Hey everyone!

My name is Yakov, and I'm a game developer. You may have played my previous projects: Dom Rusalok, Loretta, and Anoxia Station. Right now I'm finishing up a new game — Bonereader. Since I've been thinking a lot about game balance lately, I decided to share my experience, reflect freely on the development process, and hopefully offer some useful tips for other devs who wokring in Game Maker.

Bonereader is a card game with a poker-on-dice mechanic. You get fried in an electric chair and end up in Purgatory — inspired by the novels of Carlos Castaneda and Cormac McCarthy — where you're forced to play dice with various spirits for a ghostly chance at reincarnation.

The core mechanic is bone poker (yatzy). As a kid, my brother and I often played one of its variations. When work on Anoxia Station was wrapping up, I — like many people — got into Balatro. And I needed to come up with a concept for a new game quickly. That's when I remembered dice poker.

I'm not a programmer — I'm a doctor by training. Despite that, I've been doing this for about eight years now. My main problem is that I have no systematic programming knowledge and only know one language: GML. If I find an elegant solution to some problem in someone's GitHub project, I "borrow" it, of course — but I always rewrite it substantially. These days, though, there's no coding task that could truly stump me. And if there is, I can always ask the free version of Claude for advice.

The one thing I haven't picked up is networking code, but only because I've never needed it. Beyond that, my only real limitations are the inability to work in 3D — and imagination.

At its core, my project has three main objects: [c]obj_dice[/c], [c]obj_combination[/c], and [c]obj_controller[/c], which handles [c]global.game_state[/c] (i.e., everything happening in the game).

After a brief conversation with a spirit, a shop opens where you can buy items and dice, and sell or purchase combination cards. Each monster has a "house rule" — a special condition you must follow.

Along the way, you'll encounter many lost souls, some of whom have completely lost their human form.

Each opponent gives you four rounds, and the last round plays out under a random "Omen" — essentially a debuff. Finally, on each turn or roll, a random effect is applied to a random card in your hand — some beneficial, some not, and some in between.

The score calculation works roughly like this:

[c]function _check_card_effect_to_final_score(add_to_score_all, card_level) {[/c]

[c]var final_score = add_to_score_all;[/c]

[c]var temp_mult = 1;[/c]

[c]var temp_bonus = 0;[/c]

[c]var basedice = ceil(card_base + global.dice_slot1 + global.dice_slot2 + global.dice_slot3 + global.dice_slot4 + global.dice_slot5);[/c]

[c]var base_score = basedice;[/c]

[c]var item_bonus_score = global.item_bonus_score;[/c]

[c]var item_bonus_mult = global.item_bonus_mult;[/c]

[c]Then we apply the card's curse, if it has one:[/c]

[c]if (ENEMY_EFFECT_CARD_HAND_CURSE) {[/c]

[c]final_score = max(0, final_score - (100 * eff_power));[/c]

[c]}[/c]

[c]Then we check tattoos — permanent buffs awarded for leveling up. And finally, we calculate the result:[/c]

[c]if (global.GET_BONUS_TATTOO_ODD_BONUS) {[/c]

[c]var countodd = 0;[/c]

[c]var dice = \[global.dice_slot1, global.dice_slot2, global.dice_slot3, global.dice_slot4, global.dice_slot5];[/c]

[c]for(var i=0; i<5; i++) {[/c]

[c]if(dice\ % 2 == 1) countodd += tattoo_odd_bonus;[/c][/p]

[c]}[/c]

[c]temp_mult += countodd; }[/c]

[c]if (global.GET_BONUS_TATTOO_EVEN_BONUS) {[/c]

[c]var counteven = 0;[/c]

[c]var dice = \[global.dice_slot1, global.dice_slot2, global.dice_slot3, global.dice_slot4, global.dice_slot5];[/c]

[c]for(var i=0; i<5; i++) {[/c]

[c]if(dice\ != 0 && dice\ % 2 == 0) counteven += tattoo_even_bonus; } temp_mult += counteven;[/c][/p]

[c]}[/c]

[c]// --- FINAL CALCULATION --- [/c]

[c]var result = (final_score + temp_bonus) * temp_mult;[/c]

In short: we sum the dice values, multiply by the card level, and stack the remaining effects on top.

Items work on this principle:

[c]if (sprite_index == spr_item_golden_tooth) {[/c]

[c]audio_play_sound(snd_item_golden_thoot, 0, false, global.SOUNDS_VOLUME_MAX) add_bonus_per_dice_value(6, 10);[/c]

[c]ACTIVATED = true[/c]

[c]}[/c]

Where add_bonus_per_dice_value() is:

[c]function add_bonus_per_dice_value(dice_value, bonus_per_die) {[/c]

[c]var count = 0;[/c]

[c]if (global.dice_slot1 == dice_value) count++;[/c]

[c]if (global.dice_slot2 == dice_value) count++;[/c]

[c]if (global.dice_slot3 == dice_value) count++;[/c]

[c]if (global.dice_slot4 == dice_value) count++;[/c]

[c]if (global.dice_slot5 == dice_value) count++;[/c]

[c]global.item_bonus_score += count * bonus_per_die;[/c]

[c]}[/c]

There are many more such functions, but they all follow roughly the same logic: items affect either the sum of dice values or the multiplier.

Since I work on the project solo, I don't maintain spreadsheets (except for localization) or documentation. I have a [c]_Balance[/c] file (what GameMaker used to call a script — I don't want to confuse anyone, since it used to hold only a single function, but now it can contain as many as you like), where I store key parameters as [c]#macro[/c] entries: base score values per card, buy/sell prices, and so on.

The game has two modes: story and roguelite. The story mode is more carefully calibrated from a game design perspective — enemies appear in a set order, we have a rough sense of the progression curve, and we define the bonus pool for each player level tier. The roguelite mode, on the other hand, depends heavily on randomness.

The enemy set is determined randomly, the player can pick any deck, and items and rewards are random too. The only deterministic element is the required score — though even that can change depending on whether the player took a tattoo that reduces point requirements, or used an item to swap out a debuff.

Here's how the required score is calculated for an opponent. For my own convenience I borrowed the term "ante" from Balatro — which, in Balatro itself, doesn't actually mean what the word literally means, but let's skip that.

[c]function calculate_roguelite_level_settings () {[/c]

[c]// Current ante (opponent) - from 0 to 5[/c]

[c]var _current_ante = array_length(global.DEFEATED_ENEMIES_CASINO);[/c]

[c]// Base points for each round (level)[/c]

[c]var _base_points = 0; switch (global.level) {[/c]

[c]case 0: _base_points = LEVEL_ONE_TARGET_POINT; break;[/c]

[c]case 1: _base_points = LEVEL_TWO_TARGET_POINT; break;[/c]

[c]case 2: _base_points = LEVEL_THREE_TARGET_POINT; break;[/c]

[c]case 3: _base_points = LEVEL_BOSS_TARGET_POINT; break;[/c]

[c]case 4: _base_points = LEVEL_BOSS_TARGET_POINT; break; }[/c]

[c]var _ante_multipliers = \[ 1.0, 3.2, 6.0, 10.0, 14.0, ]; // If there are more than 6 antes, keep increasing the multiplier var _ante_multiplier = 1.0;[/c]

[c]if (_current_ante < array_length(_ante_multipliers)) {[/c]

[c]_ante_multiplier = _ante_multipliers\[_current_ante];[/c]

[c]}[/c]

[c]else[/c]

[c]{[/c]

[c]// Calculate final score[/c]

[c]global.target_score_base = floor(_base_points * _ante_multiplier);[/c]

[c]// Apply tattoo bonus (-15% to required points)[/c]

[c]if (global.GET_BONUS_TATTOO_MINUS_10_TARGET_POINTS) {[/c]

[c]global.target_score_base = floor(global.target_score_base * 0.85);[/c]

[c]}[/c]

[c]global.target_score = global.target_score_base;[/c]

[c]if (global.BOSS_DEBUFF == "HALF_COMBO" && (global.level == 3)) { global.target_score = round(global.target_score/3) }[/c]

[c]// Set up the "Omen" for the final round[/c]

[c]if (global.level == 0) { SET_UP_THE_BOSS_EFFECT(); }[/c]

[c]}[/c]

Other technical challenges — resolution switching, localization, visual settings systems, save systems, gamepad support — no longer feel like big hurdles for me. I reuse work from previous projects, adapting and improving it where possible.

In Bonereader, I spent much more time on the feel of cards and dice: their animations, hover states, and shaders for curses.

Tips for Developers

Every project, I put together a set of tips for my future self — and maybe for other developers who might find them useful. I almost always break some of them, but I genuinely try to follow them, so I'm not shy about repeating them!

If you're also looking to make a game in GameMaker, here's some hard-earned truth:

• Use as few fonts as possible, and where possible, look for CJK font equivalents in advance so that the visual style stays consistent for all players.

• Plan your texture groups and audio groups early. Plan your project architecture in general — save systems, controllers. This will save you a lot of time when building levels. Factor in your engine's limitations and your own skill level at the planning stage.

• Gamepad support is worth adding. Games with controller support tend to do better commercially.

• Don't hard-code text. Use [c].csv[/c] tables. If you don't know how to do this, make it a priority to learn.

• Save licenses for all sounds and music as you go. Do it immediately, so you don't waste time tracking down sources later.

• Don't use video inside the game. Codecs are their own headache, and the result rarely justifies the effort.

• Use as few shaders as possible — especially if you're not writing them yourself and instead buying or finding them. There's no guarantee a shader that works on one platform will behave the same on another. Keep it simple.

• Talk about your game more often. Engage with your audience, share your process and ideas.

I'd recommend keeping API code for different storefronts in one place. For example, I handle achievements like this:

[c]// Achievement #1 function Achievement_Unlock_1() {[/c]

[c]if (IS_DEMO_BUILD) {exit}[/c]

[c]switch (os_type) {[/c]

[c]case os_windows:[/c]

[c]switch(WINDOWS_TARGET_PLATFORM) {[/c]

[c]case WindowsTargetPlatforms.Steam:[/c]

[c]if !steam_get_achievement ("ach_01_win_shaman") steam_set_achievement ("ach_01_win_shaman");[/c]

[c]break;[/c]

[c]case WindowsTargetPlatforms.GOG:[/c]

[c]if !instance_exists(obj_gog_ach_1) {[/c]

[c]instance_create_depth(x, y, -999, obj_gog_ach_1)[/c]

[c]} break;[/c]

[c]case WindowsTargetPlatforms.EOS: // break; } break;[/c]

[c]case os_ps4: // break; case os_ps5: // break;[/c]

[c]case os_gdk: // break; }[/c]

[c]}[/c]

The free demo for Bonereader came out in April — I'd love for you to play it and share your thoughts! We're in the home stretch. I still need to finalize the ending texts, translate them into Japanese and two forms of Chinese, and add sounds to the endings (of which there are several, by the way). My partner and artist Dasha still needs to finish the artbook and a few more pieces — large and small.

But I still have some time, and frankly my eye has gone stale. I'm missing feedback from real players and genre fans, so I'm eagerly waiting to hear from you. You can reach us on our Telegram or VK, or just leave a review on Steam, GOG, or Itch.

Thanks for reading! :)

Optimization CJK Font Rendering

Optimized CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) font assets to reduce memory overhead and improve load times in all supported locales. Glyph atlases have been repacked for more efficient GPU texture utilization.

Optimization Texture Page Packing

Texture pages have been reorganized and compressed to reduce VRAM usage. Sprite atlases are now batched more efficiently, lowering draw call counts and improving frame pacing on mid-range hardware.

UpdatePopup Windows

Reworked the layout and styling of all in-game popup windows. Improved readability, adjusted padding and font scaling, and ensured consistent visual behavior across different screen resolutions.

Bug Fix2 K Resolution Issues

Fixed multiple UI and rendering bugs that occurred at 2560×1440 (2K) resolution — including misaligned elements, clipped text, and incorrect scaling of HUD components.

As always, thank you for your feedback and support. If you encounter any issues, please leave a report in the Steam Community hub — your reports help us improve the game.