wouldn't email someone who bought one of my games on Itch but I might have to in that case....

(Edit: The above comment no longer makes sense now that the game is free. For context, before the Indiepocalypse exclusivity period ended, I wanted to give out a limited number of free copies of the game, but you can only do that if the game is downloadable. So I made the game downloadable, but set the price to $999.99 so nobody would buy it!)

Thank you! There is more to discover in the game if you want to play a little more. (When you reach the "true ending" it should be clear)

Hello Bobo, I found a small bug when I replayed the game. The 40 gate below let me go through even though I think I only had ~36 Circuit Keys at the time (I didn't record the exact number but it was definitely below 40). You can see on the map that the gate is still red, but the gate opened up and let me get the burger.

Thank you for telling me about this amazing secret! I don't think I ever would have found it.

I watched the ending again with spinning Bobo.

If you want to delete this now that I've seen the secret, you can. Otherwise I will leave it here so other people can learn about it if they happen to look at this page :)

I like it, thank you!

I think I got the secret ability (the one from the Gem Scratching Post?) I got it before fighting the final boss. I actually think I collected everything except the items behind the Sunset Gates before defeating the final boss. The secret behind the 99 door is the very last thing I collected before going home. So I was able to get all the other optional items without using it :)

I did notice when I got to the area behind the switch block in the Neon Lair that I could have actually gone there earlier, but I don't think I realized how open that part of the game is. I went to that area to get my sixth cube. I actually really liked the moment when I got five cubes and then realized I didn't know where to go next because there is no five-cube door. I had to think about where I hadn't explored yet in the world. But I guess some players wouldn't like not knowing where to go and would get stuck.

Thank you for the wonderful game!

Although I finished the game, I just remembered one thing that troubled me. Throughout the game I was unable to figure out how to zoom in and out on the map screen, so I was just stuck fully zoomed in. How do you zoom?

Hello, I just finished the game! It took me 20h50m and I think I got 100% of the items.

I found it challenging, especially figuring out how to get some of the optional items. But I didn't have any trouble in terms of bugs or anything like that.

I thought the game was really amazing. The design of the world was so interesting and full of surprises. Every area felt fresh and new, even the ones at the very end of the game. I loved how it progresses from "normal" video game areas like jungle, cave, mountain, etc. to strange alien structures. The atmosphere in some of the later areas was really cool. The powerups were great and kept surprising me and overall the mechanics were really interesting. I think this is one of my favourite games I've played in a long while.

There isn't really anything I didn't like. It is easy to lose a lot of progress when you die, which is sometimes frustrating, but that's also part of what makes the game interesting. There is a lot of tension in parts like the escape sequences after many of the bosses. When I got frustrated, I just had to take a break and come back later.

One thing I wanted to comment on is that the game progression feels fairly linear. It's not truly linear because there are different paths to explore within each area, and you can backtrack to get things you missed. But the overall structure feels like you end up going through the areas in a set order. Usually, I prefer exploration games that are very open-ended, and I get bored when they are too linear. But I never got bored with discovering more of the world in this game. So I don't think the game being somewhat linear is a bad thing. In fact, I think you did an amazing job and this game shows how good this kind of linear structure can be. But if you ever want to make a game with a more "open world" style I would love to see it.

If you want to put me in the credits, my name is Sylvie and I would want a blue and purple gradient like this:

I feel the same as the above poster. I've played for around 8 hours and I am in the forest ruins right now. It feels like there's still so much more to discover. The game keeps surprising me and it's so exciting!

I really liked the opening section (before you can jump) because it felt really creative. Once you get the jump, the game is still fun, but it started to feel more like a standard platformer. But as I got more abilities, it started to feel more creative again, and when I reached the area after the shark boss I was really surprised with the unique and mysterious feeling of the world! Even after playing for 8 hours, the game doesn't feel like it's repeating the same ideas, it just keeps getting more fun and interesting to play! I love Bobo the Cat!

To examine items, you can throw them out of your bag and then press up while standing over them. However, the color doesn't matter, so you should be able to just recognize them by their shape. Basic Shrooms are the common ones you find everywhere in Mushroom Zones, Wide Shrooms are twice as wide as Basic Shrooms, Tall Shrooms are twice as tall as Basic Shrooms, and Tiny Shrooms are very small (about 1/4th the size of Basic Shrooms). Early on in the game it is difficult to find anything other than Basic Shrooms, so until you get farther in the game, you will probably mostly see the other types of shroom from the person in the Citey who sells uncommon mushrooms.

Thank you for playing the game! To trade, select the item you want to trade for in the other person's bag by clicking on it. Then, make an offer by placing your items in the field between the two bags. The NPC will evaluate the offer. If they like the offer, then they will move their item into the field. Then you can take the NPC's item and they will take your item.

The character who tells you exchange rates doesn't actually exchange anything. That character just tells you the SM value of different kinds of shrooms. For example, if another character says they want 3 SM for something, that means you can trade 3 Basic Shrooms for it, or 1 Tiny Shroom for it.

If you want to practice trading, try trading some Basic Shrooms for items that cost a small amount of SM. The other characters in the center of the Citey have items like that.

This game is really cool! Try the demo and if you like it check out the full version!

My review below discusses the game's structure and themes, and while I tried not to spoil specific plot beats, you might pick up on some hints about the nature of the endings and how to reach them. So, don't read on if you want to go into the game with a blank slate.

The game opens with three routes you can play in any order. Roughly speaking, the routes teach you more about the Larkspurs, the family who owned the house; about Evie, the ghost that haunts the house; and about Tabby, the protagonist who is trapped in the house. After completing all three, there is a cool segment where you lay out your beliefs about everything you've learned by answering a series of questions. Your beliefs determine which ending you get; there are three "major" endings, and a variety of "game over" bad endings where the story concludes abruptly, usually with your death.

This is a horror and mystery game, but it's not really a traditional mystery. What if the detective in a mystery story collected all the available evidence, but couldn't actually solve the mystery? The events took place in the distant past, all the major players are dead, and there's so much ambiguity that the best you can do is make an educated guess. You can't gather all the suspects in a room and dramatically lay out the truth. So what kind of conclusions do you draw, and what kind of story do you tell? It's that kind of mystery.

While the major endings give closure, they don't really give you "answers". There is one central mystery which I felt the story explains very clearly, and expects you to understand (you can choose to disbelieve the answer, but I didn't try). Aside from that, pretty much everything else – what happened to most of the Larkspur family, the nature of the entities in the house, the events of the protagonist Tabby's childhood – is unexplained or presented with a healthy amount of vagueness.

This is presumably on purpose, because a recurring theme is Tabby's frustration with "paranormal investigation" and "true crime" media – how the stories they tell are often conjectures based on flimsy and ambiguous evidence, and those conjectures paper over the lives and experiences of the victims. I think 77 Oleander wants you to realize that the stories it's telling you are messy, complex, and human; they're mysteries, but not the kind you can wrap up in a neat bow and claim you've solved. 77 Oleander wants you to wade through the ambiguity and draw your own conclusions, but it stops short of letting you confirm all those conclusions, because getting the "right answer" isn't the point.

(As an aside, I'm noticing strong parallels with the visual novel Umineko as I write this.... Umineko tackles similar themes, but in more of a pulp/fantasy style, presenting you with an Agatha-Christie-esque island mansion murder mystery that was purportedly commited by a witch. 77 Oleander kind of feels like a modern, slightly less fantastical take on this aspect of Umineko, replacing "witches and magic" with "ghosts and hauntings", and criticizing modern paranormal podcasts instead of.... whatever people in those circles were doing in the 90s and 00s? Also, something I find really interesting is that two of 77 Oleander's major endings have prominent red / blue color motifs, which are also important colors with specific meanings in Umineko. Hmm....)

The three major endings actually branch moreso based on your beliefs in the supernatural, as opposed to your beliefs about the human elements of the story. Did these people die in an accident, or were they murdered? That's not really important. Is the malicious entity that keeps killing you a ghost or a demon? Surprisingly, this actually matters. Is Evie a real ghost, or are ghosts a bunch of bullshit, and she's some kind of hallucination? That matters too.

That's because 77 Oleander isn't just about ambiguous unsolvable paranormal mysteries. It's about how to talk about those mysteries respectfully without trampling on the victims at their center. I think what the game wants to say is that you can't do that, or at least it's very difficult, without talking to the victims themselves. Without their input, you're always just scribbling over someone else's life.

77 Oleander presents a strange hypothetical: What if you could meet the ghost at the center of a haunting, and hear their version of the story? What if you could tell a ghost story not for the sake of the living, but "for the sake of the ghost"?

This interacts in an interesting way with the themes of ambiguity and unanswerable questions – I mentioned earlier that there's essentially only one major mystery in the story with a clear answer. But this answer comes from a ghost! So, can you trust the answer? I think the game really, really wants you to trust it. It seems outright cruel to me not to trust it. I think the game is saying, "Only the dead themselves can speak with authority on their own lives!" Paranormal podcasts by randos shouldn't have the final say!

So that's my feelings about the game's overall story and themes. Well, I also want to mention that I liked the moment-to-moment writing a lot too. There's a fair amount of levity and humor to balance the more tense or upsetting scenes: the awkward flirting between Tabby and Evie, the painfully accurate unscripted podcasts, Tabby's disdain for stupid Ghost Adventures bullshit like EVPs and spirit boxes. The presentation is great too! There are a few really bombastic action sequences that are a joy to read and watch. The music and visuals are excellent, and set the mood well both for quieter scenes and more intense scenes.

Finally, there is a nutcracking dog statue that is really cute. I really liked seeing the dog. You even get to give it a name. So, you should buy the game.

Banger

Thank you! I don't have a proper webpage for it but I grabbed the songs from the game files and put them up here: http://love-game.net/sylvietower_ost.zip

Oh wow! I wondered if someone would ever get all the stars. Really great job :)

I liked BOUNCERS 2 a lot. The physics are really mysterious. But I gave up when I discovered there is more than one level.

I thought it was really cute that you have to flip the virtual pet over and turn it on before you can play.