Oceanarium is a game about meditation and alien sea creatures
Astronautical
Oceanarium is a seabound exploration game based on how little we know about the deepest darkest reaches of the sea. You'll swim, you'll relax, you'll discover alien-looking sea creatures, and help the ocean heal. There are lots of wiggly things and eyeballs, bright lights and lovely shades of blue, and it makes the scary bits of the sea look very pleasant indeed. It comes out on Steam later today.
As far as I'm aware, the actual deepest darkest parts of the ocean are terrifying, and it spawns horrific beasts like these. I much prefer Oceanarium's take on these creatures: they seem colourful and friendly and like they won't interrupt your meditations with their unnecessarily pointy teeth.
"This game takes place in the deep sea where you meet alien-looking fish that are afraid of a human invasion," developer Paloma Dawkins said. "Part cosmic joke, part love letter to the ocean, part meditation challenge, Oceanarium is a trippy underwater adventure game that plunges you into the deep sea and asks you to unite with the universe."
In the game, you'll swim around chatting to fish and doing little tasks for them. Your main goal is to collect "life energy pearls" to deliver to Mother Ocean and awaken her. Along the way, you'll learn how to astral project and meditate "with consciousness warriors". It all sounds like a right trip, albeit a very pretty and relaxing one.
Oceanarium was originally made for an exhibition in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London called Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt. It's already available on Itch.io, and later today you'll be able to grab it on Steam too.
Dawkins previously worked on the gorgeous Gardenarium too, which has similar vibes but takes the dreamy exploration above ground.