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Press release:
LONDON, May 6th 2026 – Pantaloon has announced OFFBEAT; a new game developed by Whetstone Games, giving players a plethora of peculiar and unexpected instruments to begin their music production careers.
OFFBEAT is a music-tycoon game that allows you to live out your wildest fantasies as a musician and producer – except your equipment and instruments are children’s toys, garden ornaments and kitchen utensils.

Plugging these unconventional synthesisers into a sequencer, you’re able to compose and arrange tracks in an intuitive way, as you respond to briefs from various patrons who need music from your growing studio.
In announcing the game, Whetstone front-man Ed Sibley has released his latest single – composing, arranging and publishing the track all from within the game.

“Well, we needed some music for the announcement trailer.” said Ed Sibley, Creative Director at Whetstone,

“The game is literally about making music, so naturally I wanted to experiment with making the track using the game. So I fired it up, plugged the Tiger-01 into a delay pedal, and got to work. And now Pantaloon are releasing it as a single! Funny old world.”

“‘Not Your Uncle’s Ringtone’ is the first track to be published under the new OFFBEAT Radio banner.” added Pantaloon’s Jamin Smith,

“We’ve set up Pantaloon Records as a music label to publish the tracks OFFBEAT players might make in game. It’s all terribly exciting!”.

OFFBEAT allows players to export their creations to .wav, encouraging players to share and publish their work as they see fit. As well as a tycoon game with deep progression and an evolving studio of synthesisers, OFFBEAT is a robust musical production tool in its own right, and an accessible sandbox for anybody that’s ever been interested in electronic music.

OFFBEAT will launch into early access later this year, with a demo planned in the meantime.

PANTALOON
www.pantaloon.io
Pantaloon is a home for misfits; a game label and pedestal for bold and bizarre indie games, and a nexus of resources and services for developers looking to self-publish. Pantaloon helps indie game studios bring their games to market whilst remaining fully independent.

WHETSTONE GAMES
https://www.whetstone.games/

Whetstone Games is a London-based microstudio making funny little games. We met in an indie co-working space in 2025, and our ambition is to build a small, sustainable business with a reputation for playfulness and experimentation. We believe that the games industry should be paying more attention to non-games subcultures, and that a rising tide lifts all boats. We have a handmade, DIY ethos, and we want to make you laugh.