What Was That Noise: Mastering Creative UI Sound Design with Intention

GDC Festival of Gaming highlights a practical corner of audio craft: UI sounds that communicate instantly without becoming noise. In a GDC 2025 talk, Formosa Interactive UK sound designer Jonathan Bell walks through how to balance clarity, function, and personality when building interface audio for modern games.

The examples lean on familiar production touchpoints, including God of War: Ragnarok, Helldivers II, and Total War: Warhammer III. The core idea is that UI audio should do more than confirm a button press; it can reinforce game feel, support readability, and add character if it is designed with intention rather than treated as a late-stage polish pass.

For audio teams, the useful takeaway is the emphasis on UX thinking. That means considering how sounds map to player expectations, how much variation is enough before feedback becomes ambiguous, and how to keep interface cues readable in busy mixes. It is especially relevant for projects where combat, menus, and systemic feedback all compete for attention.

The talk also fits a broader trend in game audio: interface sound is increasingly part of the game’s identity, not just a utility layer. For developers shipping on crowded platforms, that makes UI audio a small asset category with outsized impact on usability and polish.