2025 · Audio-led psychological horror
Shadow Frames
A UE5 horror game where players find ten changes inside an abandoned pub by listening instead of following screen markers.
I was the only person on audio: I made the sounds that announce each change and lead the player to it, recorded the voice acting, then implemented and mixed all of it as 200+ Wwise events in Unreal.
4 months · Wwise · Unreal Engine 5 · C++ · REAPER · A collaboration between Howest DAE, RITCS and the Royal Conservatory of Ghent
Gameplay
An alert, a direction and a confirmation
A short alert tells the player that something changed. The changed object then makes a directional sound, followed by a closer confirmation as the player approaches and photographs it.
Playtest fixes
Fixing enemy cues, footsteps and the camera mix
Weekly playtests exposed three problems: the enemy sound switched on and off near one distance, footsteps failed when parts of the level moved, and raising the Polaroid camera was easy to miss.
I stopped the enemy sound from flickering, made footsteps follow the actual floor material and changed the mix when the camera is raised: the pub becomes quieter while breathing and hand movement come forward. A reversed whisper confirms each photograph.
Implementation
Controls for designers and rules for busy scenes
I exposed floor, anomaly and enemy settings in Unreal so designers could tune them without changing code.
The mix reacts to enemy distance, the raised camera and active anomalies. If too many sounds play at once, music and ambience drop out before the clues, camera and enemy sounds that affect play.
