The Final Word in Virtual Dice Rolling
jul
17
Bones 1.0.1 Released - Universal Binary at Last!
It took some teensy tweaking to the code, but the Universal Binary of Bones is now ready. Aside from some changes to the included manual, there are no new features in this release other than this being a Universal Binary build.
This does not mean that I haven't heard everyone's requests for what needs to be included in the next version of Bones. I'm sketching and revising my interface concepts for Bones 2 even now with some very ambitious plans underway (well, ambitious from a dice-rolling application perspective).
I am committing myself to a Bones 2 release by year's end. If there's anything you have to have in a dice rolling application that you've always wanted, now's the time to let me know!
jun
10
Bones 2 Under Construction
Considering Bones was first released in March 2005, one may be forgiven for thinking that the project is dead.
I've always considered Bones my testing ground for new interface ideas, to try out new coding tricks and techniques, and to generally get code into the hands of as many people as possible. I then take the lessons learned from this admittedly simple application and apply that knowledge to my larger projects.
I've been thinking a lot lately as to what I'd like do with Bones 2, but I'd also like to get your opinion. Support for White Wolf games and the application of logic rules to dice rolls has been suggested, and I of course have some ideas of my own. For example, if Bones is truly the "final word in virtual dice rolling" then why doesn't it support things like poker dice, or the game Boggle?
Do you have anything you'd like to see in the next version? Drop me a line!
What Does Bones Do?
Bones is a 100% Cocoa application, written in Objective-C, for rolling virtual dice. Dice can be grouped into hands; those hands can be named. A group of named hands may be saved as a set. Saved sets are available with every launch of Bones.
Virtual dice rollers have existed for years now, but one area in which I have always felt they lack is in their ability to exploit their virtual nature. It’s not enough, in my mind, to simply roll a few dice. Why not be able to create a stack of dice of varying types, roll them a few times, drop the low and high values, get the total of all dice rolled, then save that stack of dice to call upon again and again?
For RPG’ers (most likely the primary user of a program of this nature), perhaps you’re rolling an AD&D character, rolling four six-sided dice and dropping the lowest die from each roll. It takes two mouse clicks and two keyboard commands to perform this action in Bones. Create a set of dice, ready for your common RPG’ing needs and save it with a name of your choice. Now you can roll “NPC Character Generation” at a moment’s notice.
Bones can be used as a replacement for physical dice in many kinds of games.
What Others Have Said About Bones
Though simple and (dare I say) trivial in scope, Bones has had its fair share of downloads. My research in download tracking via my personal web site, VersionTracker, and MacUpdate points to something like 2,500 downloads. Not too shabby for a glorified random number generator, if I do say so myself!
I downloaded your Bones virtual dice roller and think it's excellent. My congratulations on a fine product
-- Steve G, via email
The be-all end-all of dice apps. The power user's software dicebag.
-- VersionTracker reviewer
I've tried just about every Mac dice roller that's been available on internet for the past 10 years and Bones is definitely the best! Wonderful utility. Keep up the good work!
-- Malcolm W, via email
I downloaded Bones a week or two ago and it sat there in downloads, ignored. Finally I had some time today and I checked it out. I am, in a word, impressed. The application is beautiful, easy to use, and fast. Ideal for a die-rolling utility.
-- Nik G, via email
This is a cool dice program for playing RPGs. A well written manual along with an intuitive interface.
-- MacUpdate reviewer
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