On the one hand, the upcoming game Drawquarium looks like a sweet little cozy game. You draw fish and import them into your aquarium and your fishy friends swim around. It's cute! But the release date trailer goes further than simply explaining the game and its features. It's more like a short film that's poignant and timely, and honestly, best if you just see it for yourself.
I'm assuming you're reading this having just watched it so I'll just say: Right?! Let me give you a minute to dry your eyes.
Over the course of three minutes we witness a young life full of wonder and creativity that gives way to obligation and frustration. It touches on the rise of AI art and how it can feel dispiriting to aspiring artists, and then ends on a hopeful note about the joy of creating art for the sake of simply doing it. It's pretty ambitious and affecting for a video game trailer about drawing fish.
This will be the debut video game of developer Kaleb, whose developer name in Steam is listed as byKaleb. They describe the origin of the game as coming from their own children's art. "I'm actually a 3D artist working in the film industry, and about 1.5 years ago, I had a little idea: What if I could bring my children's drawings to life?"
As the trailer suggests, the game revolves around creating your fish, housing them in your aquarium, and feeding and caring for them. You can even set your personalized aquarium as a desktop wallpaper to watch your little fishies swim around while you, let's say, write a paper about finance. It's a little shot of concentrated hope and humanity that put the game at the top of our cozy game radar.
Drawquarium is releasing on November 13. A demo is available now.