“It’s a good idea always to do something relaxing prior to making an important decision in your life.” – Paulo Coelho
Overview
Chill Corner is a fun idle game for chilling, relaxing and focusing. It has a number of ways to customise your experience and manage activities as well as adorable pets!
Developer: Low-Hi Tech
Released: 17th December 2021
Price: Free
Platforms: Windows
Available on: Steam
Engine: Unity
Gameplay
For an idle game, there is a lot to do in Chill Corner! Players can set timers write to-do lists and dictate how the time will be spent from a drop-down menu including things such as activity, working, eating, and relaxing. By spending time in the game the player will earn chill points that can be spent on stickers or room decorations. There is a furnished bedroom or lounge for players to chill in but also a small selection of empty rooms that can be designed from scratch. There is also a choice of different cats and dogs that can be chosen as adorable pets. They can be fed (at a cost of one chill point) and petted.
Chill Corner also has an in-game mail system where people can send messages out into the ether and hope for a reply. Players can read through and respond to messages from other players around the world and even send and receive stickers to build their collection without spending chill points.
Narrative and Stying
As to be expected of this type of game, the narrative in Chill Corner is the one the player creates for themselves and their avatar. This is done through the environment they create and the activities done by the player. It may also be possible to infer some sort of narrative from the communications that happen via the in-game mail system!
The base game includes one album of music that describes itself as lo-fi hip-hop. It is very mellow and relaxing whilst also upbeat for the most part. There are a couple of slightly more sombre tracks to provide some variety but nothing truly melancholy. Overall, the album provides a great backing track for activities, tasks or chilling and never feels invasive. It is also possible to pause, skip and repeat tracks, put an album on shuffle or even make a custom playlist.
The simple but cute 3D models, including the anime avatars, fit well with the style of the game. The visuals are enjoyable without being distracting, which is important when trying to work or complete specific tasks. The colour palettes are well thought-out and favour soothing shades of pink, purple and blue with a subtle vibrancy afforded by the atmospheric lighting.
It is possible to control the weather in Chill Corner, this will affect both the lighting in the room and the ambient sound effects. Sunny will have warm lighting and birds chirping, raining will have duller lighting and the sounds of rain falling, and snowing will have blue lighting and the wind gently howling. This is a lovely addition and really helps the player choose the right ambience for their mood and activity.
DLC
The game is free and but there is a selection of seven DLC packages available to expand the experience if desired. One contains extra character and pet models, and another unlocks the ability to add one’s own music and includes a live wallpaper. The rest will unlock different albums such as piano and guitar or kawaii and happiness. They range in price from £0.79 – £1.69 making a total of £9.13 but can be bought together in a bundle for £8.21. There is no need to purchase any DLC with this game as it does everything it needs to without extras. However, those wishing to spend more time in Chill Corner may like extra customisation items or a bigger range of music than the 24 tracks available in the base game.
Summary
Overall, Chill Corner is very wholesome and relaxing and really great to have on in the background while chilling or focusing on a task or activity. The fun elements such as the in-game mail, customisation and pets elevate the game beyond a simple to-do list and bring the experience to life. I highly recommend this to fans of this type of game, it is excellent at what it does.
If you enjoy this game you might also want to take a look at:
How Kind is Kind Words (lo-fi chill beats to write to)? – 10 Uplifting Games for Self Care and Mental Wellbeing – Chill Panda – A Relaxing Game for the Whole Family!
