Backbeat - Nintendo Switch

Stephanie "Watts" Watson, an aspiring bass player, bounced from one audition to the next, never finding the music that truly resonated with her, until she discovered the magic of funk.

Caught up in the rhythm, she recruits a group of hometown amateurs to take on art school darling La Tormenta in a battle of the bands.

Nomination for Excellence in Sound Design: BitSummit X-Roads

Join Watts as he grows on a musical journey rooted in funk and fusion.

Soulful grooves and hot licks are composed by Pete Fraser, session saxophonist for The Pogues, Friendly Fires, and Field Music.

Twenty musical motifs are recorded by a live ensemble of seven funk masters, providing the foundation for the game's dynamic music.

Unique melodies are generated based on the directions and paths you follow in each puzzle.

Customize your performance with alternative playing styles, instrument swaps and real-time audio effects pedals.



Characteristics:

- Each character in your troop moves around the map in different ways, encountering unique solutions and obstacles.
- Advancing a character consumes a turn and part of the timeline, establishing interactions with other characters and enemies at different times.
- Rewinding a turn undoes movement, allowing you to find improved solutions and new ways to approach problems.
- Manipulate each character separately, scrolling or fast-forwarding along the timeline in the process of reaching their current point in time.
- Changes in time are reflected in each character's past and present progress and actions, creating some possibilities and eliminating others.
- Each character has their own super move with limited resources that can be triggered under certain conditions.



- Get through tight spaces with the bass player, slide through guards with the keyboard player, go through walls with the drummer or take enemies out of your way with your powerful super sax.
- Strategic use of your super moves increases the number of solutions for each puzzle and is the key to achieving a high score.
- Four resource-based musical metrics govern how and when you can move and interact with objects in levels.
- These can completely block progress if used inefficiently and can create amazing musical chains and high scores when artfully regulated.
- Backbeat is an homage to 16 and 32-bit gaming from the 90s, recreating the challenges and victories of the last days of analog life and the birth of the Internet.
- Washington D.C. Suburban Area is reflected in dimly lit restaurant parking lots, shopping malls, and arcades.