BoneCrawler

Welcome, initiate.
We have a task for you.

You are a bonecrawler, a tool and relic of the realm.
The king requests our services again.. and the purpose for your existence is to the kingdom.
Complete this job and you'll earn your stay.

About the Game

BoneCrawler is a fast-paced NES-Style Dark Fantasy Arcade Action game. It is designed for short, intense gaming sessions where survival depends on balancing aggressive combat with a calculated upgrade path.

While a full game run may only take 10–20 minutes, it's made to be difficult.. and that may take you an hour or 2 while trying to not die every 60 seconds, filled with hidden secrets and some prelude lore to a new story I'm crafting. 

Don't worry, you got this.

Key Features

• Arcade Combat: Tight, responsive action focused on "one more time" replay-ability.
• Strategic Upgrades: Time your upgrade path to stay ahead of scaling enemy difficulty.
• Secrets & Lore: A few hidden secrets for those who like to explore
• Inspiration: Gameplay inspired by the atmosphere of The Legend of Zelda (NES) and the difficulty and speed of Ninja Gaiden/Devil May Cry.

Development Notes

This is still a work in progress and I'm working on a Steam & Play Store release!



Most of the project was completed in just over a week utilizing a custom-built engine and editor that I built from scratch combining AI (Claude/GPT) to assist in accelerating development - by helping me compartmentalize and build the game into modules following Game Development practices. As a software engineer I applied standard SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) practices to build the game's architecture, eventually developing a dedicated editor tool to help streamline testing, and eventually, world building via a canvas editor to paint live.

This is the first of many planned projects. Future goals include making the custom engine and editor tools available as open-source resources for other developers.



I am also posting updates of the editor on YouTube if you'd like to follow: youtube.com/watch?v=r8hjScFKmr4&t=29s

Support

If you enjoy the game or are interested in the technical engine work behind it, please consider showing support by "buying" this free game. All contributions help fund future development and the eventual public release of these tools. You can play the game free at www.bonecrawler.com or visit the GitHub page: https://immagundam.github.io/BoneCrawler/