Best practices for playing lots of audios

Question

Hello everyone, I am creating a 2D Space Strategy game. Where there will be 20+ ships, firing projectiles, missiles etc. with lots of explosions etc. There are lots of sounds playing at the same time. I don't know exactly why, but the sound doesn't sound very good. Currently I am using these things: 1. Playing sounds with different volume and pitch each time 2. Max virtual voices 128, Max real voices 15 3. Using PlayOneShot 4. Using AudioMixer

Here is gameplay of my game: https://youtu.be/wRxCaLAWiKc

Please tell me best practices to make game sound better

Answer 1

I think the issue is not your sounds being bad or anything, id recommend bass boosting the explosions a little bit and increasing the pitch on the lasers, other than that the main problem is that your game is missing a lot of sounds, games should sound juicy with atleast a subtle audio cue for almost everything...ill put on a list which i think you should add....

A bass heavy death sound effect with an electronic instrument easily differentiable from other sounds
A futuristic tron like effect accompanied by a organised (organised effects feel lot better in space game) particle effect to highlight the respawning
add subtle wooshing effects for the enemy ships and player ship, make sure to make them different for each type and even drastically change them for different types of ships, these not only add variety and liveliness to the game, but are also helpful in making players distinctly aware of the different kinds of enemy ships and lodging them into their working memory
a subtle space ambience (not really sure how to do this but still, trial and error is the way)
Most importantly : music, add a theme to the game through multiple channels (aka differentiate the theme into like 4 parts - 1) a basic melody (should ideally sound enthusiastic alone but paired with the other parts should get energetic and loud) 2) a light drumbeat to go along the base melody 3) a futuristic electronic instrument to convey the sense of increasing energy and drama 4) a futuristic metal and electronic cover melody to convey the sense of thrill and challenge
And make this music system adpative, my idea would be to give enemy ships a threat factor...... and like for example if the total threat factors of all ships currently present on screen is below 3, play no music, as it gets to 3 but below 10, just play the base melody 1.....if it is between 10 and 25, play melody 1 and drumbeat 2 between 25 and 60 play 1, 2 and 3 and above 60, play all 4 to give a sense of progression in audio.

In the end all of these are just suggestions, ive been researching a lot into game design and solutions and game feel involving audio design is something that has certainly caught my interest alongside other things. If you feel like any of this will not feel good, you can always discard it. Although id recommend giving all of these atleast a try ....hope this helps

Best practices for playing lots of audios

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