A page for Bygoner, a third-person story-driven adventure game set in a medieval Ukrainian setting, has appeared on Steam. It is a solo project by Mykhailo Burlakov, who works as a Level Artist at Ubisoft.
A page for Bygoner, a third-person story-driven adventure game set in a medieval Ukrainian setting, has appeared on Steam. It is a solo project by Mykhailo Burlakov, who works as a Level Artist at Ubisoft.
The game was previously called 1505: Knight Becomes Kozak and started as a «small home project» to improve the developer’s skills.
«Currently, my qualification in the gaming industry is Junior, because I first launched a game engine in 2021. Gradually, the idea of making my own indie game attracted me, and I began to take this project more seriously,» Burlakov said last year at the Gamedev DOU forum.
1505: Knight Becomes Kozak was to be set against the backdrop of the early Ukrainian Renaissance, in the 1500s before the founding of the Zaporizhian Sich. Gameplay-wise, it was to be a «linear stealth-action game similar to Plague Tale.»
Bygoner is a reimagining of 1505: Knight Becomes Kozak — the game’s Steam page no longer mentions the Sich and Cossacks, instead stating that it is «inspired by Slavic folklore and historical tragedy.»
«This is a story-driven adventure game in which you play as a nameless traveler haunted by your past and Death itself. In a world where memory is a burden and the only way out is to move forward, you will have to travel across a war-torn land where empires disappear, ancient rites exist, and sins are unforgiven,» says the Bygoner description.
@bygonergame Bygoner is a story-driven action-adventure where a nameless wanderer journeys south through a wild frontier, haunted by his past. Inspired by Slavic folklore, it blends moral choices, exploration, and third-person combat in a fading world of sins and sorrow.
♬ original sound — Bygoner
According to the developer, bygoner is a made-up word inspired by the Old English proverb «let bygones be bygones.» It represents someone who leaves everything behind.
It is noted that Bygoner will first be released in Steam Early Access.
«Early Access allows me, as a solo developer with limited time and resources, to create the game piece by piece. Bygoner is designed as a journey consisting of small plot „tiles“ — independent locations, events, and mechanics that together form a large world. With each update, the game will expand organically, and players will be able to observe this growth and influence it as it progresses,» explains Mikhail Burlakov of the idea.
It is currently unknown when players will be able to try the early version of Bygoner. The game will have text Ukrainian and full English localization.
