I’ve never properly attempted a musical career, despite owning multiple guitars and an amp stack that takes up too much room. Maybe I’ll finally get my big break thanks to Offbeat, a song composition sim that also outputs the tunes you make as WAV files, doing the job of basic audio production software. It’s from the same publishers behind Boxroom, the game that turns your Steam library into a room full of posters.

“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,” reads the synopsis of Offbeat from three person dev team Whetstone Games. “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.”

So far, so music game, aside from a bit about buying singing garden gnomes from a second-hand magazine and weaving them into your tracks. You make money by putting together tracks in your little room, upgrade your gear, and work through chapters themed around different types of electronic music.

The twist is that along the way, you’re learning useful things about synthesisers and can export every song you put together, as the devs have done with the tune embedded in this article. “Music production can be costly and complex to get into, especially for beginners,” Whetstone wrote. “We created OFFBEAT to lower barriers to entry and to offer a playful, low-pressure way to learn the basics of audio production. 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.”

Naturally, with that much going on, the studio are planning an early access release later this year to work out the kinks over the course of “around 6-8 months”. A demo’ll also be up before it hits early access. In the meantime, you can wishlist Offbeat on Steam.