Guides
Practical notes on sound effect pairing, layering, and mixing. Written from a working practitioner's point of view, not as marketing copy. New entries occasionally.
Stop stacking footsteps like a cake: a four-layer approach that actually sounds like walking
technique·7 min read·footsteps, layering, mixingThe first time I shipped a stealth game, the build lead opened a bug ticket two days before release: "footsteps sound like a sound effect library." Which they were. We had 14 surface types, each with 8 randomized samples, all properly pitc…
Read →Why your UI sounds feel exhausting after ten minutes (and three things to try)
technique·7 min read·ui, ux-audio, mixingTwo months into the alpha of a turn-based strategy game I worked on, a tester filed a comment that took us a while to act on: "the menu sounds are nice but they make me want to mute the game after a while." We'd shipped a clean, crisp UI p…
Read →Weapon hits in three parts: the stack that makes a swing feel like it landed
technique·8 min read·combat, weapons, impactI worked on a small action game where the lead complaint from the first internal playtest was "swords don't feel like they connect." The animation had impact frames. The hit reaction on the enemy was correct. The SFX played at the right mo…
Read →Looping ambience without seams: the four-second handoff
technique·7 min read·ambience, looping, mixingThe first ambient loop I ever shipped in a game was a 30-second forest bed for a wandering RPG. It was a good recording. The team loved it in isolation. Two weeks after launch, a community member uploaded a 4-hour playthrough video, and in…
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