Over the course of the game, players find clues that piece together the events of the incident, and attempt to repair the escape vehicle to return home.

Orth compares the game to the upheaval in his life following his controversial comments about the Xbox One's DRM proposal.

Players are able to locate audio logs that will expand on the events of the incident;[2] the game is set in the year 2037.

When Microsoft's Xbox One was announced, it received controversy for its digital rights management that would require users to remain online to use the console.

After seeing people quarrel over this, Orth—then a creative director at Microsoft—told them to "deal with it", which resulted in a mass of complaints leading to Orth's resignation from the company.

[10] Following his resignation from Microsoft, Orth approached his former colleague Omar Aziz with the idea of founding a new studio.

Although initially hesitant,[4] Aziz agreed with the idea after hearing Orth's pitch for Adrift, and the two founded the development studio Three One Zero.

Throughout development, the team hired various contractors for a number of weeks in order to complete certain tasks, such as animation.

Orth compared the game's art style to the minimalist presentation of the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[17] Adrift was officially announced on June 4, 2014,[28] prior to the full gameplay reveal at The Game Awards on December 5, 2014.