🎙️ When you start designing sound for a new game, what helps you define its unique audio personality right from the beginning?

💬 Defining the audio personality of a game starts with understanding the game designer’s vision: the world they want to create, the pace of the gameplay, the special features, and the target audience. Audio work usually begins after the art direction has been solidified, which actually works in our favour  by that point, there’s already a plethora of visual materials we can use.

From there, the single most important step is gathering audio references. Music is deeply subjective, what sounds playful to me might read as melancholic to someone else. References create a shared ‘vocabulary’ early on and prevent costly misalignments later. Once the musical direction is locked in, sound design follows. Music sets the emotional and tonal foundation for everything else, so establishing the style and pace of music is always a solid first step.

🎙️ What is one sound design technique you use that players never consciously hear, but would immediately feel missing if removed?

💬 Ha! Great question! If I am being honest, it’s never just one technique — it’s always a combination of techniques working together beneath the surface. But if I had to name a single element that carries the most weight, it would be tension building during the spin.

When the reels are spinning and there’s a real chance of a big win or a feature trigger, everything in the audio has to subtly communicate that something might be about to happen. The tempo, the harmonic layering, the way sounds are timed, all these elements create anticipation without the player ever consciously registering it. When it’s done well, it deepens the experience. When it’s missing, the game feels flat in a way that’s hard to explain but immediately felt.

🎙️ In your experience, when does silence become more powerful than adding another sound or music layer?

💬 Silence is a legitimate tool and in most cases as important as sound itself,  but in slot games, it’s a rare one. The nature of the medium means there’s almost always a need to maintain immersion and engagement, so complete silence isn’t used as freely as it might be in other formats.

What we reach for instead is strategic ambience: subtle enough to give the player’s ears a genuine rest, but present enough to hold them in the world of the game. Ear fatigue and overstimulation are real concerns that don’t get talked about enough in this industry, and managing them thoughtfully is part of the job.

That said, there is one moment where silence earns its place: the beat just before a major feature triggers. A sudden drop to silence, even for a fraction of a second can create more anticipation than any sound ever could

🎙️ Across all your projects, is there one sound or musical idea you are still proud of because it pushed your creativity in a new direction?

💬 If I were completely honest, I wouldn’t be able to single out just one, and after nearly 250 games, that’s genuinely not false modesty. Each new project brings its own set of creative constraints and opportunities, and some of my favourite work has come from the most unexpected briefs or the most demanding projects.

What I can say is that working in slot games has shaped me as a composer in ways I never anticipated. The volume of output, the variety of styles, the need to deliver something emotionally resonant within tight parameters, it builds a kind of creative muscle that’s hard to develop any other way. I’m a better composer because of this work, and that feels like something worth being proud of..

🎙️ What shift or trend in game audio do you think will have the biggest impact on iGaming in the coming years?

💬 Audio middleware tools like Wwise and FMOD – is the change I’m most eager to see adopted more widely in iGaming. Right now, audio implementation often falls on developers rather than audio specialists, which limits what’s possible and adds friction to the production process. Middleware shifts that responsibility to where it belongs and, more importantly, unlocks genuinely dynamic audio experiences: adaptive music systems, contextual sound layering, real-time manipulation of assets we’re already creating.

The visual quality of slot games has advanced enormously in the last decade, AAA-level art and animation are no longer unusual. Audio deserves the same investment, and middleware is the infrastructure that makes that possible.

🎙️ How do you see AI supporting composers and sound designers while still preserving artistic taste and originality?

💬 Our work has two sides: the genuinely creative part, which is irreplaceable, and a significant volume of repetitive, technical tasks that are just part of the workflow. Things like file management, naming conventions, loudness normalisation passes, export preparation, these are necessary but they’re not where our value lies.

AI is most useful when it takes on that second category, freeing us to spend more time on the work that actually requires taste, judgment, and experience. The key is keeping humans in the creative decision-making seat. AI doesn’t understand a brief, doesn’t know what a game needs emotionally, and can’t build a relationship with a client. Those things still belong to us!!

🎙️ When working with designers, animators, and producers, what helps you align the sound vision with the overall game vision?

💬 References. References. References.

It’s less about aligning the audio to the game and more about aligning my understanding of the brief with the game designer’s or producer’s vision, because music and sound are deeply subjective. Two people can hear the same track and walk away with completely different emotional readings of it.

Establishing a shared set of references that everyone agrees on early, and explicitly is the single most effective way to prevent misalignment, reduce revision rounds, and ultimately protect everyone’s time. It’s the first conversation I push for on every project.

🎙️ If slot games evolve into more cinematic or narrative experiences, how do you see their soundscapes changing?

💬 Oh, that would genuinely be a dream!!!

The way sound works in film storytelling is something I find endlessly fascinating. Take Jaws,  watch it without the score and it’s a completely different film. Half the terror just evaporates. The same logic applies to games. Adaptive music that responds to story beats, audio that actually evolves instead of looping forever, sound design that supports a narrative arc, that’s where I’d love to see iGaming go.

The visual evolution has already happened. The trajectory is clearly there. I really believe the
audio will follow, and when it does, the player experience is going to feel fundamentally different!

🎙️ What is one piece of advice you would give to someone wanting to build a strong career in game sound design?

💬 This one’s important to me because there’s a misconception I’d love to clear up.

“Sound design” means something quite different in slot games versus console, PC, or mobile games. In most game contexts, composers and sound designers are separate people, one writes the music, the other creates the sound effects, and rarely does one person do both. In slots, those roles are almost always combined. The sound asset count is much smaller (usually no more than 50–60 effects, versus potentially thousands in a AAA title), so one specialist typically handles the full audio package.

My advice would be to try to understand the context before you assume the role. Dig into the specific sector you want to work in, because the skillset and expectations can be really different from what you’ve seen elsewhere. And if iGaming is where you’re headed, learn to compose and design sound and in many different styles. Versatility isn’t a bonus here. It’s just the baseline. Once you understand the context, it is a very VERY creative and rewarding line of work. Good luck!

🎙️ WWhat do you think of iGamity’s effort to highlight creators and bring more visibility to the people behind iGaming experiences?

💬 I think it’s really important. We experience finished products as consumers and almost never think about all the people artists, animators, developers, audio specialists, who each poured genuine care into specific details that most players will never consciously register.

Every discipline in this process tends to be invisible when it’s done well, and audio is no exception. Any platform that shines a light on the people behind the work, across the board and treats every craft as worthy of recognition is something I’m really glad exists!!