OFFBEAT, the wacky music-making game from developer Whetstone Games and publisher Pantaloon, is available now in Steam Early Access. The aptly named music production simulator is listed at $11.99, but is up for grabs for just $10.79 thanks to a 10 percent launch-day discount that runs through the end of July.
Music-tycoon title OFFBEAT is set sometime in the 1980s, and players assume the role of a music production hobbyist whose only equipment is a toy tiger-shaped keyboard and your eccentric uncle’s sequence-o-matic 4-track. Using oddball instruments — silly toys, kitchen utensils, gardening tools, and more — players progress through the story by completing commissions, recording tracks for special events, and adding more hardware to your modest, uh, studio. Mee-yow!
Take a look at the zany new teaser trailer for OFFBEAT:
Players’ beat-creation processes take center stage in OFFBEAT. Although players will work through the game’s main story, the sandbox audio production tools allow gamers to intuitively arrange tracks into sequencers and add personal flair to commissions. Compositions are largely left to the player, so don’t be afraid to let loose!
“I think everybody has a killer song in them,” said Ed Sibley, Creative Director at Whetstone Games. “But I also think that composition and music production can be intimidating. People think that they have to learn a lot of dry theory, or go to some kind of technical college, before they can record something worth listening to. OFFBEAT is supposed to challenge that.”
“It’s daft and eccentric, which makes it approachable, but under that playful exterior there’s a lot of complexity and possibility baked into our tools. The hope is, by the time a player gets to the end of the campaign, they’ll be ready to confidently make the leap into more formal music production. If the next Daft Punk emerges out of this process then brilliant. You’re welcome, world!”
Players proud of particular productions can even export tracks to .wav, but don’t worry — publisher Pantaloon said in a news release that “[t]here are no constraints or limitations on how music might be shared, commercially or not.” Players can share OFFBEAT-created music without having to study or cite any legalese.
Publisher Pantaloon also established OFFBEAT Radio as part of Pantaloon Records, a music label that publishes players’ in-game creations.
Pick up OFFBEAT on Steam today! Fence-sitters can add the audio production title to their wishlists or download the game’s free Steam demo to give it a whirl at no cost.
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