In Boneworks, players take on the role of Arthur Ford, a rogue cybersecurity director who escapes into an unfinished simulated universe, battling through surreal architecture and mysterious scenes with a variety of experimental physics-based weaponry.

In most VR titles, the player moves through the world via teleportation, and is represented by two non-corporeal hands which respond to the motion controllers.

Enemies are also be damaged realistically; for example, they can be punched, tripped, headbutted, and have complex injuries such as a broken leg inhibiting their walking.

Players are encouraged to progress through or replay the game as creatively as possible, taking advantage of the physical nature in any way they see fit.

A variety of hidden easter eggs and rewards are found all throughout the main campaign, including 'modules' that unlock additional content.

The Sandbox game-mode allows the player to experiment with any item or entity in the game that they have unlocked (done by collecting their respective tokens in the campaign).

Boneworks is set in Stress Level Zero's shared alternate universe, which incorporates other titles like Duck Season and Bonelab.

Monogon uses the BONEWORKS engine to begin work on MythOS City, an infinite cityscape simulation designed as an endless source of virtual living space.

Ford theorizes that the BONEWORKS engine could function as an entry point to the Voidway, which would allow for immortality by severing the connection between mind and body, leaving him to exist outside of space and time forever.

The game begins with a real-world cutscene showing an armed Arthur Ford retreating into a panic room and entering MythOS City with a virtual reality headset.

Ford finds himself in the Voidway, where a strange Void entity watches him and beckons him through a white door from Duck Season.

Stress Level Zero, the developers behind Boneworks, had previously created two virtual reality titles – Hover Junkers and Duck Season, both of which used the classic floating hands design.

[4] According to developer Alex Knoll, the core premise of Boneworks remained strong while the setting, story and progression was fluctuating.

[4] Originally, the game was a gritty shooter set in an automated mining facility in the throes of robot revolution, titled Hall of the Machine King.

This was eventually deemed too large a concept, and the company decided to start off with a smaller game to build up to Machine King.

Stress Level Zero decided to adapt it into a more simple game designed to introduce players to fully physics-based VR locomotion, which became Boneworks.

Due to a lack of game design and research around virtual reality, Stress Level Zero drew from other fields.

[4] Boneworks was shown in a tech demo in 2018,[5] and the game reached a playable, completable state in October 2019,[6] and was released on Steam on December 10, 2019.

Laatsch stated in a video update that the goal of 1.3 was to address those who were unhappy or unable to play Boneworks, while not ignoring those who had a positive experience.

Designed by Kevin, a programmer, over the course of a weekend just before the launch of the base game, it was coupled with Cameron's concept of zombie survival.

It adds a massive sandbox level designed to fly the hovercraft prominently featured in Hover Junkers, as well as several new items from the game.

Rock Paper Shotgun described it as "an innovative adventure that pushes VR in all sorts of directions, but still suffers from a number of VR-specific issues.

[2] It has been described as a "VR physics playground",[18] and as being "conceived as a combat showcase first and a story-driven epic second – the Narbacular Drop to Valve's Portal.".

[22] On April 20, 2022, Stress Level Zero revealed a trailer for Bonelab at the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase livestream.

In late December 2023 on the Official Bonelab Discord, Brandon Laatsch spoke about an upcoming title in the SLZ universe relating to Boneworks codenamed B-side or Project 5.