Big Brother Is Watching ... George Orwell 1984 Board Game Due Later This Year

Ukrainian publisher Boardova is bringing George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four to the tabletop with 1984: Unperson, a dystopian board game scheduled to hit retail in November 2026.

Designed by Yaroslav Kifor and Volodymyr Kuznietsov, Unperson puts one to five players inside a totalitarian society where freedom and individuality are crimes, and even absurd Party directives must be obeyed.

Played over five rounds, each round begins with a new Directive setting a collective objective. Players draw and place Event cards around the City before sending their characters to participate in those events, constantly choosing between helping to satisfy the Party’s demands and pursuing their own private Aspirations. Fail badly enough and a character risks becoming an “unperson” erased by the state.

This creates an appropriately Orwellian dilemma as players need to cooperate enough to survive the system, while still pursuing individual goals. Boardova describes the game as exploring “the pressure of totalitarian reign and the cost of resisting it.”

1984: Unperson is for ages 14+, and takes around 60 minutes to play. The game includes competitive, solo, and introductory modes. Boardova’s website is currently listing the English edition as in production, with preorders expected in October.

Boardova are based in Lviv, Ukraine, and co-designer Kuznietsov twice fled his home city of Sievierodonetsk following Russian incursions, most recently after the full-scale invasion in 2022. He has described Unperson as a game about freedom of choice and the weight of the decisions people make under authoritarian systems.