Good Bones

Really nice visual novel that has some options and small puzzles to do. Also your options matter. Deals with grief and domestic abuse, but they have a really good trigger warning at the start, which is great to see. Love the art style. The vocal noises aren't full voice acted, but it gives it a little extra interest and depth to the characters. Kind of wanted to know or see more about certain things or a consequence for one thing. (hard to say without spoiling). But in the end and overall really satisfied with how the story went.

The game was fun but could be quite heavy for some people. Dang that ending though, jeez! lol

I really enjoyed playing this game. I love the point-and-click mechanics and the story-driven aspect. I really felt the weight of my choices, the grief from the characters, and some trepidation for what I thought was to come. Having multiple saves really encourages the replayability. I had a bit of frustration in finding something in the last chapter, but otherwise, I have nothing but positive criticism for this game and its developers! I look forward to seeing what else they create next!

best game to play while nursing a mug of coffee over the course of a few hours on a rainy Sunday morning ☕︎

I really wanted to like this game, but numerous issues prevented me from doing so. Other users have described the same thing, but while dialogue changes for certain items in the game, and you have to interact with items multiple times at different points, some of the dialogue remains the same no matter what. This took me out of the game play because the dialogue in some items didn't update when characters learned new things, and in certain instances, the dialogue was advanced beyond what they should have known. I was also bothered by the sounds the characters made. There were four or five reactions that basically amounted to cloying "aw" sounds in various tones. Especially when you are having to move through the same dialogue over and over because you don't know what items are going to change with the storyline, this can get extremely annoying. I finally stopped playing the game with any sound. All of that I could have put up with, but the bad ending of the game made me angry. This is a game about grief and the developer made it so that [spoiler]the main character's child commits suicide and the ghost tells her that she's a bad parent who is callous and cruel and then taunts her to "move on." Then, the game ends [/spoiler]. All of this happened because I made a couple of "bad" choices with the dialogue like telling a ten year old [spoiler]that she would make new friends instead of lying and saying she'd keep in touch with the old ones. She's ten. That's just not realistic. I was a military kid and moved around a lot when I was a child and I didn't keep in touch with anyone before high school. Another "bad" choice I made was offering to play a game with the ten year old instead of saying "let's talk some more." Again, she's ten. Using a game as an opportunity to talk, especially about grief, is an equally healthy if not healthier way to handle a ten year old. Further spoilers, the game doesn't allow you to do anything like that. If you make that choice, you just play tic tac toe[/spoiler]. In general, I think my issue with the game was that it ventured into tough topics and then ended up handling them poorly. The game was also kindof a weird mess with the other themes it tackled, including [spoiler] spousal abuse [/spoiler]. It seemed like the developer couldn't decide if the game should be a tragedy, a comedy, a cozy game, or a horror game and thus ended up making something "horrific" instead.

Good Bones is a game worth giving a little time. It's not particularly long, so why not! I appreciate the respect given to sensitive topics, as well as the realism of navigating familial relationships in times of struggle. Props for creating a diverse, interesting cast of characters. The backgrounds are pretty and I enjoyed the original music. Sometimes I wish it was a little clearer where I needed to look for certain items, but at least there is a hint system. As an itty bitty dev myself, this game inspired me to want to give ren'py another try. SUPPORT INDIE DEVS!!!

Love getting to explore and slowly uncover a story.

I am positively surprised by this game. The art style is awesome, and the writing is very good. The puzzles within the game are easy to understand and if you do get lost, you always get a helpful hint as well. It is a rather short story, and I was hoping for even more :) The ui is easy to understand as well. Depending on your choices, you can get two and a half different endings, which I found super cool as well. The story had the potential to be even something bigger with more characters. E.g. I never found out who was texting me back on that phone (I can take a guess, of course, but it would have been fun to expand that one more). Absolutely loved it, and I am excited to see more from the devs!

Not enough bones, but the ones that are there are pretty good.