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Sounds of Shadows is a first person horror game made in Unreal Engine 5.
My role on the team was technical audio designer.
The game was officially released on itch.io in 2024 and steam in 2025 with a VR content update
The project lasted 8 weeks in a team of 24 2nd year students.
The tools I used are Unreal Engine 5, Ableton Suite 11 and FMOD.

My responsibilities and deliverables were:

• Designed and implemented 43 sound effects
• Mastering audio levels in 2 game levels
• Technical audio design for all ambient and intractable sound effects.

Designed and implemented 43 sound effects

Throughout production I was tasked with creating the prop and ambient sounds in the game.
The game heavily relies on sound to convey the visuals. The props made the path more clear for the player. Without the prop sounds in place the player would mostly go through the level blind.

The game uses 2 ambient loops that change depending on the gameplay. A constant droning sound effect and an intensified disruptive droning sound. The difference helps the player figure out if they are in a dangerous or narrative relevant location.

Overall I worked with different core groups.

• Prop artists – control over the props that would end up in the game
• Environment artists – give the levels a final dress pass that defines the location of the eventual prop sounds
• Level designers – choose where the sounds come from and what they should show the player
• Narrative designers – The sounds have to convey the message of the game

SFX used for the “Brain Upload” prop that has heavy narrative purposes.

I worked on the sounds that throwables make when landing. This is the impact SFX of the binders.

Mastering audio levels in 2 game levels

I started of with the initial level mastering for level 1. This included finding the room sizes. I created rough passes for reverb volumes. I also worked with the level designer on ambient audio volumes.
David Lammers then took over and I started working on the mastering level 2 completely.

The level 2 mastering started off the same way as level 1. Due to many iterations to level 2 itself, I had to change the audio often.
Eventually the level was finalized so I finished up the mastering pass. To take the level to its “finished” state.

A snippet of level 2 where the player goes from a area to an area with enemy interactions
(note: enemy and footstep sounds are credited to David Lammers)

Technical audio design for all ambient and intractable sound effects.

My primary technical audio design tool for this project was FMOD. Within FMOD I set up the events, created blends between sounds and created the settings for the level mastering.

I started off with learning the basics of the event editors but quickly learned the capabilities of this tool. I worked with occlusion, attenuation, and filters. I made sounds that sound good in the game and help immerse the player in the play space.
I also worked with the snapshots settings where I set up the reverb zones and smaller overall mastering passes. This work led me to the FMOD internal mixing desk. I did most of the adjusting there for the final level pass.

Release

Sounds of Shadows was initially released on Itch as an open beta. After receiving feedback from the community we updated the game and gave it a full release on Itch.
The reviews on Itch have positive feedback on the audio of the game.
Sounds of Shadows has been nominated for the 2024 Dutch Game Awards “Best Student Game”.
After receiving this nomination Breda University granted our team a Steam release.