Whetstone Games has taken its music production game OFFBEAT back to the 80s with the Synthwave update, and the biggest change is one the community has been asking for since early on. Players can now plug in a MIDI keyboard and use channels 1 to 4 to control the instruments connected to the in-game sequencer. MIDI is not the only new way to play. The instruments can also be played using a computer keyboard, with note quantisation keeping everything in key, which should make the feature usable for anyone without dedicated hardware.
The update brings three new musical objects to work with. A VHS drum handles big, heavy percussion, while an FM-powered synth is designed to look like the racing wheel from an arcade machine. Rounding out the set is a smoothie maker, which serves as an introduction to chorus and flanger effects. There are also 11 new jobs to take on. Among them, players will make a TV advert for an anti-sleep device, dabble in vaporwave with DJ Sludgepump and set the mood at Lilith’s haunted family dinner.
Elsewhere, the update adds the phrygian mode, a new scale with a darker, more threatening sound. Instruments taken out of storage can now be placed manually on the grid, and the in-game notebook has more content, including some elementary chord theory. Quality of life improvements and bug fixes round things out, with better error handling intended to help prevent desync bugs and track down their causes. As with previous updates, there is also a new OFFBEAT Radio track, titled Smashing Through Walls.
The Synthwave update is the last major content update for OFFBEAT in 2026. Since launching the game, the three-person team at Whetstone Games has been putting out monthly updates with new features, instruments, story content and fixes, which the studio says often left less time for testing than it wanted. The remaining early access updates will now be spaced further apart, giving the team more time to work while avoiding a longer quiet period ahead of the game’s full release in early 2027.
The next major content update is planned for January 2027
