Bayaya – Czech Fairy Tale Becomes a Game

Bayaya is the newest creation of a team led by Ondrej Spanel. The legendary Czech dev, the ex-lead programmer for ARMA, ARMA 2 and Operation Flashpoint, returns with a deeply

personal project after around 10 years of development.

The game, based on a beloved Czech fairytale, tells the story of a prince and his magical horse. The prince, fed up with court politics, leaves the castle to make a name for himself. However, he decides not to reveal his pedigree to others, so he undertakes to say only the word “Bayaya”. He travels to a faraway court, working as necessary during the journey. However, once he arrives at his destination, a great danger looms over the kingdom, and a hero is needed…

Orbis Fabula, the team behind the game, wants to create something that could be enjoyed by both children and their parents. This is why the game has quite a relaxing pace and there will be a lot of ordinary daily work to perform. However, there will be much more to it, as aside from the sim-like gameplay, the game will have a proper story mode. The game will also feature some sword combat, based on the German school of fencing.

As visible in the screenshots in the press kit, the game will have quite a unique art style, reminiscent of both painted wooden toys and early 3D graphics. All of the models are also made with proprietary tools, which will be made available to everyone. The engine of the game is quite simple to use and, considering how easy it is to make one’s own in-game models, it will be a great title

to mod and expand in any direction eager ones will want. However, the game is also expected to have high replayability even in its vanilla form, as it will have procedurally

generated worlds to explore. “Working on Bayaya makes me quite happy, and I hope those who will play it will feel the same way,” says Ondrej. “It’s something that I wanted to make and have spent years on developing and iterating. Making a world that is filled with kindness, adventure and a sense of childlike wonder takes time and effort. It will be a truly unique title.”

Bayaya will be released in early access (an announcement about the release date will be issued in the future). It will feature the sandbox mode, a big part of the story and the dev tools for modding available at that point.