Games like Vivarium
If Vivarium is your kind of game, the closest matches are When I'm Not Drawing, Magical Princess and Lake — picked from the ranked list below. Each pick is ranked by what players of this game also play, shared genres and tags, and review-mined similarity — not a generic popularity list.
Get personalized picks →About Vivarium: Step into a summer that never ends in this life-sim adventure, featuring hand-illustrated art inspired by timeless anime classics.
Players who liked Vivarium also play
Steam players who put hours into Vivarium also tend to own these titles — a signal called collaborative filtering. imho.run cross-references millions of library ownership patterns to surface games whose real audiences overlap, regardless of whether their genre tags match.
When I'm Not Drawing
WHY THIS
Top pick for Vivarium fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
In this cozy life-simulation RPG, you play as a young artist who moves to a new city to pursue your dreams. Plan your schedule, balance life and career, explore the city, and meet new friends! Live a fulfilling year on your own, at your own pace.
Magical Princess
WHY THIS
Second-strongest match for Vivarium fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Adventure with Vivarium.
Raise your daughter while she attends a magical academy. Choose which classes she attends, jobs she does, training she undergoes, and more in a character raising sim packed full of story and over 50 endings to reach. How she grows up to be the world's cutest princess depends on you!
Lake
WHY THIS
Third-strongest match for Vivarium fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Adventure with Vivarium.
It's 1986 - Meredith Weiss takes a break from her career in the big city to deliver mail in her hometown. How will she experience two weeks in beautiful Providence Oaks, with its iconic lake and quirky community? And what will she do next? It's up to you.
Repair this!
WHY THIS
Ranked #4 for Vivarium fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
Become a phone repair technician, get the opportunity to look into the personal data of customers. Influence their destinies if you dare!
Volcano Princess
WHY THIS
Ranked #5 for Vivarium fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
Prepare the next monarch by finding her hobbies, training her for battle, and befriending the citizens she'll one day protect. Dive into an all-new parenting-simulator-RPG adventure, where every decision you make will not only affect the future of your daughter but that of an entire empire!
Tiny Bookshop
WHY THIS
Ranked #6 for Vivarium fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries.
Leave everything behind and open a tiny bookshop by the sea in this cozy narrative management game. Stock your tiny bookshop with different books and items, set up shop in scenic locations, and run your cozy second-hand bookshop while getting to know the locals.
Tavern Talk - A Cozy Visual Novel
WHY THIS
Ranked #7 for Vivarium fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Adventure with Vivarium.
A cozy visual novel about running a tavern in a D&D-inspired fantasy! Gather rumors, serve magical drinks, and meet adventurers on a life-changing quest.
CHANGE: A Homeless Survival Experience
WHY THIS
Ranked #8 for Vivarium fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Adventure with Vivarium.
CHANGE is an award nominated homeless survival experience set in a randomly created city with rogue-like elements. Explore, survive, earn perks, find items & kindness to develop your character & escape to a new life. Over 7 years of development & over 200 updates so far!
Free alternatives
Free-to-play games that recommended players of this title also tend to enjoy.
Doki Doki Literature Club!
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
The Literature Club is full of cute girls! Will you write the way into their heart? This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.
Life is Strange - Episode 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Adventure with Vivarium.
Episode 1 now FREE! Life is Strange is an award-winning and critically acclaimed episodic adventure game that allows the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future.
ENA: Dream BBQ
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Adventure with Vivarium.
Experience surreal environments and inexplicable characters as ENA in a new wild world.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
Sonic the Hedgehog...was murdered!? Get to the bottom of the mystery in this brand-new adventure!
Our Life: Beginnings & Always
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
A twenty-dollar bill, four summers, fifteen years, and a one of a kind life. Create an experience that’s all your own in this near-fully customizable visual novel where you grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door.
missed messages.
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
‘goth gf’s iPhone’ airdrops you - accept or decline? A love/horror story about life, death, & memes.
A Date with Death
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
Fight against & romance the one hunting for your soul in A Date with Death, a romance chat simulator where you date(?) the Grim Reaper himself. Create your own character, decorate your apartment, and chat away with the charming yet dangerous Grim Reaper through text and video calls.
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Head-to-head comparisons
Plays great on Steam Deck
Valve-Verified or Playable picks from the similar pool — ready to go on Deck out of the box.
Lake
WHY THIS
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Adventure with Vivarium.
It's 1986 - Meredith Weiss takes a break from her career in the big city to deliver mail in her hometown. How will she experience two weeks in beautiful Providence Oaks, with its iconic lake and quirky community? And what will she do next? It's up to you.
Tiny Bookshop
WHY THIS
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box.
Leave everything behind and open a tiny bookshop by the sea in this cozy narrative management game. Stock your tiny bookshop with different books and items, set up shop in scenic locations, and run your cozy second-hand bookshop while getting to know the locals.
Tavern Talk - A Cozy Visual Novel
WHY THIS
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Adventure with Vivarium.
A cozy visual novel about running a tavern in a D&D-inspired fantasy! Gather rumors, serve magical drinks, and meet adventurers on a life-changing quest.
Frequently asked about Vivarium
- What games are most similar to Vivarium?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside Vivarium are When I'm Not Drawing, Magical Princess, Lake.
- Who developed Vivarium?
- Vivarium was developed by Studio Meadowflower and published by Serenity Forge.
imho.run ranks Steam game alternatives using a mix of collaborative filtering (ALS / iALS / EASE / LightGCN), content scoring over genres, categories, Steam tags, developers, and publishers, plus AI-extracted vibes mined from review text. The page above is generated in seed mode anchored on Vivarium.
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