5 Games for Chilling TF Out Before Bed
By Gaming Editor Bonny Murphy
There are so many games out there tagged as casual or relaxing, but this is not a list of such games. This is specifically a list of games to play right before bed. Whether you have been playing mountains of sweaty competitive games or just had some fun high-octane gaming with friends, this is the list for you. The motivation for this piece comes from a place of sincere gratitude to the wonderful space of chill, relaxing gaming to ease the mind. Much of gaming is competitive or at least requires dedicated attention to a game. Many games, though not all, on this list require little to no attention and provide that nice little serotonin boost perfect for the cooling off period before bed. One common factor I noticed when compiling this lovely list was that each game here has a unique and calming style of art and music, two components that provide natural relaxation to help lower the heart rate. This list is entirely my own personal selection and should anyone disagree or have other suggestions, I get it, there are other opinions. But I hope you can discover something new to play to chill you out.
Slime Rancher
My first game to name here is Slime Rancher. A lovable game about collecting slimes. These cute little blobs populate a wide world so you can collect them to gather their resources to sell for more expansion and fun items and buffs. The game has its happy, calming success in the simple process of humans liking the number going up. More slimes create more money for more slimes, for more money, and it goes on. The game combines this easy structure with a happy, feel-good soundtrack and a wonderful art style which creates cute diverse slimes. Another enjoyable element of the game is its sound design. The little sound interactions your character has with slimes and environment provide nice whimsy to your playthrough.
Any Pokémon Game
The next addition to this list is quite simply any Pokémon game of your choosing. There are many factors as to why this game chills out the soul. For many people Pokémon evokes a strong sense of nostalgia due most people encountering it when they were young. The visuals of the game have improved with later additions to the series however, older additions still have their charm. The art style is often colourful and simple, combined with a soundtrack that creates such a peaceful ambience. With a repetitive yet successful format of catching unique creatures to battle with, the game has endless potential in what your roster of friends will look like. New Pokémon are released regularly giving everyone the opportunity to find whatever suits your unique aesthetic. One con for this game is the repetitive nature of the gameplay loop. The structure of the game is simple which draws its appeal. However, this is consistently the same across almost all Pokémon universe titles. The only main variety is that the Pokémon change per each title, giving some wholesome diversity to your playthrough. Low stakes gameplay with comforting nostalgia and a warm ambience, Pokémon titles give that much needed calm to the end of the day.
Rimworld
A true personal pick, Rimworld is my main game when I want to relax before bed. Rimworld is a colony sim game with often incredibly dark themes of survival and technological advancement. No Rimworld playthrough is the same, with multiple starts, entirely random colonists and unique quests and events to create a cookpot of individual experience of the game each time. The game can be played at three different speeds providing a slow or fast experience of raising your new colony to great heights. This game also has a lovely background soundtrack with a western sci-fi twang, putting you right into the mood and setting of the game. You can play this game in whatever way suits you best. If you love to build a colossal, impenetrable base, you can. If you enjoy making beautiful structures and having a happy, peaceful colony, you can. If you want to create an organ harvesting empire who profits from the drug trade, you can. There is one con to Rimworld however. It is that much of the game is locked behind Downloadable Content (DLC). The DLC’s are “Ideology”, “Royalty” and “Biotech”, all which add vital content and are widely considered essential. These each rack up a cost on top of the cost of the main game. However, they are all considered worth it, and many players praise their additions to an already great game.
Bloons TD6
This next game is very easily one of the most satisfying games I have ever played. Bloons Tower Defence 6 (TD6) is a wonderful tower defence game where you place monkeys of varying variety who prevent balloons from reaching a finish line by popping them. The game holds a variety of maps with small unique mechanics to change the state of play. The monkeys each have wildly different ways of popping balloons from the simple dart monkey to a monkey in a naval submarine. The art style is colourful, cute and almost cartoonish. While the game may seem childish, there is consistent challenge to the game as you progress to harder maps and harder versions of each map, which the game provides to keep you entertained. The game has a crazy large amount of content provided, with pages of beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert maps available. Each of these maps also have an easy, medium and hard difficulty to play, alongside other fun unique game modes to play within each map. The main draw of this game is found in its ability to trigger the primal brain serotonin boost of popping many balloons with a satisfying pop using cute little monkeys. This sound alone will put your brain into a relaxed lull at the end of an evening.
Teamfight Tactics (TFT)
The reason I have included Teamfight Tactics (TFT) in this list is not just because it is a relaxing, low stakes game. But also, because it has the unique stance of being based in Riot’s League of Legends client, using League’s characters and abilities to create a less competitive game. TFT is an auto battler game where players create a team to fight each other, matching unique traits to achieve various buffs and effects. TFT has relaxed sound design and colourful spins on the current roster of League’s champions. You also have a cute creature avatar that is used to collect items during TFT which can be changed by getting new creatures like you would use a skin. The main draw to the game is due to where it is. Being within the League of Legends client provides it with the perfect market. Players who have played long hours of Riot’s main competitive game may want to relax and turn their brain off afterwards. TFT exists one click away from them. One subtle con is TFT has a built-in ranked system also, its almost like Riot cannot help themselves. In my experience the ranked is very calm but ranked is ranked, and it does make it slightly more competitive than other games on this list. I would argue that regardless of this, TFT can act as a great relaxant after long nights of intense gaming while maintaining some focus and active braincells.
In conclusion, this list hopes to provide those who know these games with some well-earned recognition. I agree, these games are wonderful. And to those who do not know any of these games, I hope you find something new and worthwhile to try. I wanted to shed some light on this subtle genre of relaxing, calming gaming to hopefully show that not every game has to be super competitive or super focused, fast and loud. Not everyone is suited to these kinds of experiences and there are games out there for the calmer, quieter player too.
