SOUND DESIGN

Tales from Frah'Akin: Character Musical Interaction

In this video, the protagonist interacts with a young boy attempting to play a lute. I designed the sound effects to convey his lack of skill, using sporadic, uneven timing, rapid retries, and misplaced notes to simulate a novice musician. This sound effect reinforces the narrative and gives personality to the NPC, making his frustration over the lack of praise for his efforts even more impactful.

My recorded performance was modeled after the sounds children make when attempting to play a piece on guitar without sufficient practice. Even short interactions with sound effects can convey NPC personality and personal history. I’ve also created a variety of other musical effects in Tales of Frah’Akin, including small melodies, lute performances, and a short melody on an interactive church organ. By including both musical characters and playable instruments scattered throughout the world, these small touches help bring the fantasy setting to life and convey a vibrant musical culture.

The Star Legation: Environmental Storytelling through Sound Design

In this video excerpt, much of the action happens off-screen and is conveyed entirely through implication and sound. The comical character, Oasu--an overconfident “engineering expert”--is tasked with performing a vital repair to the starship while the rest of the helpless crew looks on.

As the scene begins, the background music shifts to a quirky, playful tone to signal the comedic turn. While the dialogue and character expressions add humor, the sound effects and pacing were key to selling the comedic scene. I started with light, believable sounds: an electric screwdriver layered with the metallic clunk of an old computer tower being lifted and set down. As the scene progressed and Oasu tried to "fit" the hardware unit into its housing, I emphasized his efforts by banging my fists on the computer casing and tossed small LEGO pieces inside to simulate the clatter of broken parts.

When the crew attempts to power up the repaired system, I punctuated the moment with the recorded sound of an electrical short to simulate the pop of burnt capacitors. Though the effects themselves were simple, their timing and physical performance were essential to communicating Oasu’s impulsive, overconfident personality and creating a memorable comedic sequence.

The Star Legation: Menu and Options

In this video, I demonstrate how sound can reinforce user feedback and make menu navigation more engaging. The five main menu options provided the perfect opportunity to use a pentatonic scale across each button, giving the interface a musical component. The impact of this small design choice became clear later during a Twitch stream, when a player immediately noticed the tones as he hovered over the buttons. He spent several moments playing little tunes across the menu and commented on how fun and unexpected the interaction was.

The Options menu also showcases deliberate sound design choices. Mute buttons use a comical squelch, while music and sound effect volume levels trigger short, representative sounds; a short, synthesized melody for music and laser blasts for sound effects. Text speed options are punctuated with a typing sound that accelerates or slows depending on the selection, and the Unread Text Skip toggle contrasts a darker, minor “off” tone with a brighter, positive “on” sound.

Together, these sounds create an intuitive and playful feedback system that makes even simple navigation feel rewarding, turning the menu into a small, interactive “instrument” for the player.

The Star Legation: Cargo Bay Chiratkis Battle

In this video, I showcase several sound design choices for an action sequence. In visual novel games, environmental storytelling conveys much of the narrative, and sound effects serve to heighten immersion and clarify key events.

During the sequence, tense battle music underscores the overall action, while sound effects highlight quick, critical moments. For example, when enemies toss a grenade into the cargo bay and a green filter colors the screen, I clarified that it was gas grenade though the use of a steady hissing sound.

Two insectoid Chiraktis combatants enter next. The smaller manipulates robotic drones, and when one drone ignites an energy blade, I added a low electrical hum to indicate its activation and emphasize its danger. Later, as the player hesitates and the Chiraktis advances with wrist-blades, the amoeba-like Omul fires a glob-gun that hits the soldier, accompanied by a distinct blurp and squish to communicate the impact.

A remote drone fires a crackling electrical arc at the hiding Omul but is then shot down by a lurking reptilian alien with a quick laser blast; it spirals through the air and crashes loudly to the floor. During the protagonist’s bladed melee with the Chiraktis, metallic clashes punctuate each strike until the soldier is disarmed, its large wrist-blades clattering loudly to the floor. The energy-bladed drone is destroyed by a dark-laser blast, reinforced by the sound of crushed metal.

Finally, the Omul throws kunai blades at the Chiraktis controlling the drones. One pierces the drone control unit belt on the Chiraktis, highlighted by a metallic impact and crackling static to signal it has been disabled. The Chiraktis then flicks the kunai to the floor, where it clatters lightly, emphasizing its smaller weight and size.

Through these choices, I aimed to make every action instantly readable while heightening tension and reinforcing the unique identities of each character and weapon.

Unity ARPG: Sound Design Example 1

In this video example, I demonstrate several sound design choices for weapons and player interaction with orbital locations. I begin with a comparison between two ballistic weapons: a lighter, machine-gun-style chain cannon that fires a single bullet stream and a heavier variant with a deep, bass-rich tone for its dual stream. I then showcase several particle (laser) cannons, each with a unique laser-blast sound designed to give each weapon brand a distinct identity. These sounds were refined through extensive testing and player feedback, re-designing any sounds that became grating or fatiguing during repeated use. Each weapon’s sound design emphasizes perceived power: lighter weapons use sharper, treble-focused sounds, while heavier weapons rely on deeper bass to convey raw power.

Next, I fly the player’s starship to the Star Wrangler Bar, an orbital hangout for disreputable NPCs. As the player approaches, a subtle sci-fi western tune fades in to set the mood. Docking is emphasized by the loud whir of machinery and a solid clamping sound. To reinforce the Western theme, I added a stylized gunshot and bullet ricochet as the player is greeted by the Welcome display. Hacking the private message board triggers a digital error cascade with a distorted, negative tone to highlight the unlawful action, while standard UI choices produce clean, neutral digital tones. Upon departure from the Star Wrangler docks, a short “wah wah wah” motif (reminiscent of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) plays as a final touch.

The demonstration concludes with a combat encounter. As the player attacks a security officer, flashing lights and sirens activate as the officer retaliates. Together, all sounds create a consistent sense of feedback, presence, and excitement, enhancing immersion and player engagement throughout the game.

Unity ARPG: Sound Design Example 2

In this video example, I demonstrate several of my sound design choices for player interaction with equipment in the inventory system. Slotting weapons into the starship was designed to sound heavy and mechanical, followed by a brief “charging up” tone to suggest readiness. Switching between weapons needed a sense of mechanical movement, as if a motorized system were rolling the next weapon into place. Dropping a weapon into the cargo bay sounds with a deep, reverberant impact to imply a large, empty metal hold, while dropping an item out of the airlock is accented with an electrical hum and a quick swish. Scrapping equipment produces a harsh, incinerator-like welding sound to convey the destruction of the item into metal scrap.

For demonstration purposes, the enemy ship’s movement was disabled to focus on the different impact sounds; first, the hum of its protective shield, then the metallic bell-tone of weapon resistance, and finally the raw impact of shots against the hull. The video also includes the sound of a special ability, Weapon Focus, which can be activated to temporarily boost the player’s damage output.

Finally, I highlight several subtle UI sounds. The long-range radar overlay uses a thin, bright digital tone when opening and closing to reinforce player actions, while menu tabs emit a slightly louder, more solid tone to confirm inputs. The main menu’s eight buttons are each tuned to form a simple musical scale, allowing players to “play” short musical phrases during the paused game state for a little extra fun.