Video Game / The Bunny Graveyard

DON'T LET THE BUNNY KNOW

The Bunny Graveyard is an upcoming episodic cutesy-horror GBA stylized puzzle adventure from developer Pichon Games about a bunny who seeks to find the horrifying truth behind her existence.

You'll follow the story of Skye, a young female bunny who must overcome her fear of the dark, as she searches for her missing brother Claudio, in the streets of Carrot Town. The demo build serves as a bit of a prequel to the full game as you're pulled into this world via Haunted Technology. You control a Themed Cursor trying to uncover what dark mystery lurks at the heart of the cheerful Rabbit Garden.

The game was initially released on Steam, with the demo being made available on September 21, 2022. Chapter 1 of the full game was released a year later on September 22, 2023.

On January 1, 2024, a Nintendo Switch port of the game was announced, though there currently isn't a set release date for it beyond being released in the same year.

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The Bunny Graveyard contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Silvie is heavily implied to have been one to her son Boxers. While being a paranoid sociopathic murdering demon, there are subtle signs she loves him as much as an eldritch monster is capable of, willing to repeatedly ignore him breaking the rules that earns all others a gruesome death (though this doesn't stop Silvie from verbally abusing him after revealing herself). Boxers makes it clear he's not there to reconcile with her at the end of Chapter 1, but longs for a life away from her puppeteering ways and insane cruelty.
• Action Commands: As a newcomer to Skye's Lovely Garden, you're helped by Skye and Number 42 to learn the ropes and play a few fun little minigames.
• Adorable Abomination: Zigzagged. Silvie is an unsettling demonic entity that refuses to let you leave, but gives off a Cute Monster Girl vibe when impersonating Skye. Her true form when she forgoes the disguise is not adorable whatsoever.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: The fake Skye attacks and kills Number 10, a mutated Handy Pal that was on the verge of finding the Cursor, unwittingly saving them in her murderous rampage.
• Big Brother Bully: Inverted. Skye loves her little brother Claudio very much in the trailers, but he's a horrid Jerkass who calls her a "one-eyed freak".
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Skye appears as a sweet endearing gardener who needs your help in her friendly wholesome plot of land, but things take a sinister turn. She's actually Silvie, some kind of demonic being that behaves like a Yandere to keep all the Handy Pals and you in her garden for keeps, and is a hideous mother besides. And even then, the end of Chapter 1 hints that she may not even be "Skye" at all.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Averted by the fake Skye, who nearly addressed the white glove as "Cursor", meaning she's aware they're all in a virtual world.
• Brown Bag Mask: Boxers, the rabbit who hides down under the well, wears one over his head but does a poor job of hiding the fact that he's a rabbit.
• But Thou Must!: Refusing to live and work with Skye will have her glitch the screen out (a brief flash of the demonic Bunny appears) and force the player to agree.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Boxers calls his mother by her name at the end of Chapter 1.
• The Cake Is a Lie: The fake Skye challenges Nelson and the Cursor to a game where the Cursor must survive underwater against piranhas and a giant fish in the lake. If the Cursor lives, she will take Nelson to see Ben, his son who Silvie has taken hostage. If the Cursor dies, Nelson will be killed along with them. "Skye" had no intention of following through and kills Nelson anyways by siccing a giant fish on him.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Silvie in her true form is nearly always sporting a Slasher Smile as she murders those who defy her. The only exception to this, is when her son Boxers is about to enter the void in an escape bid. She looks on with sudden seriousness at the situation as she tries to reason with him.
• Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: Number 8 can't resist the temptation to wander off to the Labyrinth even as Skye warns them ad nauseam not to or suffer the consequences.
• Dark Is Evil: Silvie is some kind of eldritch shadow demon of unknown origin and age that resembles a rabbit. Averted with her son, Boxers, who is also a monster but kind-hearted and longs for a normal happy life.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Fingertaker punches Silvie away from Boxers, on the third and final day in the garden. It's shown to be a Senseless Sacrifice, as they are killed off-screen by the demon, their remains later found in the labyrinth.
• Distressed Dude: Ben fails to kill Silvie, but instead of being killed, is taken captive and thrown into her house's basement. She takes sadistic pleasure in tormenting Nelson with the knowledge that she has his son, forcing the frog to play a cruel game with life-or-death stakes for both hunter and the Cursor.
• The Dreaded: The first time the fake Skye blows her whistle to wake up the Handy Pals sleeping in the cabin, all of them can be seen visibly trembling. Considering that she's a maniacal Serial Killer towards their species, and the fact that blowing her whistle outright kills ten of them by making them explode later on, they have every right to be afraid. This extends to Boxers when Silvie finally discards the Skye disguise and reveals herself, with Boxers covering his eyes as Silvie gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Drunk with Power: Silvie is obsessed with everyone obeying her rules, but she herself is above them, and will go back on her own word as with Nelson beating her fairly in a fishing game. She refuses to release Ben, and murders Nelson. As an Eldritch Abomination that can One-Hit Kill the cast of characters, no one can hold her to task. Little wonder her own son Boxers is terrified of her.
• Enraged by Idiocy: Repeatedly failing to do your gardening chores has Skye get disappointed with you, before she wanders off to do something more productive. When you finally complete the task (after at least four failures) she's happy you're done. You'll notice a tiny speck on her lip. When you later see how monstrous she is as she often vomits up minions to kill those who enrage her - "Skye" was slowly getting angry with you.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Overlapping with Take That! as Skye laments people nowadays only want to sit indoors watching TV all day long, never to go outside to garden.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Silvie acts and behaves like a Psychopathic Womanchild at best to everyone around her, and a feral monster at worst. She understands nothing about forgiveness or loyalty. She brings death and despair to Nelson and Ben, showing no mercy to the frogs. Even her son whom she bends her rules for, she's cruel and abusive. Silvie cannot understand why Boxers tries to save the Handy Pals in vain, is terrified of her, and longs for freedom.
• Evil Matriarch: The ending of Chapter 1 reveals Silvie, the true antagonist impersonating Skye, to be the mother of Boxers.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: It's currently an Ambiguous Situation but Skye (actually Silvie) makes it painfully transparent to Number 8 that if they get past the Labyrinth, it will mess up everything they know and love in her garden, threatening all the Handy Pals.
• Eyepatch of Power: Skye has an eyepatch over her right eye since she was a little girl, and heavily implied she had an accident but the eternally optimistic bunny didn't let the incident bother her.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Disembodied eyeballs follow the Cursor glove underwater and through the void in the finale. All those flowers the Handy Pals and you have been planting? They are Silvie's eyes, and why she's nearly always one-step ahead of everyone's plan to escape. She sees everything.
• Fantastic Racism: These two quotes by the fake Skye, against both frogs and the Handy Pals.
  "Skye" [to Nelson]: You know, I truly thought your species was more intelligent. Yet, here we are.
  "Skye" [after killing Number 10]: You really thought you could escape from ME? YOU STUPID GLOVES ARE ALL THE SAME!
• Featureless Protagonist: It's not clear who you are meant to be. You are trapped in front of your computer covered in cobwebs. You cannot walk away from or power down the machine. You can only see Skye's and Claudio's vitals as an indicator they might still be alive. Playing the "Bunny Garden" game pulls you into the Bunny's clutches as a Themed Cursor. If anything happens to the Cursor, you die too.
• Fed to the Beast: The fake Skye summons a giant fish to devour Nelson. It's subverted when the Cursor finds Nelson's severed head being eaten by a mutated Handy Pal, indicating that he survived the fish that attacked him and the Cursor at the lake.
• Fingore: Number 8 is ripped to shreds by Silvie for repeatedly disobeying her in sneaking out at night to explore the Labyrinth.
• Fishing Minigame: You play one with Nelson where you go up against Skye and her two helpers in a challenge to catch the most fish. When a round is completed, the two teams head deeper into the lake where it becomes more challenging.
• Genuine Human Hide: Heavily implied in the climax of Chapter 1 that Silvie has at some undetermined point murdered poor little Skye and is now wearing her skin and fur to impersonate her though the end of the chapter muddles things by showing another Skye, who could either be the real one or another counterpart entirely. Though this evil disguise brings Shapeshifter Baggage with it, as she convulses, vomits demonic blood and passes out from the stress. Silvie in her true eldritch form is unhindered and has no limitations.
• Gilded Cage: Skye's Lovely Garden is an idyllic paradise where all the Handy Pals work and play every day, but are absolutely forbidden to ever leave once they're brought here. Those that break the rules will suffer the consequences.
• Guide Dang It!: Before Boxers' fighting competition, you are taught to learn that Blocking Stops All Damage, but against your opponents, you'll take considerable damage. To TKO the Handy Pals without getting knocked out once yourself, you must learn the art of dodging punches.
• Hair-Raising Hare: Silvie, both in her true eldritch form and when she lets the facade slip while posing as Skye.
• Haunted Technology: In a similar vein to Pony Island, you, the player, are trapped by an unknown demonic entity in front of an old PC and can only move your glove (the cursor) around.
• Helping Hands: The first character you encounter in the Garden is Number 8, one of Skye's Handy Pals who help her with the flowers and built her home. You later come across a monstrous Mutated Handy Pal in the Woods that serves as the first enemy. You later discover all these Helping Hands are really the creations of the demonic Silvie. They have enough free-will to be lazy, hide and play with Boxers, or venture to the Labyrinth. If they press Silvie's Berserk Button in breaking her rules, they are mercilessly killed, or if really unlucky, have their corpses transformed into mutated Handy Pals for their twisted maker to have the pleasure in hunting down and killing all over again.
• Heroic Sacrifice: To give Cursor and Boxers time to escape to the Labyrinth, the Handy Pal fighter Fingertaker punches Silvie away. Their remains are later found in the maze.
• Hyper-Awareness: Boxers will immediately spot you're not a normal Handy Pal, but in fact a Themed Cursor. He then wonders if Skye has run out of garden gloves.
• Immune to Bullets: When Ben sees "Skye's" true evil nature, he opts to take matters into his own hands without telling his father Nelson beforehand. He blows her face off point-blank with his shotgun, but the malevolent entity quickly regenerates as if nothing happened, and takes the young frog prisoner.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: When Silvie reveals herself as having impersonated Skye throughout Chapter 1 and discards her disguise, it seems as though Silvie murdered Skye and wore her skin to steal her identity. It's subverted at the very end of the chapter, which has the real Skye open the door to greet the Cursor, after they had emerged from the void within the labyrinth.
• Killer Rabbit: Silvie, with Glowing Eyes of Doom, tears Number 8 apart for defying her and seeking to escape the Lovely Garden. Likewise the player themselves discovers this on the early-build of the game where Skye (truly Silvie) swallows them whole if they mess with the Haunted Technology to spell out the passcode for "death".
• Morton's Fork: After Cursor saves Ben, the player can choose whether to tell him the truth about their father. If they lie, Ben befriends them fully and runs back home happily. If they tell the truth, Ben tearfully runs away, regretting trying to help the Handy Pals. It only got his father pointlessly murdered by Silvie. The choice you make has no bearing on the ending of Chapter 1.
• Off with His Head!: Poor, poor Nelson gets decapitated by one of the mutated Handy Pals that the fake Skye has created.
• One Last Field Trip: In a very dark example Silvie wants Nelson to go fishing with her, for "all time's sake". She begins upping the stakes until revealing she's imprisoned his son, and forces him to keep playing for his boy's freedom. Poor Nelson didn't know the demon had no intentions of letting either of them escape.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: It's clear that Boxers is a rabbit from the fact his disguise...does not cover his ears. Subverted; it's to hide the fact that he is a rabbit demon, not a normal rabbit, and to help the Handys feel more comfortable.
• Primal Fear: As seen in the teasers, Skye has a crippling fear of the darkness and the terrors that may or may not exist within it.
• Sanity Slippage: The fake Skye (Silvie) becomes increasingly disheveled and unhinged as the Handy Pals and Boxers openly defy her during the three days spent in the garden.
• Second Place Is for Losers: The fighter Fingertaker is always trying his best to get to first place, but usually ends up being second place on most of his fights, which constantly frustrates him.
• Shout-Out:
  • The three days you spend in Skye's Lovely Garden are a subtle reference to The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, where the 1st day is sunny and cheerful; the 2nd day rains non-stop; and the Final day is apocalyptic for the world as the characters enter the Labyrinth.
  • The Handy Pal fighters were inspired by famous wrestlers. Fingertaker being an obvious nod to the Undertaker, and Handle Banks is a reference to Sasha Banks.
  • A Loose Canon Halloween short has Skye dress as the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz.
  • When Skye is shot in the woods, her pose on the floor heavily resembles the infamous Family Guy death pose.
• Serial Killer: Even prior to Chapter 1, Silvie was murdering Handy Pals that attempted to enter and traverse the labyrinth. Over the course of Chapter 1 alone, Silvie (under the guise of Skye) murders several Handy Pals (among them Number 8 and Number 10) and Nelson. She claims ten more victims at once when she blows her whistle at the end of the chapter, causing the Handy Pals around Boxers and the Cursor to explode into giblets. The remains of the opponents the Cursor fought against earlier in Boxers's fighting competition (Handle Banks, Hand Sight, and Fingertaker) also appear in the labyrinth, indicating that Silvie has killed them, thus qualifying her as a Spree Killer as well.
• Sore Loser: When Nelson the frog beats her fairly in three rounds of fishing, the fake Skye (Silvie) is visibly angry, then breaks down into uncontrollable psychotic rage, screaming at Nelson, a good father to his son, always thinks "he's better than her". The rabbit summons beasts from the lake's depths to maul Nelson. The frog manages to survive with injuries, only to get decapitated by one of her mutated Handy Pals.
• Southern Belle: Skye speaks with a rural Southern United States dialect. The real Skye also speaks like this, Silvie does not out of her disguise.
• Stalker without a Crush: Clue 7 in the game shows Nelson's family reunion and posing for a photo. In the background, you'll see the silhouette of rabbit ears. Silvie was stalking him, and jealous of the frog's life, as her only family member, Boxers, had abandoned her when she began killing the Handy Pals.
• Stamina Meter: As seen in the trailers, Skye has one as she flees from the demonic entities that have consumed Carrot Town while searching for her brother Claudio. Cursor Glove has it too in Chapter 1.
• Stealth-Based Game: Later in the game, the Cursor needs to navigate dark woods and ancient labyrinths with the lamp, while hiding from Silvie and her mutated Handy Pals giving chase. You can hide in the thick grass to evade detection and sometimes shake off one of the monsters pursuing you.
• Stepford Smiler: Skye sports a friendly smile and seemingly enjoys keeping her Handy Pals under control as a Benevolent Boss, but its all a facade. She's void and dispassionate when she hasn't anyone new to manage, and becomes something far more terrifying as the mysterious rabbit covered in shadow who's always shown sporting a grinning malevolent Cheshire Cat Grin to anyone who falls under her purview. What's more, it's questionable if she was ever even Skye to begin with, as Boxers refers to her as Silvie (who also reveals herself to be Boxers's mother) just before he escapes from the garden world.
• Talk to the Fist: Fingertaker defends Boxers by punching Silvie away while she's in the middle of verbally abusing her son.
  Silvie: What's wrong, little one? I'm here for you...
  Boxers: STOP IT! Please... just, stop already!
  Silvie: After all this time... ...and this is how you treat your own MOTHER? Heh, just as I thought. You... You're just a WEAK! ...PATHETIC! ...LITTLE!
  [Fingertaker punches Silvie back]
  Boxers: F-Fingertaker? Are y-you...? ...Thank you.
• Villainous Breakdown: The fake Skye, later revealed to be Silvie, has two different ones in Chapter 1. First, she freaks out and starts ranting at the top of her lungs when Nelson wins her game fair and square before proceeding to murder him. Then, when ambushing Boxers, the Cursor, and the Handy Pals at the labyrinth entrance, Silvie goes on another rant where everyone who enters the labyrinth must be "disciplined" and that they could've just lived their normal lives had they obeyed her rules. Boxers has none of it and throws it right back at her face.
  Skye/Silvie: Maybe if [Number 8] had followed my RULES, none of this would have happened! And all of you could've lived your normal lives as always... But NO, you just HAD TO BREAK THE DAMN RULES, DIDN'T YA? Anyone who steps inside the labyrinth, must be DISCIPLINED! SIMPLE!
  Boxers: Disciplined? You mean killed? Doesn't sound like you're "disciplining" anyone around here. Sounds more like you're hiding something from us!
• You Are Number 6: Skye has numbered all of her Handy Pals (garden gloves) to help her with the chores and upkeep of the patch.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Repeatedly failing Skye's Action Commands in the garden will have her despair getting the chores done may "take a long time" and Thank the Maker when you do finally complete your given tasks.
• Wham Shot: How Chapter 1 ends. After escaping the Lovely Garden and Skye (or as Boxers call her, Silvie) after she reveals her true self, the Cursor Glove finds itself in front of an unfamiliar house. Upon knocking on the door, it's opened by... Skye, who sports a different outfit and an eyepatch on her right eye, seemingly unfamiliar with the Cursor Glove as she looks at it inquisitively.

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