Offbeat

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.

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.