Introduction
Pillow Fight is a charming and innovative deckbuilding game about sleep, created by Jon Topielski and released in June 2024. Available as a browser game, it combines strategic card-based gameplay with a whimsical narrative centered around battling nightmares to achieve restful sleep. The game features a unique “counting sheep” combat system, hand-drawn 3D rooms, and battle screens, with music and sound effects by voxelectrica and mafgar.
It offers three difficulty modes and takes approximately 30 minutes to play, making it a short yet engaging indie experience. Players build their own “abilities” deck, using skills like Half Moon and Flip Pillow to fight opponents such as the “Brain Being” in coin-toss-style battles. Praised for its cute art style, addictive mechanics, and clever integration of sleep-themed strategy, it’s been described as “Inscryption meets bedtime” and a “near-perfect strategy game
How to play
Core mechanics
- Deckbuilding: Players construct a deck of ability cards (e.g., Sleep Cycle, Half Moon, Flip Pillow) that provide strategic advantages, such as preventing death once or manipulating dice rolls. Cards have cooldowns, requiring careful planning.
- Counting sheep combat system: Battles involve a coin-toss or dice-based mechanic where players use cards to influence outcomes, such as flipping tokens or boosting dice values (e.g., aiming for a six). The system is intuitive but may take a few rounds to master, as some players initially found it confusing.
- Opponents: Players face various enemies, including a challenging “Brain Being” and a “black sheep” that can reset progress, adding replayability and tension.
- Difficulty modes: The game offers three modes, with “Insane” being particularly tough, requiring optimized deck strategies and luck to win. Players report winning on Insane through long fights, leveraging cards like Sleep Cycle.
Gameplay flow
- Start by selecting cards to build your deck, choosing abilities that synergize well.
- Engage in turn-based battles, using dice or coin-toss outcomes to activate card effects. For example, a card might require a dice roll of five or higher to trigger.
- Manage card cooldowns and resources strategically to survive enemy attacks, especially on higher difficulties where a single unlucky turn can shift the tide.
- Progress through narrative-driven encounters, with objects like a Rubik’s cube or computer tied to sleep-related themes (e.g., stress or diet). These may influence gameplay or story outcomes.
- Aim to defeat the final opponent to “win” a restful sleep, with replayability encouraged by varying difficulty and deck combinations.
