- BONEREADER: Characters (Opponents) Lore - Chapter 1 - 11 August 2026
BONEREADER Background StoryCareer criminal and mercenary Harlan Hill dies in the electric chair, but death offers him no rest. In the hut of a Native shaman, a mysterious spirit challenges him to a game of dice, wagering a chance at rebirth—and perhaps vengeance.Against all odds, Harlan wins. Stepping beyond the hut, he enters a surreal, mescaline dreamscape: a purgatory shaped by memory, guilt, and judgment. Whether he belongs there or not is another question entirely.A brutal man with a stubborn belief in his own justice, Harlan has always relied on willpower and violence to get what he wants. Crude and uneducated, yet capable of both compassion and cruelty, he is a soul suspended between darkness and light, forever swinging from one extreme to the other.“You cannot remember how you came to be in this dilapidated shack. The air is thick and stagnant, heavy with the smell of stove smok…
- BONEREADER is OUT NOW! - 6 August 2026
Fate isn't written. It's dealt.Roll the dice for a shot at rebirth in this otherworldly card game adventure. Build your deck, harness mystical dice, and battle spirits in a deadly game of chance through a psychedelic purgatory. Will you escape, or be damned for eternity?BONEREADER - Launch TrailerEvery soul in Purgatory plays by different rules. Every spirit has something to wager. Every roll could decide your fate.THE HOUSE HAS RULESNo two opponents play alike.Every spirit twists the game with its own supernatural "house rule," forcing you to adapt your strategy, rethink your deck, and gamble against impossible odds.Challenge a host of mysterious otherworldly spirits.Outsmart each opponent's unique "house rule."Claim powerful new dice from defeated foes.Use their own powers to tip the odds in your favor.Speak with each spirit to uncover their stories—and your own.ESCAPE FROM PURGATORYF…
- BONEREADER Launches on August 6! - 23 July 2026
Your soul is on the table.Roll the dice for a shot at rebirth in this otherworldly card game adventure. Build your deck, harness mystical dice, and battle spirits in a deadly game of chance through a psychedelic purgatory. Will you escape—or be damned for eternity?Every soul in Purgatory plays by different rules. Every spirit has something to wager. Every roll could decide your fate.ROLL THE BONESBuild your collection of mystical cards and dice.Roll the "bones" to play cards and score big.Create powerful synergies between your cards, dice, and items.Push your score ever higher in a deadly game of chance.Every roll matters—greed can save you or damn you.THE HOUSE HAS RULESNo two opponents play alike.Every spirit twists the game with its own supernatural "house rule," forcing you to adapt your strategy, rethink your deck, and gamble against impossible odds.Challenge a host of mysterious o…
- Bonereader is officially nominated for Best Deckbuilder Award - 16 June 2026
🦴 Big news! Bonereader is officially nominated for Best Deckbuilder Award at the TooManyGames Indie Game Showcase! 🏆We're beyond excited to be recognized among the indie scene. Winners will be announced June 26–28 — keep your fingers crossed! THE SHOWTooManyGames is one of the East Coast's longest-running gaming expos, and the Indie Game Showcase is one of its crown jewels. This year's event runs across three days:Hall A, B & C — Marketplace, Guests & Indie Booths • Friday, June 26: 2pm – 9pm • Saturday, June 27: 11am – 9pm • Sunday, June 28: 11am – 5pmHall D & E — Main Stages • Friday, June 26: 2pm – 10pm • Saturday, June 27: 11am – 10pm • Sunday, June 28: 11am – 5pmINDIE GAME SHOWCASE EVENTSTwo major showcase events will be streamed LIVE on both YouTube and Steam: • Trailer Stream: 7:30pm – 9:30pm • Awards Ceremony: 9:30pm – 10:45pmHuge thanks to @TooManyGames for the nomination! 🙏…
- Demo — Patch Notes v 0.0.9.2 - 9 June 2026
Bonereader Demo — Patch Notes v 0.0.9.2Systems — Dialogue system fully rewritten from scratch. Improved stability, performance, and code readability. — Sound effects optimized. Reduced playback overhead and fixed minor audio artifacts.New content — Rulebook added. Press Tab at any time during play to open it. — Second playable deck added to the demo. — Dithering toggle added to the options menu.Fixes & balance — Updated card descriptions for several cards. Fixed inaccuracies, improved clarity.— Replaced icons on several cards. — Balance adjustments to several cards in the current demo build.
- Patch Notes — v0.0.8.8 Demo - 8 May 2026
🃏 Casino Mode — Balance OverhaulCompletely reworked the balance of Casino mode Adjusted drop rates for rare cards and table eventsReworked the economy: difficulty and rewards now scale more smoothly with each run🔧 Item ChangesReworked the mechanics of several items — their behavior is now more consistent and intuitiveBrought item interactions with Casino mode in line with the new balanceSome items received additional effects to feel more impactful🐛 Bug FixesFixed a large number of bugs related to Casino mode, including critical onesFixed cases of incorrect UI behavior in Casino mode under certain conditionsVarious minor bugs reported by players have been addressed✏️ Text & TyposFixed typos in item descriptions, event text, and UI elementsImproved readability of several tooltips and pop-up messagesThank you to everyone playing the demo and sending feedback — you're directly shaping wh…
- Bonereader Devlog #1 - 6 May 2026
Hey everyone! My name is Yakov, and I'm a game developer. You may have played my previous projects: Dom Rusalok, Loretta, and Anoxia Station. Right now I'm finishing up a new game — Bonereader. Since I've been thinking a lot about game balance lately, I decided to share my experience, reflect freely on the development process, and hopefully offer some useful tips for other devs who wokring in Game Maker.Bonereader is a card game with a poker-on-dice mechanic. You get fried in an electric chair and end up in Purgatory — inspired by the novels of Carlos Castaneda and Cormac McCarthy — where you're forced to play dice with various spirits for a ghostly chance at reincarnation.The core mechanic is bone poker (yatzy). As a kid, my brother and I often played one of its variations. When work on Anoxia Station was wrapping up, I — like many people — got into Balatro. And I needed to come up wit…
- Patch - Demo v0.0.8.6 Live - 30 April 2026
Optimization CJK Font RenderingOptimized CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) font assets to reduce memory overhead and improve load times in all supported locales. Glyph atlases have been repacked for more efficient GPU texture utilization.Optimization Texture Page PackingTexture pages have been reorganized and compressed to reduce VRAM usage. Sprite atlases are now batched more efficiently, lowering draw call counts and improving frame pacing on mid-range hardware.UpdatePopup WindowsReworked the layout and styling of all in-game popup windows. Improved readability, adjusted padding and font scaling, and ensured consistent visual behavior across different screen resolutions.Bug Fix2 K Resolution IssuesFixed multiple UI and rendering bugs that occurred at 2560×1440 (2K) resolution — including misaligned elements, clipped text, and incorrect scaling of HUD components.As always, thank you for…
- Try the Bonereader demo — wishlist & share your feedback! - 22 April 2026
Hey everyone! I’m Yakov — you might’ve seen my previous games (Anoxia Station, Loretta, DOM RUSALOK) around here.I just put up a Steam page for my new project, Bonereader. It’s a deck-building card game with dice mechanics. You’re executed in an electric chair and wake up in a shamanic Purgatory, where you gamble against spirits for a chance at rebirth.Each turn (or reroll) applies a curse, so every decision matters. You build two decks at once — cards and dice — and try to break the system with synergies, items, and a bit of calculated risk.It’s heavily inspired by Castaneda and McCarthy — dark, surreal, and a little unhinged.🎮 The demo is live now! I’d love for you to give it a try.👉 Wishlist the game if you like what you see — it helps a ton. 💬 And please leave a comment or post your feedback in the discussions. Every opinion counts.Play the demo on Steam!Thanks for your support,…
- Creation Art - Bonereader - 8 April 2026
The process of creating backgrounds in Bonereader. Both Daria (artist) and I have a negative attitude toward AI art. Not fanatically, though. We just agree that AI slop almost always looks bad and talentless. And almost always you can tell.That said, it's worth acknowledging — traditional art is going through rough times. As you may know, I work together with my best friend, Daria. I handle coding, concepts, and writing, while Daria creates all the art. After the dark and complex Anoxia Station, we wanted something bright and a little crazy.It’s become absurd — real art now needs to prove upfront it’s not made by AI. Well, hard times make strong kittens.The demo will be released on April 21! I’m really looking forward to it. Please feel free to add the game to your wishlist and share it with your friends—it would help us a lot.
- Bonereader on Steam! - 1 April 2026
Dear friends, it finally happened! Bonereader now has its own Steam page! ⚡💀Bonereader is a card game with dice mechanics. You’re executed in the electric chair — and wake up in a shamanic Purgatory, where you must defeat strange spirits in games of chance for the right to be reborn.Please consider adding the game to your wishlist and sharing it with friends — it helps us a lot!The demo launches on April 21. 🎲
