Sickle Claw Studio

Bonehead

Live as a single Velociraptor mongoliensis, from a 200-gram hatchling onward, in the dune fields of the Gobi about 75 million years ago. Uncover the desert one square at a time, follow scent to food and water, and when you meet another animal, decide fast: go in, or back away.

Play the demo in your browser Early build · placeholder art, in active development

What makes it Bonehead

Closer to a roguelike than a dinosaur power fantasy.

One raptor, real stakes

You play a single animal from a 200-gram hatchling onward. There's no respawn to shrug off a bad decision, and a grown raptor still only weighs about 15 kg in a desert that can kill it.

Scent, not a minimap

You track food, water and danger through a scent field that reports bearing and strength, not exact positions. The map fills in only as you actually walk it.

Every claim is evidence-based

What's known about Velociraptor and the Djadochta Formation is cited; where the fossil record has no number, the game says so instead of pretending otherwise.

Decide fast, or someone decides for you

Meet another animal and you get a short window to attack or back away. Hesitate too long and it acts first.

Gallery

Every image here is from the game itself: concept art made for Bonehead, alongside the current build. Since the v3 demo build, terrain squares draw that same concept art once you've stood on them; the animal marker and HUD readouts are still programmer art, not final visuals.

Concept art: the 200-gram hatchling you start as

Play the demo

An early build, running right in your browser.

Early build: placeholder art, sound effects and ambience but no music yet, and content is still being added.

How to play the demo

MoveWASD or the numpad steps one square in any of eight directions (Q/E/Z/C for the diagonals). Space, X or numpad 5 waits in place.

Follow your noseThe scent readout reports the strongest smells nearby, with a bearing and the wind, not exact positions. Walk toward what you need.

EncountersMeet another animal and a countdown starts: press F to attack or R to back away. Wait too long and it acts first.

The mapFog of war: a square is drawn once you've stood on it and stays drawn. Unvisited ground stays blank until you walk it.

One animal, one life. There's no reset button built into the demo beyond reloading the page.

Best played on desktop

Bonehead is keyboard-only right now. Come back on a desktop browser to try the demo.

System requirements

Provisional, for the Windows build. It's a lightweight 2D game; these will firm up closer to release.

OS	Windows 10 64-bit or later
Processor	Dual-core, 2.0 GHz or better
Memory	4 GB RAM
Graphics	Integrated graphics with WebGL2/OpenGL 3.3 support
Storage	1 GB available space

Not planned for mobile or Mac/Linux at this time.