''We Are OFK'' is an episodic adventure game developed by Team OFK and directed by

Teddy Dief Teddy Diefenbach, also known as Teddy Dief is an American videogame designer and writer. They worked as a creative director at Square Enix Montreal, directed the game ''We Are OFK'', and was co-designer for the game ''Hyper Light Drifter''. They c ...

. Its five episodes released between August and September 2022 for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

. It serves as the fictional biography of the developers'

virtual band In entertainment, a virtual band (also called a virtual idol, virtual singer, virtual group, virtual artists, cartoon group, cartoon idol, cartoon singer or cartoon band) is a band or music group whose depicted members are not people, but animate ...

, OFK.

Gameplay

The player chooses dialogue choices for one of the four characters by selecting thoughts or by

texting Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile phones, tablet computers, smartwatches, desktops/laptops, or ...

on a phone. The five music videos contain interactive elements, including collecting or interacting with objects.

Plot

The band OFK consists of keyboard player and manager Itsumi Saito, singer Luca Le Fae, visual artist Carter Flores and producer Jey Zhang. It is set in Los Angeles.

Development and release

Funding was provided by

Kowloon Nights Kowloon Nights is a video gaming investment fund established in 2017. It was founded by chief executive officer Alexis Garavaryan, who is also CEO of partner publisher Kepler Interactive, and Jay Chi. History Alexis Garavaryan, formerly of Ubisoft ...

. The game and

were announced with a concert video at

The Game Awards 2020 The Game Awards 2020 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2020. It was produced and hosted by Geoff Keighley, and took place on December 10, 2020. The preshow ceremony was hosted by Sydnee Goodman. Unlike previous Game Awards, ...

for release in spring 2021. It was delayed to 2022 and the episodes were released in weekly intervals, except for one and two releasing simultaneously.

Reception

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' said the stakes may seem small, but in the end it's hard not to be invested in the origin story.

Rock Paper Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' is a British video game journalism website. It was launched in July 2007 to focus on PC game, PC games and was acquired by Gamer Network, a network of sites led by ''Eurogamer'', in May 2017. History ''Rock Paper S ...

stated the lack of closure can be frustrating, but may be the entire point of the game, similar to life. Inverse magazine criticized that focusing on the band diminishes the personal stories, but it still succeeds in portraying the struggle of corporate and artistic identities.

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

said the storyline may feel too "on rails", but praised the characters' journey as expressed in the music videos. The game was nominated at the

Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

Awards 2023 for Excellence in Audio. It won a 2023

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

."84th Annual Peabody Award Winners Announced," from PeabodyAwards.com, 5/9/2024
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References

External links

* * *{{IMDb title, id=tt21436328 2022 video games Episodic video games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Single-player video games Windows games