This system was created as part of the Interactive Sound and Audio Engines course at XSSR Academy. The task was to create a playable scene in Unity and integrate audio using middleware.

I chose Wwise as the audio engine. I created all the audio from scratch, including sound design and different audio systems, directed the entire game scene, integrated Wwise into the engine, and programmed audio playback logic.

You can read more about the process of creating the video below.

The first step in creating the game scene was gathering references.

As my gameplay reference, I chose the pirate shooting gallery from Resident Evil 4. In the game, the player uses different weapons to hit dolls moving along a special platform. Since my asset scene already featured a large target, I thought I could place a toy doll on it, which the player would have to hit five times to unlock the exit from the tent. The doors would close beforehand, trapping the player inside.

Finding the visual aesthetic was just as easy — I have a soft spot for creepy clowns, so I chose the scene from SYNTHY’s Horror Carnival as my main visual reference and built the gameplay around it.
For the audiovisual references, I drew inspiration from the aesthetic of American Horror Story: Freak Show, the series IT: Welcome to Derry, and Zach Cregger’s work, particularly his approach to comedy-horror storytelling. And, of course, I took a lot of inspiration from old-school American carnival music.

The final result became a mix of “normality” and madness, comedy and horror, all packed into a small gameplay experience.

Next, I started developing the actual game scene.

My main directorial decision was to bring a sense of theatre into the gameplay, along with its corresponding dramatic structure. That is why the code contains a lot of sequences and trigger zones: the player enters a collider, the spotlights dramatically turn on, then, after a short delay, the host’s voice plays through the loudspeaker. The wheel starts spinning, and the player is theatrically invited to join the game. The whole scene is directed almost like a short film.

For the gameplay itself, it was important for me to implement a score counter that would be tracked not only visually through the clown drawings on screen, but also by the host’s voice, which counts the player’s hits along with the game. I connected different clown reaction sounds to the score counter trigger, covering every hit from the first to the fifth. Again, it was another way of bringing the feeling of theatre and showmanship into the gameplay.

I also decided to make the player slightly sarcastic, so they would occasionally break the fourth wall and respond not only to the clown, but also to me and my “brilliant” directorial gameplay decisions. These reactions also play with a short delay, triggered after the clown’s line so that the two voices never overlap. This creates a sort of dialogue between the clown and the player in the middle of an otherwise empty carnival tent.

The handgun was built according to all the classic sound design principles: separate Random Containers for each layer — transient, body, low-frequency impacts, mechanical layer, and tail. All of them are then combined into a parent Blend Container, which essentially plays randomizations of each layer. As a result, every shot sounds slightly different from the previous one.

I also added reload sounds, matched to the animation, as well as empty clicks triggered by the ammo counter. Weapon draw and holster sounds are also triggered by their corresponding buttons.

Different surface impacts were added as well: a cartoonish hit on the doll, a miss, and a hit on the wooden target. The surfaces are switched using a Switch Container and tracked through raycasts from the weapon.

I also implemented aiming and non-aiming states. While aiming, the surrounding soundscape is slightly filtered: the wheel becomes clearer and more prominent, while high-cut filters are applied to the ambience, music, and dialogue. Their volume is also reduced slightly, helping the player focus on the target.

The interactive music also exists in three states: pre-game, in-game, and post-game.

The pre-game state starts when the spotlights turn on and consists of a simple musical loop. Once the player enters the game, the in-game state begins and an additional musical layer is introduced. The music is also connected to the score counter: after the first and third hits, new musical layers are added, almost as if the music itself is pushing the player to keep shooting.

After the final hit, the post-game state is triggered. The music plays its “turning point” tail, transforming into a horror-driven melody.

At the end of the game, there is a dramatic twist: we were not shooting at a doll at all, but at a real person. The entire scene was a hallucination created by the clown monster.

I was inspired by similar scenes from the IT films, where a bright and colourful environment eventually turns into something genuinely horrifying.

As for the audio, the atmosphere is transformed into a heavy drone through a Blend Container and a corresponding parameter value. After the player crosses a collider while approaching the target, an additional stinger layer is triggered, intensifying the horror of the moment.

The scene ends with a horror screamer featuring the clown. For this part, I created a linear sound design piece for the short animation.

For the dynamic HDR mix, I chose weapon sounds as the highest priority, since this is a first-person shooter and the weapon is the main focus of the gameplay. Because the scene also relies heavily on theatrical dramaturgy, character voices and various SFX come next in the priority hierarchy.

Locomotion sounds, music, and ambience have a lower priority. They act more as supporting elements, adding colour and atmosphere to the main mix rather than competing for attention.

The scene itself is fairly simple in terms of gameplay and playtime, but for me, the main goal was to carefully develop its sound and dramatic structure so that the whole experience would feel more like a mini-film.

Less is more — my goal for this project and my life credo as well. <З

Thanks for reading this article. I really appreciate your attention!