DinoBones: nine skeletons in pieces, a museum to put right, and a cat

To be clear from the outset: this game has no release date yet, its store page simply says coming soon. So this is not a review.

But there is a mechanic I had not seen in a sorting game, and it deserves noting.

The mess

Something happened at the museum. Crates are tipped over, and skulls, ribs and vertebrae lie scattered across the halls.

You are the only one around to put nine skeletons back together. You, and a cat.

The mechanic I like

The announced cycle fits into three verbs, and the second is the one that counts.

Collect bones from the floor, the stairs, and wherever the crates spilled them.

Identify, and here is the point: every bone starts marked unknown. You have to work out which skeleton it belongs to.

Assemble, by finding the right slot and clicking it into place, one bone at a time.

In other words, this is not a sort-by-colour game, it is a recognition game. And the studio explains how the difficulty evolves: each dinosaur's bones have their own look, colour, texture and wear, and the more you place them, the faster you recognise them.

The following line is what convinced me: no skill trees, no upgrades, just you getting better.

In a genre saturated with games that unlock tools to speed the work up, seeing one bet on the player's skill rather than on bonuses is refreshing.

The rest

You can open crates, tip them over, or just throw them, then start rebuilding. The studio seems perfectly aware that a tidying game must first permit mess.

And as skeletons come together, special events trigger around the museum, each leaving behind little rewards, toys and surprises that make the place feel more like yours.

One last detail, which the store page puts in its very first line: the studio states the game uses no automatically generated content in gameplay. In an aisle where the question comes up more and more, a team saying so up front knows who it is addressing.

What we will be watching

Two things, on the day a date arrives.

The learning curve. A game betting everything on visual recognition has to make its nine skeletons genuinely distinguishable. If two species have identical femurs, the promise collapses.

And the length. Nine skeletons is a precise number, and therefore a finite duration. Whether the museum makes you want to stay after the last bone remains to be seen.

Developed and published by Indie Souls Studio, with no price or date for now.

Could you recognise a tyrannosaur femur? Neither could I, we will learn together on the InsertCoins Discord.