Fathom Unplugged: Meet the Artist

Paper Fort Games are an independent tabletop game studio based in Nottingham, UK. Their first game; Cosmoctopus was released through Kickstarter in 2022, followed by Terraria in 2024. With a passion for accessible games that encourage storytelling, co-operative play, and friendly competition, the team at Paper Fort Games are looking forward to launching their newest game Fathom this summer.

In our third instalment of interviews with the team, we are speaking to Kat Boguslavskaya, the artist responsible for the beautiful and immersive artwork of Fathom.

Hey Kat, we are really excited to do this interview with you. The team here are very excited about the upcoming release of Fathom. Lots of us come from creative backgrounds at Chaos Cards so we are very intrigued about your personal journey into the board game industry. How did you first get involved with Fathom?

I saw an incoming gmail message from the Paper Fort team while I was on a long-awaited trip to Japan. I immediately realized that I wanted to reply to a work message on vacation, because a board game about the underwater world is a project that you dream about in a good dream!

We loved your work on Happy Home! It was really charming and the game was great. Did you always know you wanted to be an artist and work in a creative industry? Can you tell us a little bit about your own creative journey? We would love to know where you find the inspiration for your work!

I've been working in board games for quite some time, but almost always as freelance projects. Last summer I was working on a big board game about a nature park and volcanoes: it was very interesting. I also made a lot of absurdly weird cards for “Imaginarium” games. (This is a Dixit type game)

All of the team here at Chaos Cards love table top gaming. Have you been a fan of board games for a long time or is it a fairly new hobby? We would be curious to know if there was a particular game that made you think “this is amazing and I would really like to create the artwork for this game?”

I really like board games, both in childhood and now. I think it's very pleasant to feel something with your hands during our time of technology. As an artist, it's a pleasure for me! I can't touch what I do in the animation industry, but I can hold a board game or a book in my hands.

The game that still fascinates me is Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (The old first version!). Each time, the players stack a new world map and it continues to inspire me a lot.

Do you have a favoured method of creating art? We know everyone has different approaches when working to a brief. We were curious to know whether you sketch out and plan designs in pencil first, and then use an app such as Procreate or Photoshop? Or do you have a different method you favour.

When Procreate appeared in my life, my life changed for the better! Procreate is much closer to the artist's real materials. Photoshop is also great, but it's more about structuring a file and processing it. That's why I prefer to start my sketches in Procreate. I don't really like making the first sketches with a line. I prefer to introduce the tone right away and show expressive silhouettes. In the case of Fathom, I immediately wanted to show the most important thing: here we have an inviting underwater world and here we have 4 different teams.

We saw that you are an experienced artist in the animation industry as well as illustration. Was this beneficial when it came to working on Fathom?

I have been drawing for a very long time. And probably first of all, I'm a concept artist in the animation industry. When you work in animation on projects, you have to do too many different tasks: draw a location, a character (this is obvious and understandable)… But sometimes you need to make children's drawings, an interface from the future, learn how origami is built and other strange puzzles that prepare you to draw anything :) That's why I make board games, book covers, and all sorts of other things. In this project, I found it all useful! Fathom has 4 different teams and 4 different styles, 4 different sets of items.

We really like the immersive nature of the artwork in Fathom and the atmosphere of the great deep that it evokes. When you first received the details about Fathom from Paper Fort Games, did you know instantly what mediums and materials you wanted to use, or did that develop via discussion with the Paper Fort team?

The guys from the Fathom team contacted me because they saw the fish drawings in my portfolio. In general, it is always very useful to draw something just for yourself, which is interesting, and show it on the Internet so that someone likes it. As for the technique: I knew I wanted to introduce watercolor paints into this underwater world. It seemed to me that it would be a suitable medium.

Fathom has quite a specific aesthetic, did you have any key elements or components that you concentrated on when you were working alongside the Paper Fort team? Do you have a favourite piece of artwork that you created for Fathom?

The game consists of very different elements and everything has a different style. It was like there were several artists inside me who each took turns painting to embody this idea. When playing the game, it will be clear that the ships are in one style, the cover is in a different style, and the rules are in a different style. I dearly love the junk team. I also like the titles (especially the flatfish and the crab, because they are always funny)

We have previously interviewed Dan Helfer (the game’s designer) and developers Chris and Matt. How closely did you all work together whilst working on Fathom? Did you face any challenges whilst working on the game, and were they easy to overcome?

We worked very closely with Chris and Matt, they were great at giving tasks.We've been in touch all the time. Everything is made clear, understandable, and convenient. At the same time, they gave me space for ideas. It's always difficult at first as an artist, as I need to understand what is required from me, do I accurately draw other people's ideas or offer my own? All customers need different things. I started designing the cover on this project... And the guys gave me feedback that I needed to identify the composition in more ways and come up with ideas. This is where I realised that they were ready to listen to my suggestions. I think we've worked well together. We discussed how the teams differ; what little things can be added etc. It was a lot of work, but when it's interesting, it's hard to call it “difficult.”

We would love to know if you had any advice on aspiring board game artists looking to work on their first game or break into the industry? Dan suggested scribbling down all ideas and rules that you might have, as well as sketching out prototypes and playtesting.

I have advice I read about 5 years ago: Write down the topics you would like to draw upon, and write down the topics you do not want to draw on. Try to delve more into the topics that interest you. And the second tip: try to draw interesting projects for yourself so that a potential customer can see it.

If you could have created the artwork for any board game in the world, we would love to know what game that would be! Is there a dream project or collaboration you would like to work on?

I hope I will voice my dreams now and they will come true :) I dream of working on puzzles. And I really want to work on an Advent box with chocolates. (A large picture that has windows with chocolates inside). I was very fascinated by this as a child.

I am ready for any suggestions, I am a very curious artist.

Thank you so much for answering all of our questions, it was really great to talk to you! Just one more question. (We asked Dan and the guys in the development team the same question and the answers have been really fun!) If you could invite anyone throughout history (dead or alive) to play Fathom with you, who would you choose and why?

Good question! Maybe with Gerald Durrell! The book “My Family and Other Animals” is one of my favorites. Although I think he would scold me for anatomically inaccurate animal drawings, I want to play with him :)

You can find more of Kat's work on IG , Artstation or Behance