The Indie Game Sound Effects Checklist: Every Sound Your Game Needs

Sound is often the last thing an indie game gets, and the thing players notice most when it’s missing. The problem is rarely making one good sound; it’s remembering all the sounds a game needs. This checklist groups them by system so you can work through your game one area at a time.

Not every game needs every line. A puzzle game won’t have gunshots and a shooter might not have a crafting menu. Strike out what doesn’t apply and you have your audio task list.

1. User interface

UI sounds are heard constantly, so make them short, soft and consistent. Generate them as one set with shared style words.

• Button hover and button click
• Back / cancel
• Error or “not allowed”
• Menu open and close, tab switch
• Slider tick (volume, settings)
• Notification or popup
• Purchase confirmed, currency spent
• Level up, achievement unlocked, quest complete
• Typing or dialogue blips (if your dialogue has no voice acting)

See prompts and settings on the UI sound effects page.

2. Player movement

• Footsteps for each surface in your game (grass, stone, wood, metal, water, snow…), ideally 4+ variations each
• Jump and land (soft and hard landing)
• Dash, dodge or roll
• Climbing, ladder steps
• Swimming and splashes
• Cloth and armor rustle

Footsteps are the sound players hear most. Variations prevent the “machine gun” effect of one file repeating; the footsteps and foley page explains how to cut single steps out of a walking sequence.

3. Combat

• Weapon swing or fire, per weapon type
• Reload, draw, holster
• Hit on enemy, hit on wall, miss
• Block or parry
• Player hurt, player death
• Critical hit or special attack
• Projectiles in flight (arrows, bullets whizzing past)
• Explosions in a few sizes

Split every attack into parts (wind-up, release, impact) so you can time each to the animation. Prompts for these are on the weapon and impact and explosion pages.

4. Enemies and creatures

• Idle sound (breathing, growl, mechanical hum)
• Alert / spotted the player
• Attack
• Hurt
• Death
• Movement (footsteps, wings, slithering)

Keep the same creature description across all six states so they sound like one animal. More on the monster and creature page.

5. Abilities and magic

• Cast or charge-up for each ability
• Impact or effect
• Buff applied, buff expired
• Looping aura while an effect is active
• Cooldown ready
• Out of mana / energy

6. Items and world interaction

• Pickups: coin, health, ammo, key, generic item
• Inventory: equip, unequip, drop, item use
• Doors, chests, levers, switches
• Breakables: crates, pots, glass
• Crafting, cooking, upgrading
• Checkpoint and save

7. Ambience and environment

• A looping ambience bed per area (forest, cave, town, interior…)
• Weather: rain, wind, thunder
• Point sources: waterfall, fire, machinery, river
• Random one-shots: birds, distant howls, drips, creaks

Long, seamless loops work best here. The ambience page has examples.

8. Game flow

• Game start, level start
• Victory and defeat stingers
• Countdown or timer warning
• Low health warning
• Pause and resume

How many sounds is that?

A small action game easily lands between 80 and 200 individual files once you count variations. That’s why placeholder beeps survive until launch. Generating sounds from prompts makes it realistic for a solo developer to cover the whole list: describe each line, generate a few takes, keep the best and trim it on the waveform.

Tips for staying organized

• Name files by system and action: ui_click_01.wav, step_gravel_03.wav, enemy_wolf_attack_02.wav.
• Keep prompts that worked in a document so you can generate matching sounds later.
• Export WAV for short effects and OGG for long loops. Our format guide explains why.
• Normalize levels across a set so nothing is suddenly louder than everything else.

Ready to start crossing things off? Create a free account and generate the first few sounds on your list.