Tied to the Beat demo drops April 27 · Eastern Game Fest 2026

On April 27 the Tied to the Beat demo drops on Steam, and we will be officially taking part in the Eastern Game Fest 2026 (April 27 to May 5, 2026).

🎙️ How the combat actually works

Every song ships with a time-synced lyrics file (.lrc). As the track plays, each lyric line is matched against a glossary of 755 tagged triggers. A match fires an effect live on the arena: stat buffs (damage, movement speed, fire rate, range, armor, healing), weather (rain, wind, darkness), player auras, screen effects, or shifts in enemy behavior (panic, slow, speed up). Seven effect strategies run in parallel: four themed suites with their own visuals and identity (Haven, Vampire, Another-One, Bad-Joke), plus three that cover generic buffs, debuffs and the wider glossary. The song stops being background and starts pulling real weight in your run.

🎮 What's in the demo

• 2 playable characters: Drum "Beat Keeper" (melee cone, 3-note spread, scales with armor and life steal, 140 HP) and Violin "Velvet Violinist" (ranged glass cannon, scales with crit, 1.5× range and 3-pierce shots, 100 HP). • 1 map: Evergreen forest with its full enemy roster, four weather systems (rain, fog, thunderstorms, wind) and its biome bosses. • 4 songs with time-synced lyrics: "It's Up to You" (Lin Hoyasi), "Bad Joke" (Alana Jordan), "Pocket of Joy" (Lin Hoyasi) and "Crazy Love" (AAP feat. Leo Valentine). • Easy difficulty only. Medium and Hard unlock in the full game once you clear Easy. • Systems you can play with: Wurlitzer skill tree (11 global upgrades shared across every character), per-character talent branches (4 branches × 5 tiers), level-up upgrade wheel with relic picks, shop, 95 in-run missions + 10 daily missions, 44 achievements, bestiary, Concert Venue and full gamepad support. Every unlock in the demo carries automatically to the full game (same save). • Demo-exclusive: add the full game to your wishlist and claim a free Golden Vinyl with 5 legendary relics (red rarity).

🎁 What the full game adds

• 6 more playable characters: Guitar (Solo Dash Master), Tambourine (Fortune Dancer), Trumpet (Brass Herald), Microphone (Crowd Commander), Piano (Sanctuary Keeper) and Flute (Wind Walker). Each with its own shot pattern and scaling stat. • 3 more maps: Desert, Snow, Volcano, each with its own enemy roster and weather (sandstorms, blizzards and eruptions respectively). • 19 more songs (23 total, with lyrics in English, Chinese, Japanese, German and French). • Medium and Hard difficulties unlock as you clear Easy. • Import your own music: drop an MP3 and add an .lrc, or let the built-in Whisper auto-transcription generate one for you. • Steam Workshop: subscribe to community-made song packs or publish your own tracks at https://steamcommunity.com/app/4316340/workshop/. • 81 entries in the bestiary, 24 of them bosses or minibosses, spread across the four biomes. • Steam leaderboard, random wheel, and 2 extra custom-track slots that unlock after 1 and 5 run wins.

📅 Event details

• Dates: April 27 to May 5, 2026 • How to join: head to the Tied to the Beat Steam page and click "Download Demo".

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4512940/_/

💡 Wishlist the full game

Wishlisting is the biggest help you can give a small team like ours. It also unlocks the Golden Vinyl inside the demo.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4316340/_/

The music does not stop, and neither does the fight. See you at Eastern Game Fest 2026.

The Tied to the Beat team