We Are OFK Preview: That’s what I want from episodic video games

In the 1960s, some television producers keen to capitalize on the Beatles’ popularity developed a shamelessly profitable elevator pitch: a television show featuring a fictional band of young actors and singers that was released real Albums and tour real Venues and make their creators real Money. They were called The Monkees and were inevitable for a moment. In the 1990s, Blur front man and artist Jamie Hewlett took the concept of invented musicians a step further with the Gorillaz, a virtual animated band that appeared in 2D music videos, 3D award show performances, and ultimately live holographic performances .

At the beginning of this month I got to know the real-fictional band of this generation: OFK.

OFK consists of four animated characters who will debut in the episodic video game of 2022. We are OFK. Like The Monkees’ previous TV show, OFK’s video game will serve as the launch pad for the band’s music, with a new single debuting with each new episode. At the end of its five episodes, the game will tell the stories of its rising pop stars and will also have premiered a full EP.

Image: Team OFK

If The Monkees were a commercial endeavor by Hollywood elites and the Gorillaz were a side project of successful rock stars and pop artists, OFK is the first indie iteration of human artists to “make” a fictional band.

In real life, Team OFK consists of a team of game developers from the indie and AAA areas. Director Teddy Dief previously worked on the neon-soaked action game on a budget Hyper Light Drifter, while performance director Khris Brown, for example, has played a crucial role in improving performances in all studio sizes, including big budget series like Assassin’s Creed. The team’s website lists 24 contributors, all of whom, Dief explained to me, exist in both the real and fictional worlds of OFK.

It gets a little more complex because the band itself is completely fictional, but the vocal performances are done by Team OFK members. So some members play two roles: themselves and bandmates.

Image: Team OFK

Dief is a nice example of how that works. Teddy Dief is the director of the game in real life and a member of the OFK creative team in the band’s fiction. Teddy is also the voice of Luca, the lead singer of OFK and a character in We are OFK.

Make sense? It’s okay if not because when you’re actually playing the game, the only thing that matters is the music is good and the game is just as promising.

Let’s start with the game. Have you ever played a persona game and wished there weren’t any fights? Did you just want to meet up with friends in a cool city and chat by text message while chilled music simmered in the background? If so, then I have good news. We are OFK is a pure hangout game. All you really do is talk, so it helps that Claire Jia and Dief’s script has the rhythm and dynamics of good television.

I played through the first episode, which focused on Itsumi, a young woman stuck with a video game developer who looks a lot like the Blizzard Entertainment campus in Irvine. She is recovering from a bad breakup and looking for the next stepping stone towards … whatever comes after. She is rudderless, so it was up to me to direct the conversations between her and her friends to reflect my own experiences. This story always ends on the same point no matter how I choose, but my choices have personalized it – kind of like that Kentucky Route Zero.

Image: Team OFK

And as with Kentucky route zero, Team OFK recognizes the emotional power of a good song. The music is a collaboration between Dief and indie musicians Luna Shadows and Thom Powers (from The Naked and Famous). I got the chance to hear two of the songs and they had a unique feel to them, one reminded me of Kanye’s “808s and Heartbreak” and the other of gentler Nine Inch Nails.

It’s all very cozy, like meeting friends for coffee after work or a show on the weekend. That’s why I’m so on the release schedule. We are OFKs first episode will start in 2022, with a new episode premiering once a week for the next four weeks. Episode releases are not new to video games, but in the past new episodes have been separated by months or even years. It’s a decision that has more to do with the pace of the experience than the need for the developer to spend more time creating the next part of the game.

We are OFK isn’t published by Netflix, but with streamers flirting with the video game room, this type of experience seems like the perfect solution. Most importantly, it emphasizes history, accessibility, and emotional connection. And like so much great television, it has the potential to add some tension from week to week. It’s funny that online streaming taught us television, but digital distribution might finally give us something that television used to do so well: a fictional group of friends we can’t wait to spend time with spend. The Monkees were on to something!

We are OFK is scheduled for a release in 2022 for Linux, Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Windows PC.