FILE CS-02 / CASE STUDY / STRAY SOULS
Stray Souls — Co-Development, Solo Audio & the Cost of Shipping
I wrote the entire script from a rough outline, built two full levels, directed and performed the voice work, and delivered every piece of audio except one track — music, thousands of sound effects, implementation, cutscene dialogue — while learning Unreal Engine from scratch in the evenings. Akira Yamaoka contributed a track for one level; together the soundtrack runs about three hours.
The game shipped in late October 2023. By early February 2024, I was a left below-knee amputee. This is the case study I wish someone had shown me first.
Project Snapshot
Publisher
Vs Evil (now defunct)
Game
Stray Souls — Third-Person Survival Horror (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
My Role
Co-developer: narrative, two levels, cutscenes, full audio pipeline, voice direction & performance
Audio Scope
All music except one track, all SFX, all implementation, all cutscene dialogue
Engine
Unreal Engine — learned on the project, start to finish
Timeline
~6 months of pre-funding work through launch, October 2023
Guest Composer
Akira Yamaoka — one track, one level, fully remote
Soundtrack
~3 hours combined (mine + Akira's contribution)
The Hook
A friend and I had already built something together once. It got as far as a Feardemic showcase, blew up, and then collapsed — the team sent a letter nullifying our involvement. A year later he came back with a Stray Souls prototype and asked me to join. I said yes, with conditions.
Midway through, he disappeared for about a month. Milestones slipped. When he came back, the outline was still the outline — so I wrote the script, built the levels, and shipped the audio myself. I finished the game. Then I paid for it with a leg.
The Challenge: Three Fronts at Once
Creative: A Game With No Script
The plan was a rough outline, not a script. When the narrative lead went dark for a month, the outline was still all we had. I wrote the full script from it, then built the two nightmare-forest levels in the "Nowhere" section — the final quarter of the game — and repaired cutscenes that had been captured without context.
Technical: Learning Unreal Mid-Shipping
I didn't know Unreal when I joined. I learned it while shipping: audio implementation with no middleware, subtitle and localization systems, level construction, cutscene assembly. The certificates came later; the deadlines came first.
Physical: 12–16 Hour Days, Always On Call
Four hours of sleep. Fast food. Every evening and weekend for well over a year, with a single week of vacation and one two-week hiatus after a miscarriage. The symptoms started before that first vacation. They did not stop.
Business: Scope Cuts After Approval
The script was approved without being read, then key gameplay and narrative beats were cut after the fact. Mocap had already been captured without narrative context, so I rebuilt the cutscene around what existed — camera work and audio instead of reshoots.
The Technique: One Person, Every Audio Role
Core method: No middleware, no audio team, no handoff. I owned the pipeline end to end — composition through implementation — which meant every fix was mine to make and every decision had a single owner. That is the actual value proposition of a solo audio director. It is also the reason the schedule was unsustainable.
| Discipline | What I Delivered | How | Constraint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Full soundtrack except one track | Composed, performed, produced, mixed | Solo; no session players on most material |
| Sound design | Thousands of SFX | Designed, edited, and placed in-engine | Built and maintained the library solo |
| Implementation | Entire audio integration | Unreal Engine audio, no middleware | Learned the engine while shipping |
| Voice | Cutscene dialogue, performances, direction | Wrote the lines, performed, directed | Did not run casting; everyone read my script |
| Localization | Text and subtitle implementation | Unreal subtitle/localization pipeline | Implementation only — not translation |
| Levels | Two "Nowhere" nightmare-forest levels | Blockout through final, plus audio | Final ~25% of the game |
| Narrative | Full script from a rough outline | Wrote to the existing design constraints | Later cut down after approval |
The Akira Yamaoka Collaboration
Akira wrote music for one specific level. The collaboration was entirely asynchronous and ran through the publisher — he was deep in Silent Hill 2 Remake and Silent Hill f at the time. Two people, opposite sides of the planet, no shared sessions, no middleware to bridge us.
What made it work was specificity. I sent him the level's intent — what the player should feel, where the silence needed to sit — rather than a temp track to imitate. He asked me for feedback on his material, which is not a thing I expected to be doing. Through translators, he told me he could feel the emotion in my guitar work.
What I'd change: I'd have pushed for a real review loop with the publisher removed from the middle, and I'd have documented the split of creative ownership in writing before a single note was written.
The Cutscene Repair
Mocap had been shot without narrative context. The result was a scene that didn't read — Daniel and Martha finding their father near the end of the game. With no budget for a reshoot, I fixed it in the edit: camera framing to hide what the performances didn't sell, and audio to carry the story the picture couldn't. Daniel trying to leave. Banging on the walls. The scene works now because the sound tells you what the actors weren't told.
The Result: What Shipped vs. What Happened
| Metric | Reality |
|---|---|
| Shipped | Released late October 2023 on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox |
| Audio delivered | All music except one track, all SFX, all implementation |
| Combined soundtrack | ~3 hours (my material + Akira's level track) |
| Levels | Two "Nowhere" nightmare-forest levels — final ~25% of the game |
| Marketing content | ~20 social posts, ~4 videos, plus an alternate-lore story written for the deluxe edition |
| Publisher | Vs Evil — now defunct |
| Financial outcome | The game remains more than $400,000 in debt |
| Personal outcome | Left below-knee amputation, February 2024 |
The Physical Cost
I'm not going to dress this up as a badge. It's a warning label.
- ● 12–16 hour days, always on call
- ● ~4 hours of sleep, fast food as a food group
- ● One week of vacation, plus a two-week hiatus after a miscarriage
- ● Symptoms began before that first vacation — foot pain, ignored
- ● Type 2 diabetes, unmanaged through the back half of production
- ● Launch: October 2023. Amputation: February 2024. Left leg, below the knee.
Audio was already in production six months before the publisher funding landed, and it never stopped until launch. The pipeline I was proud of — one person, no handoff, no middleware — is exactly the kind of pipeline that has no room for a human being.
My definition of crunch now: a solid eight-hour day, a one-hour lunch, regular exercise, clear timelines, and nobody on call at midnight.
That's not ambition erosion. That's the only pace that lets you still be doing this in ten years.
Aftermath: What Came Next
Still Building
Since launch I've been freelancing and still looking for steady work. Every project below was chosen with the new rules in place: defined scope, defined credit, defined hours.
Perpetuo
Looped horror sound design with Nacho at Nightwolf Games. Taken on because I loved the game, not because the schedule demanded it.
Tellus & Ghosts in the City
Audio systems for Tellus, and mocap plus audio work on Ghosts in the City for Acid Pixel. Different studios, same discipline: solo ownership with agreed boundaries.
Trailer Work
Audio for the first two Transporter trailers — some music, sound design, and implementation.
Egregore (2025– )
My own project, started mid-2025. Prototype and demo nearing completion. This is the one where the lessons get applied from the first commit instead of the last.
Looking For
Steady audio direction, sound design, or narrative/level work with a team that plans in quarters instead of panic.
Start a Conversation →The Lesson That Changed Everything
Scope is a promise. Credit is a contract. Sleep is infrastructure.
- Write the script before the mocap. Performances shot without narrative context cost more to fix in the edit than the rewrite would have cost up front.
- Approval means nothing without a read. A signed-off document nobody opened is the same as no document.
- "We'll credit you properly" is not a credit clause. Ownership, credit, and kill fees go in writing before work begins.
- Solo ownership is a strength, not a staffing plan. One person can own the pipeline. One person cannot absorb an infinite schedule.
- Symptoms are milestone data. The foot pain was a warning with months of lead time. I treated it as noise.
Media & Listening
"Red" — My Favorite Track From the Score
Early-2000s melodic nu-metal. I wrote it, sang it, and played every instrument except the final drum pass. If you want to know what my own voice sounds like when nobody is steering it, start here.
Audio available on request — get in touch.
Combined Soundtrack (~3 hours)
The full chronological score — my material plus Akira Yamaoka's level track — assembled as one continuous listen. I retained the right to release my music separately.
Licensing or review copies available on request.
Stray Souls on Steam
Shipped October 2023. Publisher since defunct; the game is still out there.
View on Steam →Sound Library
The full Stray Souls SFX library is archived and maintained. If you're hiring for a horror project and want to hear range rather than a reel, this is the better sample.
Available for review on request.
Why This Matters for You
I've shipped a commercial horror game as the only audio person on it, while also writing the script and building levels. I know exactly where scope creep turns into physical damage — because I lived through the transition.
Every engagement now includes:
- ✓ Written scope with named deliverables
- ✓ Explicit credit clause — name and role, in writing
- ✓ Milestone payments, not end-of-project promises
- ✓ Defined revision rounds and a change-order process
- ✓ A schedule that assumes a human being is attached to it
- ✓ Clear ownership of source files and delivered stems
You get the same output. You don't get the casualty.