Advice on Setting Up a Souls-like Sound System in Unreal

Development Audio
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Hi everyone,

Me and my team are working on a “Souls-like” game in Unreal Engine and I’m at the point where I want to start guiding the programmers towards the implementation of the core “sound system”. I want the audio to function similarly to other “Dark Souls” game, where sound is not just atmosphere, but also “gameplay-critical information”. This means:

  • 3D positional audio for combat, footsteps, and environment
  • Surface-based footsteps (stone, wood, metal, water)
  • Dynamic occlusion & reverb for rooms, halls, and outdoor areas
  • Music state changes (exploration vs combat, boss phase transitions)
  • Stealth noise system (e.g., loudness values for actions that AI can detect)
  • Dynamic mixing so combat SFX cut through ambience and music

I’m unsure where to start in Unreal to lay a good foundation for this.

Would you recommend:

  • Starting with Unreal’s native Audio Mixer and Sound Cues/MetaSounds?
  • Integrating middleware like “Wwise” or “FMOD” right away for scalability?
  • Building a small test level for all core sound features before expanding?

I’m mainly looking for “best practices” for:

  1. Setting up the “initial architecture” so it’s easy to expand later
  2. Managing performance while keeping high-quality audio

If anyone has experience with Sound Systems then give a shout. Thanks a lot guys!

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Hey there @Thunderloud777! If you have any audio designers or engineers on hand, they would likely benefit from the Fmod or Wwise setup. Otherwise, with developers and game designers only, I would recommend sticking with the native sound utilities.

The reason for this is that sound designers would have more control outside of the engine and have already likely used software like FMOD/Wwise before. If your team is only Game Developers, it’ll be easiest for them to implement sounds in engine.

The audio test scene is recommended regardless of the option you choose though, that’s just good practice!

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