This year, UK Games Expo was bigger than ever, with 900 vendors showing off their latest and greatest board games, miniatures, and RPGs. With so much to see, you might have missed Boardova.
The studio’s banners were small, but they burst with color. Their tables were cramped and unassuming, but they showcased two intriguing titles. The story behind these debut games is even more unique.
Volodymyr Kuznietsov, co-founder of Boardova, is no stranger to telling stories of tyranny. He published a dystopian scifi novel in 2019 and, in 2020, a grimdark fantasy retelling of the Kyvian Rus occupation. This year, his first board game design, 1984: Unperson, tackles a tale of oppression known well across the world.
Kuznietsov has more authority than most when telling these stories. He’s had to flee his home city of Sievierodonetsk twice: once in 2014, in the early days of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and again in 2022, when Russian forces once again invaded Ukraine.
Kuznietsov relocated to Lviv, over 1,200 miles away in Western Ukraine. He left a great deal behind. That included his entire board game collection, which he described to me as “occupied by Russia”. One day while volunteering to support refugees and Ukraine’s army, Kuznietsov decided this meant he needed to update his BoardGameGeek collection to ‘pre-owned’.
Another volunteer spotted this and struck up a conversation. This was Zholud Dobrovolskyy, who would go on to co-found Boardova with Kuznietsov. From resistance, a board game studio was born.
Boardova’s first title was Aridnyk, a striking, surprisingly strategic tile placement game that cast you as a shepherd from the Carpathian mountains. Based on a comic book of the same name, its colorful characters come from the myth and legends of the Hutsuls, an ethnic group found in Ukraine and Romania. The title performed well enough in Ukraine that Boardova launched a Kickstarter in 2025 to crowdfund a global release, raising over $130,000.
Yaroslav Kifor, a designer on Aridnyk, has now teamed up with Kuznietsov to create 1984: Unperson. “From a family-friendly, humorous, and very cartoonish game, we move to something moody and dark”, Kuznietsov tells me. “But there’s still a lot of principles from Aridnyk retained in this game, and there’s more similarities than you might expect.”
1984: Unperson is “a semi-cooperative game, where you have a hidden role and common goals you need to fulfill to avoid being punished by society”. Kuznietsov says it’s also “a set collection game like Fantasy Realms where you’re constantly trying to improve your hand of cards to gain the best score”. “It’s a game where, if you lose, everybody loses, but the only winner is the one who scores highest.”
A game lasts for five rounds. Each round, the first player reveals a Directive Card which sets the group’s goal. Players start their turn by drawing Event cards to their hand. They then play cards into the City and involve their character in a City Event.
“It has a very Orwellian feel, because you always feel the weight of your decisions”, he adds. “You’re always in conflict. Should I do something that achieves my agenda, or something that won’t let down others around me?” “Punishment is distributed to all”, he explains, “the system doesn’t differ.”
Events raise the suspicion on a character and the trauma they suffer. Gain too much of these, and you risk becoming an unperson that’s vaporized by the state. “But maybe that’s a way out for you”, Kuznietsov says, “because you don’t want to obey the system”.
“This is a game about freedom of choice and the weight of your choices.” “It’s a forewarning about how very dangerous – and very easy – it is to follow orders from the government, even if they’re absurd and contradictory.” “It’s a painful and obvious topic while we are under attack from Russia”, he adds.
Despite the grim way Orwell’s novel still rings true, Kuznietsov is confident the game’s strategic decisions will make it an entertaining play. Pre-orders are expected to start this August, and I’m looking forward to trying it out.
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Source: Wargamer
