Drawquarium

Most aquarium games hand you a fixed roster of fish. Drawquarium hands you a pencil. You sketch a creature, drop it in the tank, and it starts swimming around your drawing. Then it meets your other drawings, forms opinions about them, possibly starts a family, and the whole thing keeps living on your desktop while you work. The game comes from solo developer byKaleb, a 3D artist in the film industry who started the project because he wanted to bring his children's drawings to life, and publisher rokaplay is bringing it to Steam on November 13, 2026.

This guide covers every system confirmed so far: how drawing works, what your creatures do with each other, the golden scales economy, wallpaper mode, and the surprisingly complete set of productivity tools hiding inside a fish tank game. Everything here comes from the official Steam page, and we'll expand it into a full walkthrough once the game is out.

Last updated: October 27, 2026. Written from the official Steam description ahead of launch.

What Is Drawquarium?

Drawquarium is a single-player aquarium sandbox for Windows PC. You draw your own fish and plants, place them in a tank, and watch them live. Creatures swim, interact, breed, and react to how you decorated their world. You earn golden fish scales by playing, and scales buy new decorations and tools for the tank.

The pitch sits in a specific corner of the cozy genre: less "manage an aquarium," more "raise a tiny hand-drawn world." Kaleb's developer note on the store page is worth reading in full because it explains the tone. He built the game around his kids' artwork, which is why there's no failure state anywhere in the description and why the game keeps insisting you don't need to draw well. The target experience is a warm little ecosystem you check in on, not a challenge you beat.

Drawquarium Details

Two store categories deserve attention before launch. "Playable without Timed Input" means no reflex checks anywhere, which fits the relaxing brief. "Mouse Only Option" means the whole game runs on pointer strokes and clicks, so drawing works the way you'd expect: sketch, release, done.

How to Play: The Core Loop

The store page describes the loop in four beats. Draw, place, watch, collect.

Drawing is the main creative act. You sketch a creature freehand, start from simple shapes, or pull from a set of templates if you want a head start. The game then animates whatever you drew, which is the entire hook: your wobbly five-legged blob is now a resident of the tank with the same standing as a beautifully drawn koi. There are no rules about quality, and the description repeats this twice, which tells you the developer knows exactly which anxiety stops people from playing drawing games.

Placing drops your creation into the aquarium, where it immediately becomes part of the simulation. New creatures interact with existing ones, so the social map of your tank shifts every time you add something.

Watching is the actual gameplay for most sessions. Creatures form friendships, rivalries, and relationships. They quibble, become enemies, find soulmates, and have babies that inherit the tank. The store page promises this runs continuously, including through wallpaper mode.

Collecting closes the loop. Playing earns golden fish scales, the game's currency. Scales unlock new decorations and tools, which change the tank and give you more reasons to keep drawing.

Creature Relationships: The Simulation Under the Crayon

The relationship system is the most interesting mechanic on the page and worth understanding before launch. When you place a new creature, it doesn't just coexist with the others. It builds a position in the tank's social world.

The confirmed states are friendships, rivalries, and relationships. Friendships presumably mean creatures that gravitate toward each other. Rivalries mean friction, the page says creatures "can become enemies and quibble." Relationships go further: two creatures "find their soulmate and have cute little babies." That last one implies generational play, where a tank you decorated months ago contains descendants of your first drawings.

Practical advice falls out of this even before launch. If you place one creature, nothing social happens. If you place five, the tank has room for alliances and grudges. If you want babies, you need compatible pairs that tolerate each other first, so a tank that's socially crowded tends to be more alive than a tank that's artistically perfect. When the game launches, expect the community to start cataloguing which shapes and colors trigger which reactions.

Drawing Plants and Decorating the Habitat

Plants are a second drawing surface. You create your own vegetation and place it wherever you want to build the habitat around your creatures. The store page also makes a joke that doubles as a permission slip: if you'd rather draw sea mines or skyscrapers, nobody will stop you. Decoration is unpoliced, which fits the sandbox design.

Beyond drawn plants, the customization layer covers the tank itself. Confirmed options include:

• Sand appearance. Change the look of the tank floor.
• Lighting. Adjust how the tank reads at a glance, useful for matching your desktop wallpaper mood.
• Decorative rocks and driftwood. Placeable set pieces that fill out the scene.
• More to unlock. Decorations and tools are what golden scales buy, so expect the catalog to grow as you play.

Golden Scales: The Economy

Golden fish scales are the currency. The store page names them as the reward for the play loop: feed your fish, raise them, collect scales, spend scales on decorations and tools. That's a gentle economy by design. There's no mention of scarcity pressure, timers, or premium currency, and the game's categories include no in-app purchase flags on the Steam listing.

Feeding is listed as its own activity alongside raising. When the game launches, the first thing worth testing is whether feeding on a schedule produces more scales than idle collection, since that decides whether wallpaper mode is also a slow income source while you work.

Wallpaper Mode: The Signature Feature

Desktop Wallpaper Mode turns your tank into an animated live wallpaper. Your fish keep swimming behind your icons, and the description says you can "observe, feed and play with your fish right there on your desktop," whether you're crunching numbers or browsing a forum.

This is more than a gimmick. It converts the game from something you open into something that's just present, which is exactly the loop cozy desktop pets have run on for decades. Two practical notes follow from it. First, performance matters, since an always-running simulation sits behind your work; the store lists no system requirements yet, so keep an eye on that before launch. Second, interactions from wallpaper mode presumably still generate progress, which would make it the most efficient way to keep the tank alive between real sessions.

The Productivity Tools Nobody Expected

Buried in the store description is a full mini productivity suite: a journal for your thoughts, a task manager to organize your day, a timer for focus sessions, and a customizable clock. The framing is that Drawquarium doubles as a calm workspace companion, your fish keeping you company while you work or study.

Pair this with wallpaper mode and the design intent is obvious. The tank is a background, the tools are a reason to keep the app open, and the fish are the reward for staying at your desk. If you're evaluating the game as an adult with a job, this combination is the actual product. It's a focus app with children's drawings living in it.

Upload Your Own Drawings

Any PNG can become a tank resident. Scan your kid's sketchbook, drop the file in, and watch it swim. The store page explicitly mentions "your kid's latest masterpiece" as intended input, which circles back to the reason the game exists.

This is also the feature with the most creative range at launch. Community members will inevitably upload memes, logos, and cursed stick figures, and since creatures interact socially, a tank of imported PNGs behaves like a full simulation cast. Expect screenshot threads on the Steam community hub the first week.

Tips for Launch Day

The game isn't out yet, so treat these as preparation rather than walkthrough:

1. Start with three or four creatures. Enough for social behavior, few enough to learn how drawing feels.
2. Use templates first, freehand second. Templates teach you what shapes the game animates well.
3. Place a pair early. If you want babies, you need two creatures that like each other, and that takes time.
4. Try one ugly drawing on purpose. The whole pitch is that quality doesn't matter; prove it to yourself early.
5. Set up wallpaper mode before a work session. It's the game's signature experience and the best test of whether it affects your PC's performance.
6. Spend your first scales on decorations, not hoarding. Decoration changes how the tank reads day to day, which is where the long-term charm lives.

FAQ

When does Drawquarium release? November 13, 2026 on Steam, published by rokaplay.

How much will it cost? No price listed yet. The Steam page is live for wishlisting.

Do I need to be good at drawing? No. The page addresses this directly: you can use templates or pick from ready-made fish and just enjoy the tank.

Is it on Mac or Linux? Windows only, per the current Steam listing.

Can I import images I didn't draw in the game? Yes. Any PNG can be uploaded and becomes part of the aquarium.

Is there combat, failure, or time pressure? Nothing announced. The listed comfort categories include "Playable without Timed Input," and the description contains no failure mechanics.

Does the tank keep running when I close the game? Yes, if you enable Desktop Wallpaper Mode. Your creations stay on the desktop and remain interactive there.