A downloadable game

Buy Now$2.99 USD or more

The only Gameboy game with a dedicated Meow button!

STORY!

A Cat & His Boy is a short heartwarming narrative adventure for the Gameboy.

Can you as the mischievous cat named Midnight help your hooman friend Leif through a difficult time in his life?  Use all your cat like reflexes to help lift Leif's mood and find value in himself again! 


 INFO!

  • This game was created in GBSTUDIO and is intended to be played on a gameboy, Analog Pocket or GB emulator.


  • Originally this game was made for the MINI JAM 80: CATS.
    The restriction was to make a game in 72 hours with the theme "cats" and the restriction of 8x8 tiles. However I saw more potential in the game and wanted to create a more engaging and immersive game so I spent around 3 months on and off doing so for this version of the game. I hope you enjoy the finished project.

 How 2 Play!

  • Download "A Cat & His Boy"
  • Download Sameboy  or play on your Gameboy, GBC, GBA or SGB with a flashcart.

 Credits!

Produced by: Howdy Riceball

Story, Art, Programming: Z. Garland

Music & ASMR by: Beatscribe

Download the original soundtrack

SFX by: Coffee Bat

Japanese Translation & QA by: HAL2039

HOWDY RICEBALL © 2023


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専用のボタンを押して「ニャー」と鳴くことができる、唯一のゲームボーイソフト!

ストーリー!


『A Cat & His Boy』は短くて心温まる、ゲームボーイ向けのナラティブアドベンチャーゲームです。

ミッドナイトという名のいたずら好きなネコとなって、落ち込んでいるニンゲンのお友達、レイフを助けてあげましょう。

ネコの優れた運動能力を駆使してレイフを元気づけ、彼が立ち直るきっかけを作ってあげるのです!

 このゲームについて!

  •  GBSTUDIO を使用して制作されており、ゲームボーイ、Analogue Pocket、もしくはゲームボーイ用エミュレーターでプレイされることを想定しています。
  • 本作は元々『MINI JAM 80: CATS』のために制作された作品で、企画の中で課せられた制限は「8x8タイルを使用して、72時間以内に猫がテーマのゲームを作る」というものでした。
    完成した作品に可能性を感じ、より面白く没入感のあるゲームを作りたいと思ったので、それから3ヶ月間ほどかけて断続的に開発に取り組むことになりました。その結果完成した本作を、皆様にお楽しみいただければ幸いです。

 遊び方!

  • 『A Cat & His Boy』をダウンロードしてください。
  •  Sameboy  をダウンロードしてプレイするか、フラッシュカートリッジを使用してゲームボーイ/GBC/GBA/SGBでプレイしてください。


 Credits!

Produced by: Howdy Riceball

Story, Art, Programming: Z. Garland

Music & ASMR by: Beatscribe

Download the original soundtrack

SFX by: Coffee Bat

Japanese Translation & QA by: HAL2039

HOWDY RICEBALL © 2023


Purchase

Buy Now$2.99 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $2.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:

a cat & his boy 2.3 (English).gb 512 kB
a cat & his boy 2.3 (English).pocket 512 kB
a cat & his boy 2.3 (Japanese).gb 512 kB
a cat & his boy 2.3 (Japanese).pocket 512 kB
maus hints.png 1.4 MB
a cat and his boy instruction booklet.pdf 395 kB

Development log

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Comments

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I loved the game! And I am a paleontologist. Can I ask you why the interest on sauropods?

Thanks so much! That's awesome, growing up I wanted to be a paleontologist :D Sauropods are my favorite clade of Dinosaurs!

Really enjoyable short game with some nostalgic elements. I enjoyed the little tasks we had to do, and it was an overall delight to play. Great work!

oh wow thanks so much for your kindness and playthrough! ^_^ 

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You're an absolute legend.
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haha ^_^ Thanks for picking up a copy! I legitimately had that bowl cut  as a kid! >.<

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I bought the game for the Switch today and I just finished it, it was absolutely lovely! Thank you for making it. :3

I'm buying it here as well, I want to have it in my ROM collection as well. :3

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Woah thank you so so much for your kindness!! ^_^ 

I am so touched to hear you enjoyed my game that much! This gives me so much motivation for my current projects :D

I hope you have a lovely day!

You are most welcome! I hope you have a lovely day as well. ^_^

mega lovely game! Really <3

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wow thanks so much!! love the video ^_^

I really love the aesthetic and concept of this game! :)

aw thanks so much :) When I made the game I hoped Midnight would help many more people than just Leif :D

I got a crash, says kernel panic and to send pic to devs, i purchased a physical copy from the fair from the 2024 Detroit Retro gaming show.

uh oh, thank you for sending this! Would you happen to remember what was happening in the game before this occurred? Just trying to see if I can diagnose why it happened. Sorry about the crash!

it was pretty early, it was a white room with just the cat and the boy. I think I was supposed to approach the human when it happened.

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this game is really too short for this price

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I know every part of the world has different currency but I have priced the game at the price of a cup of coffee where I live, as I felt that was a fair margin. 

That being said if you are unhappy with it and have proof you have purchased the game I can workout a refund for you?

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I issued you a refund, it took a few days to process but you should receive it soon.

C'est noté, merci!

J'essaierai de venir voir de temps en temps si les ventes ont repris :)

Merci beaucoup! Je vous enverrai une note quand il sera réapprovisionné si cela peut aider :D

Bonjour! Votre jeu à l'air adorable et le packaging magnifique, c'est impressionant! J'ai malheureusement raté les précommandes, est-il possible de vous commander un exemplaire du jeu autrement? J'aimerai beaucoup le découvrir et le faire découvrir directement sur la vieille Gameboy de mon grand père :)

Bonjour! Merci pour vos aimables expressions :D Pour le moment, nous sommes épuisés mais il y aura un autre tirage prêt à vendre très bientôt. Peut-être dans un mois :)
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Hello Howdy! Are you interested in adding a Brazilian Portuguese language option to your game? I translated all the game's dialogue. If you are interested, let me know. I will not charge you for the translation. :D

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hey there!! 🤠 so kind of you, please send me an email at howdyriceball@gmail.com and we can talk about it a little more 🤠

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I can't find tho tenth rat. Could it be in the rabbit? How can i pass through the rabbit? Is there any clues? 

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There is a mouse that is impossible to get after a certain amount of story progression has been made. I hope that helps. There is a little more expanded in some of the other comments below also :D Thanks for playing

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I'm stuck looking for the tenth rat. Any tips? Maybe something related to the rabbit...

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Hopefully this helps without giving away too much:
If it's already nighttime in the side yard, it's impossible to get the 10th rat.

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Wow. I found the tenth rat. Thanks for the help!

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I'm so glad you found it ^_^ And thanks for helping @ERIC_MACK :D

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Thank you for the gift, have written a little something
https://fusionrgamer.com/2023/05/23/a-cat-his-boy-stroke-that-game-boy-until-its...

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Thank you so much for your kind words! I really appreciate it! ^_^

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is there a key to unlock the garden fence?

just asking

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thank's 🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠

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no prob 🤠👍👍

how i install  the game?

oh the download file is a rom to be played on a Gameboy Color or a platform that supports GBC games otherwise the only way to play it is in the browser 🤠 hope this helps!

Wow this is amazing keep up the good work and thank you for the game! 

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thank you so much!! I’m so happy you played it! I also just released a demo for the main game I am working on called Fetch Quest! Please check it out also 🤠

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Help I'm stuck. The boy is listining to the raidio and the roomba is destractid (Soory for my poor spelling. I have disgraphia)

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have you done any gardening? :D

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Oh wait i got it. great game!

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I'm so glad!!! thanks for playing! we made the game in 72 hours, so it's not without it's flaws but I'm glad you liked it! If you have time I just posted the demo for our full length game "Fetch Quest" It's a lot more developed than this game was :D

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I got a bit stuck but really enjoyed where the game was going! The music was AWESOME as well!!

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thanks for playing! a lot of people get stuck in the spot where they need to garden.

the hitboxes are bad and sometimes the game detects me passing somewhere when i'm not

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Thanks for your feedback! The game was made literally in 72 hours for a game jam that required you to use 8x8 sprites. I made the game for the gameboy which has 16 x 16. That is one of the the reasons the hitboxes may feel bad is I had to fit an 8x8 sprite and center it into a 16 x 16 sprite. Hopefully this will give you some insight into developing games and you can try it yourself one day! If you make a game let me know, I'd love to try your game.

thank you to for the good reception and for clarify the sprite and time limitations. i already made a game, u can play my first (and only) game here: https://hotbox.cosc.repl.co/ there is no instructions, sorry for that, i think the rules are pretty deductible.

oh awesome!!! I’ll check it out 🤠 I’m always down to try a new game!

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I'm at level 10 so far! I like the puzzle designs!! It reminds me of amazing tater for the gameboy, have you ever played it?

not yet, but after some search i found it pretty interesting, and really looks like my game, i will try it after the gtmk jam, you know :v

i love this game!!!!!!!!! it's so fricking cute

wow thank you so much!!! 🤠🤠🤠

np!!!

In rungame I found a certain easter egg ... when we approach the vaccum after destroying the vaccum, the inscription `` its save to pass '' will appear and then we can go outside the map. Please fix it.

thank you! we did know about this originally cause we made the game from start to finish in only 72 hours as a challenge for ourselves. But we just released an update today that should fix that problem and adds a spanish translation!

np :>