To celebrate our upcoming participation at Game Developers Session in Prague, 56 December 2025, the demo has received a significant upgrade, bringing it in line with the current in-development build.

Facelift

Most surfaces now use improved shaders: more realistic wood, better light interaction on objects and characters, and terrain and sky with a more artistic, hand-made touch.

Gameplay

Several quality-of-life improvements were made as well, especially in dialogues and tutorial hints.

A new Sandbox Demo Mode is now included.\nIt allows free exploration, starting directly in the middle of the action.

Thank you for trying Bayaya and for your feedback.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45529709/0ed4211b15d175bf192efe865dafc68855594ee6.jpg\"][/img]

Weve rolled out a significant update packed with polish, fixes, and qualityoflife improvements. Heres whats new and why you might want to revisit Bayaya.\n\n

Update contents

Smoother Gameplay and Controls

Audio and Atmosphere

Performance and Stability

Quick Highlights

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• New: Invert YAxis option, exclusive quest display, smarter dynamic hints.\n
• Better Feel: Camera rotation and movement now work together better.\n
• Child Games: Faster pacing and reliable endings.\n
• Visuals: Larger fonts.\n
• Platform: Improved Linux support and stability.\n
• Overall: Dozens of fixes and performance boosts.\n

A Pilot Story

Hi everyone, wed like to share a bit about why we chose Bayaya as our first project

When we first started building the engine that now runs Bayaya, we didnt sit down with a list of the most profitable fairy tales. We werent asking ourselves, Which story will sell the most copies on Steam? Our thoughts were much simpler: What kind of story could serve as a good pilot something typical enough to show what the engine can really do?

Why Prince Bajaja

Thats why we chose Bayaya (known in Czech as Prince Bajaja). It is a very traditional fairy tale: a young prince in disguise, a magical horse, chores to do, and eventually a dragon to face. It has all the elements you expect from a folk story, and that makes it perfect as a demonstration. If the engine can handle a prince, a village, farming, swordplay, and a dragon it can handle a lot.

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More Than Just One Game

Of course, the real ambition has always been bigger. Bayaya is not the end goal, its just (hopefully, and with your help) the beginning. The point is not only to create one fairy tale, but to create a technology a framework that will let us (and hopefully others too) craft stories more easily in the future. Think of Bayaya as both a game and a proof of concept.

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The Worrying Part

Ill admit, I asked for that study not only out of curiosity, but also out of worry. More than once I heard that Bayaya has no chance, that its too strange or too quiet. And yes, even now the interest is very small. That can be discouraging.

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The Hoping Part

But then again who knows? Maybe Bayaya just needs more time. Maybe the wooden toy world and the idea of creating stories will slowly find their audience. Development is never a straight path, and doubt is part of it. Still, I believe Bayaya will carve out its little corner in the world.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45529709/004f1029b511f660b6aa1cbed63fe36e29bc62f3.jpg\"][/img]\n

Coming Soon

Within the next few weeks we hope to release a demo (fingers crossed). In the meantime, wishlist Bayaya on Steam, watch the videos, and get excited!

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Hello!

Weve been working tirelessly on Bayaya, and we have more and more features ready. Thats great, but also very technical. Because of that, we would rather talk about something else. The gameplay itself. The game is going to be, at the same time, different from and similar to what you are used to. Lets get into it!

The basics

Bayaya is between an RPG, a simulation and an adventure game. The story, based on the famous Czech folk tale of the same name, puts the player into an interesting point of view. Bayaya, even though he is a prince, has his communication capabilities limited - he only speaks bayaya, a nonsensical word. He doesnt want to flaunt his noble upbringing. It could both lead him to abuse his privileges (not the point of his journey) or bring danger upon him. The only person that youll get to talk to in a regular way is your magic horse. As you may imagine, this limits the possibility of conversation with various NPCs. This is why Bayaya is rather a man of his deeds, not his words.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45529709/2a7ba14da5bc231ac604fee20da1e4d35adf5b3a.gif\"][/img]

The main gameplay could be classified into a couple of general activities. Lets quickly cover them:

Questing - there will be plenty of quests that will follow the story of the folk tale. They will range in their magnitude, from playing hide and seek to fighting the evil dragon. Bayayas life isnt a regular one, so be ready to do all sorts of things!

Jobs - leaving the court and being thrust into the real world, Bayaya wont have the comforts and sustenance hes used to at his disposal. This means that youll need to help people with their work - chopping wood, harvesting, carrying sacks of flour, etc., to earn a living and learn to rely on yourself.

Travelling - the games world will be randomly generated each time you begin a new playthrough. You will be presented with plenty of opportunities to go through the land, where something interesting happens just around the corner.

Combat - its a little bit funny how such a lighthearted and whimsical game has a pretty serious combat system. Based on the real-life German school of fencing, you will wield your blade, and you will get plenty of opportunities to test your strength and wit!

Bayaya, the game, is going to be a little bit of an immersive life sim. Its just that this particular life is quite a bit crazier than the normal ones. As you will have some freedom deciding what to do next, the game will also present you with a choice - you can play using both keyboard and mouse, or just the mouse (controller support will possibly be added in the future).

The plan

Lets talk a little bit about how we expect to roll this all out. Bayaya will be released in Early Access, so quests and additional content will be added over time. Not all quests will be available in the early iteration of the game. We expect to deliver the rest as quickly as possible. We also hope that the modding capabilities of the game will be easy and enticing enough, so people will also create and share their own content. A person on Reddit asked us whether they could play as a princess - not in the vanilla version, but maybe that idea would make for a great mod?

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45529709/aa965f0f92f0c211973b6487c726f0c2ce140135.gif\"][/img]

Thank you for reading this article. Hope you liked it! Follow us on social media here: https://x.com/o_fabula

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Hello everyone!

Bayaya is a very Czech game, so to speak. Its based on a traditional fairy tale of the same name. While its a beloved classic here, it is probably unknown in other countries. Please, let us tell you a little bit about the story that will be present in Bayaya! Of course, a spoiler warning is due!

A long time ago

Our story begins at the start of the protagonists life. He, along with his slightly younger twin brother, was born to the queen. The king, however, is on a long military expedition. The boys grow up, spending time playing, not thinking much about the strife of others.

Due to the reasons not understood by him, the queen and others start prioritising his younger brothers needs. While it hurts to be neglected, the prince stays at the court. One day, the king comes back, and the boys finally get to know their father. The court intrigue grows thicker as the younger brother is presented as the heir to the throne The only creature that understands how you feel is a magical speaking horse you were once gifted.

Seeing how you get pushed to the margin of importance at the castle, you decide to leave it. Loads of people live outside of the court and do pretty well, after all. Hopping on the back of your talking horse, you ride away to make a name for yourself. The world is not a very safe place, though. In order to remain concealed and not abuse your pedigree, the prince starts to say only bayaya, a word with no meaning.

The prince comes to a foreign castle after wandering and helping people in need. He becomes a member of the court and falls in love with the princess. However, life over there quickly goes awry, as a three-headed dragon demands that the princess be handed over

What to expect?

The story, while rather faithful to the source material, grants plenty of room for freedom. There will be plenty of both relaxing and exciting adventures awaiting you. The procedurally generated world and hopefully the modding support will also provide many additional hours and replayability to the main game. Hope youll join us for the experience!

The early access aspect

As youve probably heard, we want to release the game in early access. This means that we want to have two things:

• A substantial part of the story implemented in the game for its EA release.

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• The rest of the story will be added over a couple of months.

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Weve been working hard on the game for so many years now, we know what to more or less expect from the development. Also, we really hope that the modding support will provide plenty of content and additional quests, and tasks to do in the game.

Thank you for reading this article! We expected to drop a new one once in a while. Tell your friends about Bayaya and see you around!

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