#boneworking

[wtimetravelgentlemen]

Not to reenactment post on main but!!! My tools i ordered from the blacksmith finally arrived!!!! AH

They are so sick, i will get so much use of em

[ebicthings]

Oh what up son?

[irbcallmefynn]

They should invent a way to permanently blast my consciousness into the virtual world so I can live in VRchat and Bonelab

Actually wait I'm pretty sure that's like actually the plot of Boneworks basically. Damn. Arthur Ford was fuckin on to something.

Outta my way you immortality seeking cuck I'm boutta turn myself into a wolf with tits.

[goabmeal]

First post!! Hello!

I know I made this account today and everything but two days ago I celebrated my birthday and made a pretty self-indulgent piece based on one of my favorite videos :]

I'll make an introductory post later HOORAY!!

[wordrc]

SPOILERS FOR THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS, just to be safe.

ok so just watched the amazing digital circus pilot and i have to point out a couple similarities i have found between it and bonelab/boneworks.

so in both of them the main character is someone that in some way put a headset on and both canonically take place in a digital world.

the both feature a void, which looks, voidish

boneworks has some focus on that kind of colorful playful color aestetic as well. featuring that kind of, of course, digital mood.

the both feature quirky headsets with 90s computers

with bonelab also having a more colorful and saturated feel... i don't know how to describe it to be honest.

i felt like some soundtrack pieces felt similar too. /pos

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

 Bone hairpin, 1000BC-300BC, Japan.

[racsow]

dimensions of storytelling (quickly becoming a rant about interactive media)

storytelling in different mediums is something i've been thinking a lot about recently.

writing is the simplest, most direct form of storytelling. it leaves the most up to the reader. it has the fewest technical barriers - the only requirement is understanding of language. i would not call it primitive, but it is the oldest (aside from verbal, of course).

video tells a story in two mediums; sight and sound. it communicates a story through these subsidiary senses, its words are sight and sound. It can evoke imagery and sensations that we rely on our imagination to conjure with the written word, with the result that it is a more vivid experience but also more regimented, more definitive.

games are three-dimensional storytelling, but instead of involving more senses, they add an axis of interactivity - a dimension of time, almost. It is a damn shame that most game companies focus on making just that: games. The moments i most remember from video games are not usually enjoyable gameplay but evocative environments and scenes. There is so much that this medium, at a base level, has to offer. Its potential not as entertainment but as a medium of storytelling feels much less explored than anything that came before.

To me, virtual reality is the same dilemma multiplied. I cannot tell you how sad it makes me that VR seems to constrain itself to physics-based shooters a la Boneworks or low-poly minigames. Story almost never is a priority in VR titles. They are marketed as immersive entertainment.

VR has a latent sense of realism that makes it the most effective storytelling format I've ever experienced. More than film, games, or written word, when I recall VR it feels real. I remember walking through the environments, picking up objects, physically crawling through tight gaps or feeling dizzy standing at a precipice. Memories of VR blur the mental categorization of reality and media.

The result is that even though VR is painfully lacking in engaging stories, I still felt so emotionally and mentally present in my time playing them. My favorite moment of any game was from the VR title Boneworks, the 2018 pioneer of the phys-shooter. The part I remember had no enemies, no dialogue or any physics gameplay for which it's been lauded.

I had emerged from a metro ride into a grungy underground station. There was this faint pattering noise from above which I wondered about as I restored power to the station and pried off the boards that led to ground level with a crowbar I found lying around.

And I went up the stained tile stairs, rounding a corner, ascending step by step. The noise grew louder, and then I walked out into the Central Station, vast and empty with a great curving glass roof. Rain was hammering down, forming actual rivulets of water that coursed into gutters emptying nearby. The virtual city outside was engulfed in a storm, but through the deluge, framed by the station windows, I could see the looming Monogon Tower with its red lights in the mist, the end destination of the game, its huge countdown clock blazing in the turbulent sky as Michael Wyckoff's melancholy synth hummed in sync with the drumming of the rain.

I stood there for a long time. I actually laid down in real life, fully on the floor, the grungy station tiles millimeters from my face, and laid there looking up at the glass roof for something like 20 minutes.

The story of Boneworks is, well, barebones, and it always takes an immediate backseat to adrenaline-gorged combat and middling puzzles with lackluster greyboxed environments. If it were a flatscreen game, I would've forgotten about it immediately. But the innate vividity of VR has ingrained this game in my mind permanently. I think about that moment all the time, and when I do, I remember a place I've really been, not a game I played.

And by god, if that's what a greybox phys-shooter like Boneworks can do, then can you even imagine what the potential of this medium is? What experiences we can craft, what worlds we can build and explore? What emotions we can evoke? What stories can we tell with this medium? And why, for god's sake, aren't we?

[fennekkkk]

Whether or not Bonelab as an actually good VR game is debatable, like I think it was a really fun time. Not to say it was perfect, far from it. getting to the rest of the campaign was obtuse and Moon Mission/The Pillar were... definitely there alright. Despite all that there was some proper Boneworks action, and any game where I get to beat the shit out of cops with an electric guitar is an immediate 10/10. What I actually loved about Bonelab was it's story. Which sounds insane if you've played either but I promise if you pay attention Bonelabs story is very cool and some really neat themes to it.

Like the ending of Bonelab was far more emotionally cathartic for me then Boneworks. It's climax feels so much more personal and cohesively tying the themes of the game together ending it off with the wonderful Don't Fence Me In. BW's ending is.. pretty good but due to the fact that a lot of BW's story is obscured. It gives a lot to think about after and theorycrafting to engage in but personally I wish it had more emotional impact. Also the ladder climb is cool the first time but the antic-climax that is the final cutscene and the lack of challenge really takes the oomph out of it. Although punching the king was fun.

[demon-puppygirl]

Haiii :3

First post yippeee! ^_^ here's some notes: -I can be called bucket, puppygirl, anything you want :3 -Transfem girlie (not on hrt yet tho so i still look too masculine.. :c) -kinda subby puppy 👉👈 -very possibly maybe autistic but i don't know, I'll find out one day :333333 -Kinda gay but also kinda straight (femboys and transfems are so silly and the besttttahfhhfjygnaygbjgha)

-into a whole variety of things, some of the things I hyper-fixate over include the Half-Life series (or anything else by Valve tbh), Murder Drones (absolutely awesome indie web series), FNaF, DOOM, Evangelion, Nokotan, the Spiderverse movies, Minecraft occasionally, basically anything VR related, SLZ's Bonelab/Boneworks series, and like a whole lot of other stuff I don't have the space for :3 -Love anything transfem related, at all, completely, 100% :3 -Avid artist, not very good tho ~(>_<。)＼maybe I'll post some of my work some time! anyway that's abt it I think I forgor :3 baibai pleasepleasepleaseeeee feel free to interact I need the attention qwq

[thatoneluna]

I don't think that anyone on here understand how much of a fucking goober Arthur ford as a character is, like

MAN ATTEMPTS TO ACHIEVE IMMORTALITY, GETS MURDERED, FOUND ALIVE WITH INFINITE CLONES OF HIMSELF WHILE TRAPPED IN A LITERAL VOID

[scrimboalex]

Jimmy from bonelab could be a tumblr sexy man but you guys aren’t ready to have that convo. play bonelab and you will agree

[intercommodore]

the puzzle vs boneworks players spending 20 minutes meticulously bypassing the puzzle

[worldlydesiretemple]

the recurring dream.

[bl4aze]

reblog this if your a true boner

[voidsludgemp3]

Theory time!

In Bonelab's ending, Jimmy states "this song is the road. Without it...we'd just be going in circles" about the song Don't Fence Me In. I have a few ideas what that means.

Don't Fence Me In is a song that drives you forward, granting you motivation to continue. I don't think it's this one honestly but it's the first thing that comes to mind.

DFMI clears a path to your destination, hence why Jimmy plays it while driving in the Voidway. The song is like Take Control from Control, unveiling the labyrinth and allowing you to pass through it with ease.

DFMI is a passcode, maybe into other destinations. Like the city maybe? Something about it grants you access to those areas.

That's all I got for ideas, I think Jimmy was being literal about DFMI being the road.

[buildacatboy]

i am the only man in history to ever enjoy boneworks + bonelabs’ story. does anyone even know arthur ford exists aside from myself jfc