A Sound Design Guide For Indie Devs
- Abbie Roberts
- Apr 28
- 11 min read
Sound design can seem straightforward to implement at first. Add a few sounds for UI and a couple of shimmers. A swoosh here, leaves crunching there. Suddenly your game feels more polished. But something feels… off. Irritating even? Is it that specific sound you used? The timing? Is it too repetitive? Something just isn't right and it's infuriating.
If you are an indie developer going solo with no sound-dedicated team member, it’s likely you are wearing many, many hats. Including sound designer. This post aims to give you a starting point and help direct you through the process of foundational sound design for your game.
Before we go further, let me say that I am not a specialist in sound design. Although I am actively studying it, I am primarily a composer. However, I often end up doing sound design work alongside composing as many audio folks in games also do. Developers I work with often have questions about sound design... which is what has inspired this post!
Sound design for games is a huge topic. I've aimed to cover what I believe are the essentials for an indie dev. So, let’s dive into some of the basics of sound design and also some helpful vocabulary. Then we will move on to discovering, choosing and designing the sound of your game.
Sound Design Basics & Terminology
First, you need to understand a few key ideas before you jump in and start downloading or tweaking sound. You don't have to have a background in audio engineering, but a grasp of the following concepts will help shape the sound in your game drastically.
A great video to check out on this, it's aimed more at sound designers but does a great job of going through all the core elements you need to be away of:
Now let's dive in to some core concepts:
Player Feedback
This is the most important element. Good feedback makes a game feel responsive and satisfying. Poor or missing feedback makes it feel disconnected. Sound in your game should primarily function to give your player feedback based on how they are interacting with the world and environment.
Core Sound Types
One Shot
A sound that plays once from start to finish.
Example: button click, gunshot, footstep.
Loop
A sound that repeats continuously until stopped.
Example: wind, rain, engine hum.
Ambience
Background environmental sound that creates atmosphere.
Example: forest noise, city hum, cave drip.
Stinger
A short musical or tonal hit used to emphasise a moment.
Example: level complete sound, dramatic reveal.
UI Sounds
Audio tied to menus and interface interactions.
Example: clicks, hover sounds, notifications.
Diegetic vs Non Diegetic Sound & Attenuation
This concept describes where the sound appears to originate and exist from the player’s perspective. Diegetic sound comes from an identifiable source in the game world.
Examples are footsteps, doors, guns, and environmental sounds.
Non-diegetic sound does not have a direct in-game source and is more abstract.
Examples are music, UI sounds, and voiceovers.
This helps in distinguishing sound cues the player has control and awareness over versus sounds that are more like part of the interface itself.
The term "Attenuation" (Volume) defines how the sound's volume will reduce (attenuate) as the listener moves away from it. The volume of the sound will be at its maximum within the inner area of the attenuation shape.
Frequency and EQ
Each sound in your game will contain a mix of all of the different frequency ranges playing all at once.
Low frequencies deliver that big, heavy oomph.
Mid frequencies are where your sounds may distinguish themselves from one another.
High frequencies make sure all the elements in your mix are clear and sharp.
EQ adjustments are made to these frequencies. For instance, removing the low end from UI sounds can give a clean feel to them. Boosting the high end can give something a sharp or responsive feel. Tiny EQ adjustments can make a world of difference in terms of clarity.
Volume and Dynamics
Not everything you hear in a game should be of the same volume. A few loud sounds to hammer home an important moment and some quiet ones to add some background detail into the mix. If everything is loud, nothing is. And if something sticks out as a lot louder than everything else, it will just come off as unpolished.
Good sound design will present you with both some loud and quiet sounds.
Layering
Most well-crafted sounds in-game are not coming from a single file. They are made up of certain layers (at least in most cases): a base layer for the core part of the sound, a texture layer to add some detail, or a low-end layer to add some weight. For instance, an explosion sound might be made up of a few different layers: a deep low-end hit, a middle range for the impact, and a high-frequency layer for the crack or debris.
Adding extra layers to your sounds is one of the easiest and most effective ways to make them sound a lot higher in quality than they really are.
Timing and Responsiveness
This is one of the most crucial parts of sound design in gaming; the sound should feel like it’s in tune with the action onscreen. If it plays too early or too late, even by a fraction of a second, it’s never going to feel quite right.
Fast-paced action in a game gives the player the feeling that their input on the controller translates directly to the screen. This is an essential part of why a game feels responsive and satisfying.
Reverb
Reverb is short for reverberation. It’s the natural echoey effect that happens when a sound occurs in a space with walls and ceilings.
Reverb can make your game feel:
Like it’s set in an epic, sprawling cave system
Like it’s in wide open spaces with no walls at all
More realistic and true to life
Reverb also helps your sounds sit in the game world. If you had a bird singing in a forest with no reverb, it would sound like the bird was stuck right in your ear
Reverb is usually used as an audio treatment in-game engines which improve overall sound quality.
Making a tiny room or a tiny amount of reverb can make a sound feel very close and direct to the player. Making a big hall reverb can make it feel like the sound is very far away from the player.
Variation and Randomisation
If you repeat the exact same sound effect too many times in quick succession your players will notice.
For example:
You get into your car in the morning and drive to work. It’s two minutes down the road by car but halfway there you hear the same three footsteps repeat on the sidewalk in the middle of the night.
Avoid this by having several different variations of the same sound effect. Also try subtly, slightly randomizing the pitch and volume of each play.
For footsteps, impacts, any repeated action-based sound, this is critical.
Building The Sounds Of Your Game
Fist Think About The Overall Sound Experience
This video covers several key aspects of sound design but also gives specific indie examples - give it a watch:
Before we dive into more detail to help you with specific sound design choices, you need to know what you want sound to achieve overall in your game. So consider some broad questions like:
How do you want the player to feel while playing your game, generally? Cosy and relaxed? Excited? On edge?
Does the world or the environment impact how your game sounds?
This is helpful because it gives you a top level idea of sound tones, styles, etc. If you are creating a cosy game you’ll likely want sounds that aren’t too harsh. Whereas if you are creating an action RPG you may want a more exciting, driving, harsher sounds.
Pick 3 descriptors for your overall sound, and try to refer back to these when you make your choices. As kind of a north star for your choices.
Have At Least 3 References To Draw From
This can be tricky, but even if your game is niche it’s important you spend time finding references because the process of this will inform you on how you want and don’t want your game to sound. Listen to other games, their sound design, take notes, and this will help you immensely. It will also really help if you decide to hire a sound designer or composer for anything at a later stage.
Consider The Player Experience, Before You Think About The Sounds
Before you download anything, or even start trawling through the many online libraries out there trying to find the “right” sounds, make sure to cover some key questions that will guide you.
Some helpful questions you can ask yourself:
What do you want the player to “feel” in this moment? Or series of moments?
Is this a specifically repetitive action?
What do you want to stand out, vs be a subtle background sound?
Does this belong to a series of other similar sounds where a theme should exist?
Sound design for your game is about the player experience, not simply throwing in some shiny twinkles. A UI click-button can feel super satisfying with the right sounds, or like fingernails on the chalkboard over time with the wrong ones. A weapon can feel powerless or absolutely epic to the player. And the same movement can feel immersive and fun VS immersion breaking and confusing depending on your choices.
Create a Basic Sound List
A super common mistake is to forage for sounds with no direction at all, slap them in, and then wonder why things feel disjointed later. Strategy is important here. Being thoughtful about why you are choosing what you’re choosing.
First, what you want to do is to create a simple list of what you actually need in your game, for example:
UI sounds
Player movement and actions
Enemy sounds
Impacts and collisions
Weapons or abilities
Ambient sounds
Interactable objects
Success and failure cues
Menus and transitions
This seems obvious, but it's easy to overlook and end up collecting tons of sounds you don't need. I also recommend creating a table like this, to help you with direction for each group:
Sound Group | Types | Descriptors |
UI sounds | Paper like, page turning, rustles, pen on paper | Soothing, thoughtful, warm |
Player movement and actions | Cloth, leather, footsteps | Natural, soft, warm |
Enemy sounds | Beast growls, snarling, howling | Natural, lightly threatening |
Impacts and collisions | Stone, wood, soil, | Deep, warm |
Weapons or abilities | Swords, shields, arrows | Clean, fairly light, tonal |
Ambient sounds | Leaves, rustling, birds, water, mud, | Light, natural, warm |
Interactable objects | Chests, wooden doors, wind chimes, scroll opening, | Warm, natural, tonal |
Success and failure cues | Chimes, wood blocks, bass "stamps/stomps" | Natural materials, instruments, positive vs "stop" type sounds |
Menus and transitions | Soft musical chimes or ambient sounds/wind/nature | Transitional, soft, movement |
Laying what you need out in this way can really help you with direction when you’re inevitably looking through hundreds or even thousands of sounds to find what’s right.
Sound designers will often create "palette" early on in a project to help the create a consistent feel throughout a game. But it also helps streamline the creation and sound design work itself. Laying what you need out in this way can really help you with direction when you’re inevitably looking through hundreds or even thousands of sounds to find what’s right.
Know The Licences Of What You Use Before Diving In
Just because it's free doesn’t mean you can, or should, use it in your project. Even on the same site, licences can change between sounds, so always double-check before you download and start implementing.
CC0
No rights reserved. No credit needed. Go wild.
Creative Commons Attribution
You can use it, but you must credit the author.
Restricted or non commercial licences
Don’t use them in commercial work.
Free Sound Libraries That Are Decent
The most popular, generally "safe" free ones for indie devs:
Mainly for simple, game-ready assets, and UI sounds.
Good because: CC0, clean, and consistent with regular updates.
Ideal for creating a big, high quality starting library
What's great about it: Massive library, royalty and attribution free
Ideal for real world recordings, ambience, and unique textures
But remember: Each file has its own specific licence
Ideal for fast, easy, royalty free sounds
Perfect for a first pass on a prototype or to quickly fill in the blanks
Paid Libraries to Step Up Your Game
For more polish, consistency, and speed, paid libraries deliver in spades.
Ideal for improving your workflow and staying organised
You can search and audition sounds right from within your game
Ideal for big, cinematic, poIished sounds
Anything recorded by these guys sounds absolutely incredible
Ideal for unique, specialised libraries
It's like the Etsy for sound effects and music
Ideal for big, all encompassing general libraries
Great to build upon over time
If you're struggling finding the right thing and aren't ready to hire a sound designer, have a go at creating yourself! You don't need fancy equipment. Just a good phone mic and a quiet environment. There is a really hand list that was created over on Epic Sound, which can also help you speed up the process.
Tools To Know About
You don’t need anything fancy to get going, for most indie devs using in-engine audio systems will cover what you need. But a few key tools to be aware of are:
Audacity
Audacity is the world's most popular free software for recording and editing audio. Useful for creating or editing your own sounds if needed.
FMOD
Audio middleware (allowing more advanced audio implementation) with a free option for smaller projects.
DAWs (Reaper, Ableton, Cubase etc)
A DAW is a digital audio workstation, software used to record, edit and produce audio. There many out there with free trials. Or even browser based options that you can try out if you want to create your own sounds from scratch.
That Was A Lot Of Information - Here's A Handy Checklist You Can Use:
Planning and Direction
☐ Define the overall “feel” of the game’s sound
☐ Choose 2 to 3 descriptors to guide sound top level choices
☐ Gather at least 2 to 3 reference games or examples
Organisation
☐ Create a clear list of required sounds
☐ Group sounds into categories like UI, movement, ambience, etc
☐ Establish a consistent direction or “palette” for each group
Choosing Sounds
☐ Ensure each sound matches the intended player feeling
☐ Make sure sounds fit well within their category
☐ Avoid harsh, distracting, or overly repetitive sounds
☐ Check licences and confirm commercial use is allowed
☐ Use a tidy naming convention when saving sounds
Polish
☐ Edit or customise sounds where needed to improve quality
☐ Adjust timing, pitch, or volume for better feel
☐ Add variation to repeated sounds to avoid repetition fatigue
Implementation
☐ Ensure sounds play at the correct moment
☐ Make sounds feel responsive to player input
☐ Balance volume levels across the game
☐ Let important sounds stand out and keep others subtle
☐ Use reverb or space to help sounds sit in the world
Consistency
☐ Ensure all sounds feel like they belong in the same game
☐ Keep UI sounds consistent with each other
☐ Use similar audio for similar actions
☐ Remove anything that feels out of place or jarring
Final Pass
☐ Play the game focusing only on sound
☐ Test sections for repetition fatigue
☐ Check how the game feels with and without sound
Trust Your instincts, Avoid Perfectionism & Focus on FEEL
It's not just about creating sounds, but also about influencing the overall gameplay experience. Start small, use existing libraries, and get familiar with the role of sounds in your game. Eventually, you’ll become more accustomed to what sounds good and works best for your game. This way, you can ensure that sound design is a fundamental element and not just an add-on to your game.
When you start to feel that the libraries you have aren’t enough, your game needs a distinctive character, you want the audio to stand out in your trailer, you require adaptive or reactive audio, or you perceive there's a lack of consistency, this is when you should consider hiring a sound designer.
I hope this guide has been useful. Let me know your thoughts below, or make a suggestion if I can make it even more valuable. And of course, feel free to get in touch if you're in need of soundtracks, or bespoke sound design.
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