Backyard Zoo | Wishlist Mayfly on Steam

Thank you!

I will be jumping straight on getting this as soon as it's released.
Go add it to your wishlist, it's shaping up to be a brilliantly creepy little game 😁
#UKCanals

Mayfly is a story-rich quiet horror set aboard a narrowboat in Northern England

Coming Q3 2026 🤞
Wishlist now if you haven’t already:
store.steampowered.com/app/4057470/...

#gamedev #indiegame #solodev #unity3d #horrorgame #quiethorror #wishlistwednesday #gametrailer #promosky #storybased

This looks gorgeous, where is it?

You know it better than most that’s for sure. It’s funny I remember walking round the scene when it looked like the first screenshot and thinking ‘wow I’ll have this finished in no time, it’s basically finished’ 😵

A very early build progress screenshot showing a bare narrowboat interior

A super awesome new narrowboat model from the latest Mayfly build with better lighting + fully 'furnished'

I stumbled across some early build progress videos for Mayfly. When you feel like you're making no progress at all it's good to remind yourself how far you've come!

September 2023 v today. Hopefully you can tell which is which 😆

#gamedev #indiegame #indiedev #quiethorror #horrorgame #storybased

Thank you for saying so!

Genius to make a horror game on a narrow boat

✨ TESTIMONIAL TUESDAY! ✨ I'm still overwhelmed by the support for the recent cast announcement for Hearthfall. Thank you for reaching out and supporting my creative journey 😊 The director has kindly left me a lovely testimonial which reminds me why I love what I do 🧡 #voiceactor #testimonialtuesday

The entire narrowboat world fascinates me and I just imagine each one is its own horror… and now finally a game.

I’m really happy to hear that and I hope you enjoy it - thank you for sharing

I’m really happy to hear you’d still like to give it a try. Thank you again for your time

That makes a lot of sense and you’re not the first person to say so. Had similar feedback over on Reddit.

Thank you for taking the time out to respond it’s much appreciated

Thank you so much for the constructive feedback.

What you say makes a lot of sense. I’m coming from the perspective of knowing the game inside out but from the outside I would think exactly the same way as you.

This is really helpful, thank you!

Thank you so much for taking the time. It’s a very good point about the transitions - a fade would suit better

Over on Reddit the feedback has mainly been the lack of diverse screenshots, people don’t even bother with the trailer apparently!

I think a demo is the way to go, let people play!

*Steam/marketing advice needed please*

My Steam page stats:

• CTR: 85% (very high)
• Wishlists: 3.5% (low)

Feels like I’m losing people after the click.

Is the trailer too slow in the first 10s? Or something else I’m missing?

Brutal honesty welcome #steam
#gamedev #indiedev #gamemarketing

Beautifully grimy. Love the lighting on the train

Thank you for saying so!

Mayfly is a short story-led quiet horror set entirely on a narrowboat in Northern England.

Coming Q3 2026 🤞
Wishlist now if you haven’t already:
store.steampowered.com/app/4057470/...

#gamedev #indiegame #solodev #horrorgame #quiethorror #indiedev #screenshotsaturday #gametrailer #promosky

Thank you - you’ve inspired me to try a Mac build soon and hopefully it’ll just be a case of checking an extra box and everything works 🤔

Hey 👋, I thought you might like to see the new cinematic trailer for Mayfly?

bsky.app/profile/back...

Yeah I might consider embedding YouTube videos rather than using BS native. 😩

Thank you so much for your kind words

Yeah perhaps so, it’s looking a bit overwhelming at the moment so ironically it’s probably bad for #a11y 🫣 - I think tabs at the top are needed

Hi Nick! I don’t see why not if I get enough interest.

I have tested on my 2022 MacBook Pro using Bootcamp/Windows and it ran fine so I don’t think it would be much more work to produce a Mac build too! I just didn’t want to promise something I couldn’t do. 🫣

✨ NEW WORK - GAME TRAILER! ✨ I'm honoured to be voicing the protagonist Caroline Miller in this game trailer for Mayfly, as well as the full game which will be released in Q3! Please go and wishlist via the link in my bio and show support to Chris at @backyardzoo.bsky.social #voiceactor #indiegame

I'm honoured to be playing the voice of Caroline 😁 Cant wait for everybody to see and hear the full game!

😅 I think that menu also needs dividing into two, maybe visual on the left and sound on the right.

There's loads of other stuff too but if you ever spot anything that looks way off please let me know. The bathroom (when I get to it) should be .... interesting. Can't exactly be plonking in a standard toilet can I?

Slight segue - I think this would make an interesting post one day but when I first started dev I wanted 100% spot-on boat accuracy.

However, I had to make some changes such as making the cabin walls vertical rather than tapering in at the top, also boat is approx 25% bigger than it would really be

Amazing to hear, thank you for taking the time to wishlist