BONEREADER launches on PC with deckbuilding, dice and spirit battles

DANGEN Entertainment and developer Bonereaders have released BONEREADER, a narrative card game combining deckbuilding with dice-based combat, for PC.

The game launched on August 6 through Steam, GOG, Humble and itch.io and is priced at $4.99.

In BONEREADER, players control an executed character whose soul awakens in a surreal purgatory. Seeking another chance at life, he must defeat a series of spirits while investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.

Battles revolve around building combinations between cards, mystical dice and collectible items. Players roll dice to activate cards, increase their score and create synergies, but pushing for a higher total also introduces additional risk.

Each spirit imposes an individual “house rule” that changes the conditions of the encounter. Players must adjust their decks and tactics around these restrictions, with defeated opponents granting new dice that can be used in later battles.

Conversations with the spirits also contribute to the narrative, revealing information about the protagonist, his execution and the figures occupying the game’s afterlife.

Steam categorizes BONEREADER as a single-player strategy game and lists support for English, Russian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Its store description similarly identifies cards, dice and opponent-specific rules as the game’s central systems.

A digital artbook launched alongside the game. According to the publisher, the companion release contains more than 40 pages covering the game’s cards, dice, items and characters, with commentary from creators Yakov Butuzov and Daria Vodyanaya. It is available separately and as part of a Collector’s Edition containing the game and artbook.