Moving out of your family home, away from your comfort zone, to a new town when starting a new job is already a daunting task. In Fishbowl, it’s also the start of everyone needing to stay home and work from home (though it does not state it is from the recent pandemic), making for an even more isolating and lonely time.
In Fishbowl you play as a young woman who is struggling to navigate imposter syndrome, loneliness, lack of energy, and just generally trying to get through her day. Your home feels big, too big. Your tasks often feel impossible. There is a lot you just don’t want to do — but not out of malice, instead of out lack of energy.
In the limited demo that I played, Fishbowl has you waking up, deciding what you want to do, and getting a phone call from a best friend. Through this phone call, you learn a lot about yourself and your situation, setting the scene. Your friend has also sent you a package — which is exciting, and hints to something bad having happened a month ago, which you have not gotten over yet.
After your phone call, you can start your first day at work. Work is a completely different vibe from the inside of your home. You are often on video call with another worker at your company; a pink, Drag Race watching, hyper person who is there to hype you up! You are a video editor but the job itself isn’t like video editing, and instead is a gamified way of tossing colored clips into the right piles, without messing up too much, to create your video. Even if you mess up tons, your co-worker is proud of you.
Log out of work though, and you are back in your dark and too big home. You don’t want to play with your pet fish, write, or even play video games. Chores are also hard for you to convince yourself to do. It’s challenging when you feel so low. And your dreams seem worse, haunting you.
Fishbowl is a beautifully written, charming game that feels relatable. The graphics and narration really compliment each other, and the mini-games in there through your work and unpacking boxes feel smooth and like they match the game well.
Currently, there is no release date for Fishbowl, but you can sign up for their newsletter on their website.
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