Fishbowl Preview: A Coming-of-Age Story About Grief, Growth, and Finding Yourself

The best indie games often come from deeply personal places. Fishbowl, launching April 2, 2026 on PC and PlayStation 5, is exactly that kind of game. Created by a two-person team in Goa, India during the pandemic, it tells the story of a young woman named Alo navigating grief, loneliness, and the messy process of becoming an adult.

What Is Fishbowl About?

You play as Alo, a 21-year-old who has just moved to a new city and is processing the recent death of her grandmother. The game takes place over a single month, with each day bringing small tasks and meaningful moments. Video calls with loved ones. Work-from-home responsibilities. Puzzles that unlock childhood memories. The mundane rituals of self-care that somehow become profound when you are grieving.

There is a touch of magical realism woven throughout. A wind-up fish toy serves as a companion of sorts, adding warmth to what could otherwise be an unbearably heavy narrative. The developers at imissmyfriends.studio describe it as a "slice of life, coming of age story," and from the demo, that feels accurate. It is not a game about dramatic plot twists. It is about the quiet weight of ordinary days.

The Team Behind It

imissmyfriends.studio is Rhea Gupte and Prateek Saxena. Rhea handles direction, writing, art direction, and character design. Prateek is the producer, programmer, pixel artist, and composer. They share game design, narrative design, and marketing duties. Starting a studio during a global pandemic, when everyone missed their friends, gave the project its name and its emotional core.

The game has already earned recognition. It was selected for the Sony India Hero Project, won the SXSW Sydney WINGS Award in 2024, and is being published under the Wholesome Games Presents label. That is a strong vote of confidence from a publisher known for curating emotionally resonant indie titles.

Gameplay and Tone

The pixel art style is gorgeous in a way that feels intentional rather than nostalgic for its own sake. Each frame communicates mood. Alo's apartment feels lived-in. The video call interfaces look realistic enough to trigger recognition if you spent any part of the last few years connecting with people through screens.

Mechanically, Fishbowl blends visual novel storytelling with light puzzle elements and daily routines. You are not solving murder mysteries or saving worlds. You are making tea. You are sorting through boxes. You are deciding whether to answer a call from a family member. The stakes are internal, and that makes them feel enormous.

A demo covering Alo's first three days is available now on Steam and PlayStation 5. It gives a genuine sense of the game's pacing and emotional register. If you want to know whether this kind of game is for you, the demo answers that question clearly.

Why This Matters

Games about grief exist, but they rarely approach it with this much tenderness. Fishbowl does not seem interested in making you cry for the sake of catharsis. It wants to sit with you in the discomfort and occasional unexpected joy of processing loss. That is a harder thing to pull off, and the demo suggests the team understands what they are attempting.

April 2, 2026. Mark it down. If you have ever felt isolated in a new place, lost someone you loved, or simply wondered who you are becoming, Fishbowl looks like it was made for you.