Backbeat

Story

Stephanie "Watts" Watson, an aspiring bassist, bounced from audition to audition never finding music that really resonated with her, until she discovered the magic of funk. Caught up in the groove, she recruits a group of hometown amateurs to take on art school darlings La Tormenta at the Battle of the Bands.

Backbeat is a homage to 16 and 32-bit story-driven games of the 1990s, set in the suburban Washington D.C. area with diner parking lots, shopping malls, and dimly lit arcades.

Gameplay

Time-based sokoban-style puzzles with character-driven mechanics. Each character in your band moves through puzzle maps in different ways, encountering unique solutions and obstacles. Advancing a character consumes a turn and part of the timeline, setting up interactions with other characters and enemies at different points in time. Rewind turns to find improved solutions and new ways to tackle problems.

Manipulate each character separately, rewinding or fast-forwarding along the timeline to reach their current point in time. Changes in time are reflected in the progress and actions of both past and present, creating new possibilities and removing others.

Each character has a resource-limited super move: tip toe through tight spaces with your bassist, slide through guards with your keytar player, break through walls with your drummer, or blow enemies out of the way with your mighty super sax.

Four resource-based musical metrics govern how and when you can move and interact with objects. These can completely block progress if used inefficiently, and create amazing musical chains and high scores when regulated artfully.

Music

Soulful grooves and hot licks composed by Pete Fraser, session saxophonist to The Pogues, Friendly Fires, and Field Music. Twenty musical motifs recorded by a live ensemble of seven funk masters. Unique songs are generated depending on what directions and paths you take in each puzzle. Customize your performance with alternate playing styles, instrument swaps, and realtime audio effect pedals.