13 Bones
You are an unnamed skeleton soldier, a minion among many.
Play 13 BONES (spicy black-jack, with cursed cards) to earn your freedom.
The cursed cards make you go BUST instantly if you play 3 of the same cursed symbol.
Initially created for the minijam 200 - original version playable HERE
Beta version for the upcoming version HERE
Controls:
Mouse only. Click on elements to interact with them.
hover (symbols, cards, decks, and enemies) to get more information.
Credits:
Art by Fscibe
Music by KOBOLD, courtesy by Heimat der Katastrophe
Placeholder icons: Flaticon
Updates:
10/01/2026 - Update 3.2
* Hotfix: Remove all postprocessing on low quality (for Mac users)
* Balancing: swap The Sword and The Headless, nerf The Master
09/01/2026 - Update 3
* Add: new enemies, chapter types, and branching paths
* Change: damage now is separated from card value
05/01/2026 - Update 2
* Fixes, including : reduce quality by default for mac
* replace part of the placeholder art
* Telemetry
30/12/2025 - Post jam update : polish, settings, save, and music
Day 1: show the rules by default, add a note to the skull explaining how to reroll
Development log
- 13 Bones: Update 0.3.1 is live !5 days ago
- 13 Bones - Post jam update15 days ago
Comments
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This was so fun!!! Even at the relatively small scale it feels like there's a lot of room for player expression. For example, I did a run where I had cursed double reroll threes and deleted all my sixes and fives, so I had really strong probability manipulation.
If you're interested in expanding this, I'd definitely be interested in playing A LOT more.
Other than one minor visual bug (reported it) the ONLY major complaint is how unfair the final boss is.
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too long; didn't read: Either nerf him, buff the player, allow armour to reduce attacks to 0, give power ups that allow you to bust your enemy by adding attack or allow hand size to be increased again (don't know if it was bad rng or you removed that ability but only got a card that reduced handsize)
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Granted beat the update in one run but had to lose all the lives and beat the boss on the final one. It feels disproportionately more difficult and feels more rng than the previous enemies despite being a card game with luck.
The only major strategy for newer players to give is to only upgrade health and damage but to never die and loss a life until the final boss. Even still, on death you basically redo the level or choose to restart the entire run opposed to continuing the fight with progress saved.
Like one time got a perfect 13 only to be pelted with 15ish damage because the boss got a perfect 15. The only saving grace is when he busts (usually never) or deal the same card attack to make a draw.
Other than that, it is a fine game.
i keep seeing achievements pop up. any way to see them in full?
Hey! They are not achievements, just the song name.
(I am very happy with KOBOLD allowing us to use their music, it really makes the game)
Yayah! I just wiped the smirk off the Master’s face on both enemy paths. Take that.
After getting my ass kicked by the final boss twice pretty badly it felt so perfect to absolutely steamroll it with 3 perfect hands and overkill it by like 10 damage lol
Really fun concept, and definetly one that has potential to be expanded! The final boss can absolutely go fuck itself though.
AWESOMEEEEE
Oh, this is frustrating. See, the armor upgrade fails to reduce damage to 0 under any circumstance, but does not tell me this, so I have what should by rights be an invincible build (3 armor) to slowly chip the Master down, but I simply don't have the bust limit to beat her in the game as actually implemented. I would have made different build choices if I'd known.
oh hell yeah, this is awesome
Yeah this is great. Will be keeping my eye on your account
This is such a great game! I love it!
You adapted the rules of blackjack brilliantly and the aesthetic is just the right amount of off putting. Keep up the great work. I am going to download the beta.
Some notes:
The way the +X to maximum before bust is poorly explained. Does it apply to the current turn or the next turn?
Would love some keyboard controls. It makes sense to have the hit/stay on opposite sides of the interface, but I find it gets in the way of the flow of the game to use the mouse.
I suggest implementing A for hit, F for stay at least.
For accessibility points, tab/arrow to cycle through elements on the screen.
Thank you for the feedback!
Tutorial and keyboard/gamepad control are the 2 most important tasks that I have been procastinating until we are stabilize the layout.
The beta is currently behind the current version. I will probably put a new version around Thursday-Friday with the current WIP.
WHAT A GAME.
So awesome
me atrapaste, si es GOTY
Just curious, in the final version will we actually get a nice cinematic of the skeleton going to the beach?
We would love to, but we need to do the rest of the game first
Yes ofc I was just wondering lol
omg thats perfect
i didn't really get why everyone was so into this game, but since the update I started to understand. Just managed to make a build where I beat the master without taking damage and it was great.
this game so good, the only way to improve it at this point is more content
s+ great job keep this going!
Absolutely loving it. I've been playing it on repeat, and after seeing the new update I'm totally stoked. At first i was surprised and a little nervous with all the changes, but omg its awesome what you've done with it. I appreciate the opponents' curse cards and the varying paths you can take. well done!!! :)
hi will this be a downloadable game in the future?
The idea is to continue working on it for a while.
For now, with web is easier to get the player feedback.
i can see this game being popular
me too, its SO good
can 4s get a skull curse?
yes, they can.
Nice game, I love the art style.
that final boss was hard but I managed to win by destroying my 4 & 5 cards & upgrading my 1, 2 & 3 cards to have infinite rerolls.
It didn't mattered what the boss pulled because I always got 13 >:D (I still lost 2 times xd)
Why I can't get past the initial screen of flashing lights warnings? Clicking on I understood does nothing. I'm using a mac and Chrome browser to play.
Hi, sorry to hear that.
There is a known issue with Mac users, is it an M3?
I will work on a fix next week.
FWIW I am having the same issue on iPad mini6 on Safari. GL with troubleshooting
Mac on safri too
You can play the version from the gamejam the link is on the page near the top (labed HERE)
Thank you, that helps a lot
I pushed a hotfix. Could you tell me if the new version still has the issue?
Yes! The current one works for me. Thrilled to help!
I really love the art style of this game and the mechanics and the art, all of it is incredible! I have yet to beat the boss, but seeing some of the comments say it is possible just fuels my desire to achieve it myself!
I came close a couple of times but I finally beat the boss! Truly in love with this game, thank you!
Very glad you like it !
This is so sick I've been playing for hours!! The art and music are so insanely good
Glad you liked it! <3
I saw your review: The final boss is intentionally hard, it is not a fair fight (people beat her around 1/10 of the times).
The idea is to add some light meta-progression to make the run easier.
the finla boss is unbeatable ;(. Amazing game and work
I did it finally with a life card build with 6 less cards and one curse.
Cool game, cool skeleton, cool cards. Just what my soul needed
Very nice one, fast nice and easy to understand (at the second last match lol)
Cool game. Really expect the full version.
Really cool game
Awesome concept, are you planning on expanding it into a full game?
That’s the plan, seeing what we can do with it. Here’s the current WIP: https://solroo.itch.io/13-bones-beta
I LOVE THE NUSIC SO MUCH AND THE END SCENE IS SO FUNNY LMAO
Very Fun Game
W, I would love to see the cinematic of the skeleton going to the beach :D
This game is very funny, remind me balatro, i would pay for a complete version.
The browser version of the game is only updating every time I exit and enter fullscreen
Sorry to hear that. Which OS+browser are you using?
Mac and Google Chrome
We had some issues with Mac, particularly the post processing.
Could you tell me a bit more of what happens? The screen goes black? Or the game freezes?
It's just nothing updates. I click the settings button and nothing changes, but when I enter fullscreen the setting menu opens. If I click on song popup nothing happens, but the setting is shown correctly as turned off when I exit full screen
Ok, thank you for the information. I will look into it.
Could I ask you to check if the game in low quality? (it should be for Mac users)
Super fun and super fast! I could absolutely see myself becoming addicted to this if it were a mobile game. The rush I felt turn1 busting the Disembodied Sword with a perfect 13 +2 dmg was awesome!
SOO GOOD!!!
really fun quick game. great work!
I like the game. Fast gameplay, simple with some depth, and not too punishing. My only complaint is that busting and curses take effect before you have the opportunity to reroll. Speculative rerolls seem less intuitive and less useful than reactive rerolls