Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗OFFBEAT
Whetstone Games · Published by Pantaloon · Official site ↗
Overwhelmingly Positive — 98% positive (514 reviews) · 23 achievements
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
OFFBEAT is a music-tycoon game where you build the recording studio of your dreams. Collect and upgrade increasingly strange musical objects, complete jobs for cash, and record real, actual music.
£9.34
£10.99Lowest price we've ever recorded
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Price history
Indie, Simulation, Early Access · 2026 · More £5 - £15 games
About this game
The year is 198X, and you're a jobbing composer. You start out with nothing but a toy keyboard shaped like a tiger, and a brand new sequence-o-matic 4-track that your uncle bought from a shady geezer in the pub.
Word quickly spreads about the new producer on the block, and soon the commissions are rolling in. Things start humble, recording tracks for weddings, workout videos and corporate presentations, but before long you're getting asked to score fantasy movies, museum openings, and all kinds of crazy stuff.
Of course, you'll have to upgrade your kit along the way. Turns out, the local second-hand magazine is a treasure trove of objects that make interesting sounds, from singing garden gnomes and shredders-that-shred-sound-as-well-as-paper, to high-end synthesisers and musical effects. By the end, you'll have figured out a sound that's all your own.
But OFFBEAT isn't just a game. All the musical instruments are fully simulated, and the music you're recording is real. The game is secretly a complete audio production tool. Every piece of music you create in the game gets exported and saved locally on your computer as a WAV file, which you can use for whatever you want.
Music production can be costly and complex to get into, especially for beginners. We created OFFBEAT to lower barrier to entry and to offer a playful, low-pressure way to learn the basics of audio producion. The goal is just to be expressive and experimental, but by the end you'll have learned a little about synthesizers, sound design, composition and recording. Our hope is that when the game's finished, you'll have the confidence and expertise to carry on composing and recording music.
Game meets a real audio production tool.
Accept jobs, compose music, earn money.
Browse the Riches & Rags Catalogue to buy new synthesizers, then get Electric Lacey to upgrade and mod 'em.
Make music in a low-pressure and beginner-friendly setting.
Meet a whole host of weird characters.
Export your tracks as a WAV files onto your computer.
Share your tracks with the world, or just friends – up to you.
Play through chapters themed after different styles of electronic music.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Core i5 2.2 GHz or equivalent
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Graphics card with DX10 (shader model 4.0) capabilities
- Storage: 1 GB available space
- Sound Card: Required
- Additional Notes: Headphones and/or external speakers recommended
Supported Languages
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
The Studio Essentials Update is OUT NOW!
Strings at the ready, the Studio Essentials Update, OFFBEAT’s first major Early Access update, is OUT NOW! To celebrate, we’ve released a new music video for ‘Pepperoni Pizzicato’, composed entirely in OFFBEAT. Please stand, if you’re able, for the national anthem and watch it below: Now, onto the update: It's a doozy, we've added strings, reverb, EQ, effect buses, 11 peculiar new jobs and somewhere to hide all the stuff cluttering up your desk. Most importantly, you can now express your deepest sorrows using the World’s Tiniest Violin. 🎻 make a sad song, add some reverb and If it all gets too much, that’s okay, just take everything and hide it in a box under your desk! Just like real life!Full feature list: Three new musical objects!Meet the latest additions to your increasingly unconventional studio:The World’s Tiniest Violin - Add strings to your songs and upgrade the violin to unlock an even wider range of sounds.Reverb Pedal - Add space, atmosphere and cavernous echoes to your creations.EQ - Shape your sound by boosting, cutting and balancing different frequencies.Together, these new tools give you even more ways to add depth and character to your tracks. Eleven new jobs!Your clients have returned with another collection of completely reasonable musical requests.Take on 11 new jobs, including:Cave People TechnoThe Museum of OrbsA Self-Hypnosis TapeComplete briefs, earn money and continue transforming your tiny studio into an increasingly elaborate musical contraption. Desk inventory!Is your workspace becoming a little difficult to navigate?You can now keep musical objects and equipment in a handy box underneath your desk. Store the things you aren’t currently using, tidy up your workspace and retrieve them whenever inspiration strikes. Effect buses!Send audio from multiple sources into the same effect chain to create more experimental mixes.Effect buses open up new possibilities for processing several instruments together and for making your studio even more un...Read full article on Community Announcements (kelly)AnnouncementsOfficial
OFFBEAT | Early Access Roadmap
Hello musical maestro! It is precisely TWO WEEKS since OFFBEAT launched into Steam Early Access and wheeeeeew what a couple of weeks it's been! Hearing all the beautiful works of auditory art created by the new community here has been a joy to behold. Thanks for investing your time and creativity into the game - and please do keep sharing your work with us.We wanted to take a moment to outline our plans for the weeks and months ahead, as we have SO much in the works, and wanted to share what's coming. The Road AheadA little caveat at the top: this is game dev, so who knows what the hell the months ahead have in store, but this is the roadmap we're confident putting out into the wild, and striving our best to deliver on. We are confident in the roadmap and broad dates below, but we just wanted to couple with that little note - we're a small team, and things happen sometimes. Ok! Boring bit over. September - Studio EssentialsInstrument 1 - World’s Smallest ViolinEffect - EQEffect - ReverbChapter 3 jobsFeature - Put instruments away and get them out againFeature - sequencer fx loop October - LoFiInstrument 1 - Sample-o-maticInstrument 2 - AutochordEffect - Coffee Grinder (downsample effect)Chapter 4 jobsFeature - archive system November - SynthwaveInstrument 1 - FM SynthInstrument 2 - VCR Drum MachineEffect - Smoothie Maker (chorus effect)Chapter 5 jobs December - TechnoInstrument 1 - Jackhammer Drum MachineInstrument 2 - Oscilloscope (wavetable synth)Effect - Hydraulic Press (compressor)Chapter 6 jobs January - AmbientInstrument 1 - Weather Simulator (random melody / texture generator)Instrument 2 - Executive Desk Toy (complex rhythm generator)Effect - Aerospace Navigation Tool (granular delay/reverb)Chapter 7 jobs February (1.0) - ChiptuneInstrument 1 - Calculator (draw your own waves)Instrument 2 - Virtual Pet (chiptune style percussion, plus it’s a working virtual pet)Effect - Beard Trimmer (clipping distortion)Chapter 8 jobs --As you can see, there is a lot of ver...Read full article on Community Announcements (pantaloon.)Patch NotesOfficial
Hotfix Day 1 - 1.0.1
Hark! Thank you for an incredible first 24h! We're truly blown away by the reception so far. Just a quick patch to fix some of the issues encountered by the community!fixes fixes fixesFixed a softlock that was preventing new jobs appearing in Chapters 1 and 2 Amended several jobs whose requirements were confusing (goodbye, Q1 engine!) Fixed bugs in the notebook, end-of-chapter star animations, and sequencer pattern view Added a 300fps framerate cap, for those of you playing the game on turbocharged rigsJoin the Discord and keep sharing your music and feedback with us xRead full article on Community Announcements (Pantaloon Anni)AnnouncementsOfficial
OFFBEAT is OUT MIAOW!
Welcome to your first day on the job!The day is finally here! OFFBEAT has just dropped and welcomes all you beat-makers and disc jockeys. So, dust off that tiger piano and get working. Your uncle's got a job for you to start with!The job itinerary to get you started...Unboxing the strange package from your uncle is only the beginning...The EA release of OFFBEAT comprises of 7 different musical objects spread across 22 different jobs and two game chapters. You'll also be introduced to the upgrade system which allows you to upgrade all of your instruments once or twice (instrument dependant) further customising your setup in the process.Upon first booting the game, you'll be introduced to our character customiser that allows you to choose an avatar along with a name for your record label and yourself. Players new to the world of music composition fret not! Checkout the handy notebook on your desk that not only keeps track of sounds you've generated but also has a lot of general musical advice that unlocks as you progress through the game.We've also made a ton of improvements since the demo; a lot thanks to our wonderful community sharing their feedback with us!And, of course, lest we forget: everything you make using OFFBEAT is YOURS. Go ahead: share it; publish it; put it in your own game; do whatever you want with your music. It's yours! All your tracks get automatically saved up as WAV files on your PC.The Oblique EditionPicking up OFFBEAT and leaving a review on the game is the most we could ever ask for. However, if you'd like to support the ongoing development of the game with just a little bit more and get some neat goodies as thanks for that support, we're also offering OFFBEAT: The Oblique Edition.Nice Cup of Tea - Inspired by Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies, the Nice Cup of Tea is a source of whimsical inspiration. Click it whenever it's steaming and see if it gives you an off-kilter idea to spice up whatever you're working on.The Producer's Handbook - For th...Read full article on Community Announcements (Pantaloon Anni)Press Coverage
Playing the riff from Smoke on the Water on a cat piano may be possible in composer sim Offbeat, if you've got more musical talent than me
Duh, duh, duh. Duh, duh, de-duh. Duh, duh, duh. Duh, duh. That's how the riff to Deep Purple's tune about a fire burning down a Swiss casino goes. As with any riff, it's just a sequence of inputs you make on your instrument of choice. Usually, this would be a guitar. I've been trying to use the cat piano and singing gnome of jobbing composer sim Offbeat, which is out in early access today, July 22nd. Sadly, I don't think I've cracked it, but I have been having plenty of fun making funky jingles and wedding tunes. Read moreRead full article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun
