Vivarium was one of our favorite trailers of the XBOX Games Showcase, where publisher Serenity Forge and developer Studio Meadowflower showed off a cozy life-sim adventure built around hand-illustrated art inspired by timeless anime classics. The game is being made in close collaboration with Crunchyroll and Shochiku Games, and it is headed to XBOX Series X|S and PC in 2027. Serenity Forge is also the publisher behind Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! and Fractured Blooms.
Players take on the role of Jenny, an 11-year-old living in a tiny terrarium town where she spends her days on peaceful routines and easy conversations with her neighbors. Free from the pressures of modern life, that calm gradually gives way as mysterious events begin to surface. Those events reveal the true nature of the town’s “perfect” pocket world and the secrets hidden inside it.
Each real-world day brings new story events and discoveries across the hand-painted overworld, with main quests and major story beats pushing time forward. Once night falls, the game hands players unrestricted free time to settle in at home. That downtime covers tending a garden, cooking new recipes, and decorating Jenny’s house around her growing collection of books and vinyl records.
Beyond the slice-of-life routine, Vivarium leans on a dynamic narrative and an evolving world meant to reward repeat playthroughs. Choices and conversations shape the environments and the people of the terrarium, steering their individual stories and endings. The reveal closes on a fitting question for a game set inside a terrarium: can this small world really contain you?
