Backyard Zoo

It’s making me wanna hurry up and play it! Can’t wait. 😆

Mayfly Developer: Backyard Zoo Publisher: Backyard Zoo Release: Q3 2026 A short story-led quiet horror set entirely on a narrowboat in Northern England. Experience Caroline Miller's slow descent into a dark and twisted reality as she attempts to locate her missing husband

Steam store page coming soon for Mayfly (hopefully next few weeks)

It’s amazing how long you can spend fussing over words but what do you think of the description so far? 🤔

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Mayfly is an upcoming quiet horror set on a narrowboat where peace and tranquility slowly descend into darkness

#screenshotsaturday
#madewithunity #unity3d #game #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #indiegame

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Can't rest on our laurels with #Blanky releasing tomorrow.

Work on the next game has already begun. This morning I've been testing out some assets and colours for our next game.

Switching from side on to top down perspective is taking some getting used to

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Thank you ☺️

Amazing to hear, thank you

Thank you for saying so.

I really hope it can win over non-horror fans like yourself + I’m trying to avoid jump scares and looking to evoke the horror through sound and atmosphere.

Mayfly is an upcoming quiet horror set on a narrowboat where peace and tranquility slowly descend into darkness

#screenshotsaturday
#madewithunity #unity3d #game #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #indiegame

Thank you for saying so. I agree.

In the first cinematic you exit the bed on that side too so it’s folded over that way.

I feel like you can almost smell the morning dew on that duvet cover. Maybe that’s just me though haha.

Thank you for commenting! ☺️

Bit of an education for me I’ve never heard of that game before.

Maybe this will be pocket-sized version (that doesn’t sink) - spoiler alert

BackYard Zoo is working so hard on their first game #MayFly. Go give them a follow and keep up to date with the development progress. #Gamedev #ShareTheDonLove😍

Consistent feedback from the play tests:

- Event triggers not always clear
- Horror atmosphere could afford to be toned down even more
- Exiting the first puzzle is not as clear as could be

Over the moon with that. A massive thanks to 👉 @mustlovedon.bsky.social 👈 for being awesome too.

#gamedev

It's finally starting to feel like 1999 on board the Mayfly.

God rays next...

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Mayfly's build size halved - now 190MB. Max amount of tris down from 4.8m (lol) to 400k.

Now runs incredibly smoothly on a potato laptop. 😱

#gamedev #gameoptimisation #unity3d

But..but I want my flowers accurate down to the sub-atomic level.

1% of third party assets making up 99.9% of the polys

Moral of the story: if you want a job doing do it yourself. 💪🏻

#gamedev

A startled dog looking at some shocking Unity statistics showing 3 million tris and 3.8 million verts rendered

Play tests went so unbelievably well last week but…

“Why is Mayfly running like utter dog shit on this old MacBook?”

Humbling first time game dev experience remedied with the help of the awesome @comp3int.bsky.social

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No need to worry. I was concerned maybe the email probably didn’t send as they never seem to send from Google drive for me - so thought I’d make sure you knew it was ready. Certainly no rush from me. 😇

DMd + emailed you with access info 😇

@canalcryptid.bsky.social @mustlovedon.bsky.social - if you’re still happy for me to - I will send over a demo to you both (hopefully on Friday but maybe early next week)? If so please can you DM an email address so I can grant access? 🙏😊

It’ll be a Windows build hopefully that’s OK?

This really made me chuckle. This was before I knew what an audio mixer was and the volume was set to YES PLEASE.

I love the boating life, suits me perfectly, but the horror story potential of both the boats themselves and of our way of living is really underexplored.
There's just so much there to work with.

So many ways a generally cosy, chill life could be twisted into the darkest of nightmares.
One of the reasons I'm so eagerly awaiting @backyardzoo.bsky.social's game release.
I'm fascinated to see what they've come up with.

Here's the trailer for #Blanky

A young boy named Jacob journeys through a nightmarish world full of horrors.

With his trusty blanket "Blanky" by his side, Jacob must find a courage he never knew he had to face his biggest fear.

store.steampowered.com/app/3870300/...

#pixelart #indiegame

Meta-horror. You’ll install it and wake up on a narrowboat 🤯

Honestly I hope so.

But if not, your feedback will be taken on board. I won’t be offended, I like to think Mayfly is a little experimental and it’s a risk that certain things might fall flat/just not work. But everything can be fixed. 🛠️

I’ll reach out soon. Thank you again

Oh for sure. Thank you!

Even if you ended up not liking it that would be vital feedback. I hope that isn’t the case of course + it lives up to your expectations 😬

The game consists of 4 scenes, the first being the shortest (5-10 mins) - I’ll send over the first scene in a couple of weeks maybe?

That would be awesome and massively appreciated - especially as you mentioned you aren’t typically drawn to this kind of game. Be good to see if I can win you over.

Luckily I have no idea how to create a virus (but that’s exactly what I would say if I was planning on sending one) 🫣😇

I’ve been testing Mayfly with a few family & friends for a while now - but for pure unadulterated honesty I am thinking:

>> Actual play tests with people I don’t know and eventually a demo release. <<

Uncharted territory here and it’s quite daunting. 😱🤢

#gamedev #indiegame #unity3d

Thank you for saying so 😇