Ukrainian developer Mykhailo Burlakov, who has been working on the Bygoner project for three years, published a new trailer for the Ukrainian video game festival on Steam and revealed new details about his Cossack «road movie».
Ukrainian developer Mykhailo Burlakov, who has been working on the Bygoner project for three years, published a new trailer for the Ukrainian video game festival on Steam and revealed new details about his Cossack «road movie».
«As before, this is an adventure game in the setting of the late Middle Ages in Ukraine. As before, we jump on a horse and, from the bottom of our hearts, chop or shoot anyone who spoils our mood and prevents us from enjoying a trip through the Ukrainian forest-steppe», — Burlakov said.
He previously said that the game was called 1505: Knight Becomes Kozak and started as a «small home project» to improve the developer’s skills.
The main character of Bygoner is a Lithuanian-Ruthenian knight, traumatized by his own failures and the loss of loved ones. He sets out for the Dnieper steppes and the Black Sea region, «in the land of the frontier, where nomadic hordes gallop.»
Mikhail Burlakov notes that he wants to show the «pre-Cossack» Lithuanian period of history, because it was ignored in Soviet textbooks. The full title of the game is Bygoner: The Lore of the Knight Who Became a Kozak.
«I deliberately do not focus on the „domestic consumer“. The goal is to show Ukraine to foreigners. Therefore, the setting here is not a „killer feature“, but rather a set in which an archetypal character, understandable to a Western audience, acts,» explains Burlakov.
He added that he never intended the game to be a «large-scale epic.» According to him, it is a chamber project focused on character and atmosphere, rather than a big-budget open world. The environment in Bygoner will be minimalist, battles will be with a maximum of 4-8 enemies at a time, and there will always be exploration of the location before battles.
«Let there be no illusions: don’t expect a 'KCD killer'. This is a different scale, a different pace, and a completely different vibe. Yes, Unreal Engine allows you to make an almost AAA-level picture, but there is no 'make it awesome' button. I partially take assets from packs — so what? This is normal practice,» said Mikhail Burlakov, noting that he reworks ready-made materials to fit the style of his game.
He also said that he is annoyed by comments in which players compare Bygoner to «the infamous project from the Russian Federation.»
«They said, oh, look — also Unreal Engine, also from the third person, also Eastern Europe. And here I sit and think: guys, are you serious? This is not some benchmark game of the Witcher level, so that now everything where there is a horse, a sword and anril is automatically considered „plagiarism“,» says Burlakov.
This is probably the Russian game «Trouble», created by the Cyberia Nova studio with financial support from the state budget. In Russia, it was compared to «The Witcher», but the project received extremely poor reviews upon release due to poor graphics and gameplay.
The Ukrainian developer thanked those players who support his project and noted that he plans to release an alpha demo of Bygoner in late 2025 or early 2026. An early access release is also planned for next year, and the full release of the project is expected in 2028.
