Think back to the 90s. I wasn’t alive during it, but I’ve listened to enough Nirvana and played enough of the Nintendo 64 — without a mobile phone in sight — to imagine what it might’ve been like. I do know that this era of excess and plenty was the time that video games exploded in popularity and made obscene technological advancements, when dressing up in neon colours and bad haircuts were deemed a hell of a lot more fashionable than it is now, and when the music was great. 90s nostalgia is real, and even today the love for its music, in particular, lives on.
Think Weezer, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Beastie Boys. Metallica, Motley Crue. Pavement, Sonic Youth. The 90s saw Oasis release Wonderwall, for God’s sake. The song that will quite literally never die, no matter how many of us are tired of hearing it played at any bar across the north of England each weekend. God forbid someone breaks out a guitar at a party.
Rockbeasts — which I was briefly shown during Team17’s Showcase last in late February 2025 — is an upcoming game developed by Lichthund that harkens back to the era of alternative music and bad haircuts, tasking you with becoming the manager of an upcoming rock-and-roll band and helping them skyrocket to fame. Or aiding them with becoming complete sellouts. Your call.
As a management simulator, you can expect to have to manage the band’s time; when (and if) they eat, rehearse, perform publicly, and so forth. But you can also expect to get to know your band, and all of the other 100+ wacky characters they will run into on their journey to the top (or bottom), on a much deeper level.
This cast, which consists of all kinds of anthropomorphic animals that any Bojack Horseman fan will drool over (including a bass-playing sea bass, of course), boasts an appearance from The Stooges’ Iggy Pop, as well as a range of voice actors from Baldur’s Gate 3, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Alan Wake 2.
The game doesn’t look to shy away from the dark underbelly of rock ‘n’ roll stardom in the 90s, either – with cutthroat, comedic dialogue that doesn’t dial down the swearing. Much like its visual style, dialogue takes inspiration from adult cartoons such as Beavis and Butthead, Daria, Bob’s Burgers, and even Family Guy. So you can imagine the type of humour that the game is going for.
While we didn’t get much of a look at it during our time with the game, Lichthund did allude to life as a rock band manager not being all sunshine and roses. It seems as though there’s more to Rockbeasts that simply keeping your band in line and landing them bigger shows; there’ll no doubt be conflict and controversy — perhaps within the band itself, as well as from exterior forces — to manage in the raging capitalist society of the 90s, all part of your band’s ascent to fame.
I certainly expect my band to get booed off stage more than once, that’s for sure, and I suspect that’s not even the beginning of things that could go wrong for a rock band manager in Rockbeasts…
Rockbeasts is expected to release in 2025.