Planned Release Date: Oct 1, 2026

About This Game

A little ocean for your desktop

Desktop Tide is a cozy idle aquarium that lives along the edge of your Windows desktop. Resize it into a slim strip above your taskbar or a vertical companion beside your work. Watch your fish while you work, study, or unwind, and open the management panel whenever you feel like taking a break.

Your free little sea

The base game works on its own and includes three fish species: clownfish, butterflyfish, and chromis. Raise and name your fish, enjoy a reef crab companion, and care for a small underwater habitat with seagrass, coral, and basic equipment. The base game includes one option in each supporting content category.

Make progress at your own pace

Collect drifting treasure chests, choose exploration goals, arrange your residents, clear litter, and maintain your equipment. Fish growth and pearl income can continue while you are away, within the game's progress limits. Stored chests wait for you, and exploration pauses when storage is full.

A gentle everyday companion

Fish never go hungry, fall ill, or die. Feeding is optional: drop in food and enjoy a moment of underwater activity. Local saves let you return to your own little ocean.

Optional expansion: Moonlit Coral Bay

Moonlit Coral Bay is a separate paid DLC. Its pearl octopus companion, additional fish and sea creatures, plants, decorations, backgrounds, moods, and special moments require the DLC. Buying it provides a complete usable theme immediately, with additional discoveries available through normal progression. DLC items may be previewed in the base game but remain locked until the DLC is owned and installed. Some creatures and items shown in promotional videos require this DLC.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Generative AI was used to assist in creating artwork for marine creatures, plants, decorations, underwater environments, and Steam store and marketing images, as well as portions of descriptive text. This content is pre-generated and included as fixed assets or text. The game does not generate content during play and does not connect to external AI services.