Interactive fiction · 1941 · Polesia

Swamps

An interactive story about the price of choice.

German-occupied Polesia, autumn 1941. You are Mikhas, a village feldsher — the only healer for miles around. Every night someone knocks at the window, and behind every choice is a life.

Download on theApp Store Soon onGoogle Play Play onItch.io (web)

Out on App StoreFree12+OfflineFive chapters

Part Two · 1942–43 · the blockade

Swamps II

The year of the blockade.

The ring tightens: punishers burn the region, and you have a child in your arms. Mikhas’s story continues — and your Part One choices will shape the ending.

Soon on theApp Store Soon onGoogle Play Notify me at launch

Coming soon 450+ illustrationsTwo heroesiOS · Android

Swamps isn’t about heroes or feats. It’s about an ordinary man who can do one thing: heal. And about what war does to a person when every decision has a price — and someone living always pays it. Stark realism in the tradition of Vasil Bykaŭ, with no right answers and no mercy.

What’s inside

Every turn is a choice, not a tap

The story remembers everything. The village, the forest and the Germans react to your deeds, and there’s never enough of anything.

Living choices

Dozens of forks and endings. There are no “right” answers — only consequences the whole district remembers.

The healer’s craft

Skill checks, wounds, typhus, scarce medicine. Spirit, morphine, bandages — everything is counted, and a patient pays for your mistakes.

People and trust

Alyona, the village, the partisan forest, the Germans — bonds shift with your deeds and keep you on a hook.

Five chapters

From the first night visitor to the exodus through the mire. Each chapter changes the rules: new people, new danger, new cost — and its own season.

A painted world

Its own illustration for almost every scene — more than 450 of them in Part Two. A painterly style: gouache and charcoal, a muted palette, a tone tuned to each chapter.

A second hero

In Part Two, Rezo is a second playable protagonist: his own prologue, four POV interludes, and whole chapters seen through his eyes.

How it looks

Text that breathes

Painterly location art, a status ledger, choice remarks — all in the muted tones of swamp autumn and winter.

Status panel: stats, relationships, supplies

World

A Polesia gone still

Bogs and alder woods, log huts under snow, boarded-up churches and secret paths through the mire — and a second part, where the blockade winter arrives.

A hut’s night yard, a single warm window — The guest carried in by night

A boarded-up wooden church and graveyard in winter — A boarded-up church and graveyard

A night log path across a black bog, silhouettes of the exodus — The night exodus through the mire

Kutaisi at sunset: a warm town in greenery, Rezo’s interlude — Rezo’s home: Kutaisi remembered

A frozen blockade marsh, a crimson glow of fires on the horizon — The blockade winter: the ring tightens

A burning village, silhouettes of refugees on the snow — Fire at Olshany

“Here you don’t choose between good and evil. You choose what you can live with.”

Swamps · part one

Part Two: at dawn by a shelter in the marsh, a man holds a child in his arms

Part Two · Author’s edition

Swamps. Part Two

Mikhas’s story continues. Your choices from Part One — who you saved, who you lied to, what you carried out — carry over here and shape what comes next.

Noticeably larger than Part One: the paths split, each with its own ending.
Almost every scene has its own illustration — more than 450 hand-drawn pieces in one style.
Rezo becomes a second playable protagonist: his own prologue, four POV interludes and whole chapters through his eyes.

Coming to App Store 450+ illustrationsTwo heroesiOS · Android

Soon on theApp Store Soon onGoogle Play

A direct download link will appear here. Continues Part One — if you haven’t played it, start there.

From the author

Why I made this

I made Swamps on my own. I wanted to tell a war story not through heroics, but through an ordinary man with no weapon — only the ability to heal. Polesia, 1941: occupation, the mire, a village where someone knocks at the window every night. Stark realism in the tradition of Vasil Bykaŭ — no heroics, no right answers. You don’t win here — you choose what you can live with.

— Herman Koshur

Struck a chord? Write to me: hello@bahna.app

Questions

The short answers

How much does it cost?

Part One is free, with no ads. Part Two will be free too, with an optional “Author’s edition” for those who want to support it.

Do I need internet?

No. The game works offline; your progress stays on your device (and in iCloud on iPhone).

What languages?

Russian, English and Belarusian — switchable inside the game.

Is it a book or a game?

Interactive fiction: you read and make decisions that have consequences. The story branches — no two playthroughs are alike.

Why 12+ and 18+?

Part One is 12+. Part Two is heavier in theme (the blockade, occupation, loss), so it’s 18+.

When is Part Two out?

It’s in the works. No firm date yet — subscribe below and we’ll send one email when it ships.

Will it come to Android?

It’s planned. For now the game is on iOS (App Store); Google Play is “coming soon”.