A small house alone on an endless ocean, a fishing line in the water, and a long way up to go. Tokyo-based indie developer BUBBLE GUM has launched CELESTAY Craft&Slowlife, an idle building game, on Steam.
The game offers a gentle, wistful take on a post-apocalyptic world where civilization has sunk beneath the sea. Players start in a tiny, isolated house on the water, gather resources by fishing, and build upward floor by floor on a journey toward the sky.
Charming pixel art and soothing ambient sounds of waves, wind, and rain deepen the immersion. The developer describes it as a “desktop work buddy,” a game you can keep on screen without pressure while you do something else.
Relaxed Fishing and Timing-Based Fishing
Fishing comes in two styles: relaxed fishing, where you simply wait for fish to bite, and targeted fishing, where you time your catch yourself. Relaxed fishing suits players who leave the game running while doing other things. Targeted fishing consumes fish to attempt: you succeed by stopping a moving float inside a designated zone.
Occasionally an orange zone appears; landing the float there boosts your chances of catching a rare fish. Venturing into deeper waters raises the odds of rare fish and treasures from the sunken civilization, but the success zone narrows and you need more successful hits.
Caught fish can be logged in the encyclopedia, exchanged for building resources and items, or used to buy goods from a wandering merchant. Gather wood and iron to build facilities like a kitchen or a pulley-operated lift. Players can also craft hammers, fishing rods, and reels to reduce building costs or improve fishing efficiency.
Even without active play, fish and resources accumulate over time. Step away and come back to find a bigger catch, or enough materials for the next floor.
The Higher You Build, the More the World Reveals
As the house rises, the view changes. Pass through the rain clouds and climb above them, and the receding ocean and the constellations come into view. At night, players can find constellations and log them in the encyclopedia. The atmosphere shifts with time and weather, from dawn and blue skies to sunsets and rainy days.
Beyond fish, the sea also yields photographs, letters, and old records, each logged in the encyclopedia as a memory of the drowned world. According to the game’s lore, about 150 years have passed since the world sank, and people survive in the “Republic of the Sea” by gathering floating resources. Building higher gradually becomes a story about why the world went under, and why people are reaching for the sky.
Waves, wind, rain, creaking timbers, and record music all add to the mood. The game focuses on creating the feeling that life in the space goes on even when you’re not looking at it.
BUBBLE GUM: Winner of the GYAAR Studio Indie Game Contest
BUBBLE GUM handled both development and publishing. According to Japanese games outlet AUTOMATON, the Tokyo studio was founded by Takahiro Furukawa and Akihito Hatanaka, former colleagues at a game developer who went independent.
BUBBLE GUM is also developing Little Cheese Works, a co-op action game in which players become mice hauling cheese together. That project won the top Platinum Award at the first GYAAR Studio Indie Game Contest in 2023.
Separately, the Steam store page discloses that AI was used for some UI elements.
17,000 Wishlists and a Generous Streaming Policy
BUBBLE GUM opened the Steam page in December 2025 and released a demo in time for Steam Next Fest. Targeted fishing was added in June, and on June 25 the developer announced the game had passed 17,000 wishlists.
The game supports interface and subtitles in 11 languages, including Korean, with no voice acting. Minimum specs on Steam are Windows 10, 2GB RAM, Intel UHD Graphics, and 300MB of storage. On Mac, it supports macOS Sequoia 15.4 and Apple M1, M2, and M3 chips.
Streaming and content creation are fully permitted. Creators can broadcast the entire game on YouTube, Twitch, and elsewhere with no spoiler restrictions, no application, and no credit requirement. Ad revenue, donations, VOD archives, clips, Shorts, and posting to other social platforms are all allowed. Extracting game data, modding, and copyright infringement are prohibited.
Who This Is For
Strong fit for: players looking for a calm game to keep running beside work or study; idle and incremental game fans; cozy pixel-art and ambient-sound lovers; collectors who enjoy filling out encyclopedias of fish, constellations, and relics; anyone drawn to gentle, melancholy post-apocalyptic settings; low-spec PC and Apple Silicon Mac users.
Cautious fit for: players who want deep, hands-on building systems; this is idle-first by design.
Less ideal for: those seeking challenge, combat, or fast progression.
The Takeaway
CELESTAY Craft&Slowlife is a quietly lovely idea: a drowned world, a house that grows toward the stars, and a game that keeps living on your desktop whether or not you’re watching. Two fishing styles, crafting, an encyclopedia of sunken memories, and a slowly unfolding story give it more texture than most idle games, and its light system requirements and open streaming policy make it easy to try and share. For anyone who wants a gentle companion on the edge of the screen, it’s an easy recommendation.
Available now on Steam (Windows, macOS).
Information regarding ‘CELESTAY Craft&Slowlife’
| item | detail |
|---|---|
| Developer | BUBBLE GUM LLC (Tokyo, Japan) |
| Publisher | BUBBLE GUM LLC |
| Genre | Casual, Indie (Idle building/fishing game) |
| platform | PC (Steam / Windows, macOS) |
| Release date | October 9, 2026 |
| price | Unconfirmed |
| language | Korea, Japan, English, France, German, Italy, Spain, Portugal, China |
| AI product disclosure | Use of AI in some UI elements (listed on Steam page) |
| Reactions/Evaluations | Pre-release Wishlist Surpasses 17,000 Items (Developer Announcement on June 25) |
| Steam Page | Shortcut |
