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11 Overview
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3-Audio is one of the few areas of Of Peaks and Tidesthat CyancookGames has discussed at length in its own words. The studio devoted its second development update, published in July 2026, entirely to sound effects, creature audio, and music, and the account it gave is unusually candid about what was not working and what remains unfinished. Almost everything on this page is stated design direction rather than tested behavior, because no public build has shipped with the reworked audio in place.
3+Audio is one of the few areas of Of Peaks and Tides that CyancookGames has discussed at length in its own words. The studio devoted its second development update, published in July 2026, entirely to sound effects, creature audio, and music, and the account it gave is unusually candid about what was not working and what remains unfinished. Almost everything on this page is stated design direction rather than tested behavior, because no public build has shipped with the reworked audio in place.
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55 The Combat Audio Rework
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7-CyancookGames describes its first pass at sound effects as deliberately plain and lightweight. It worked in a technical sense, but internal playtests exposed a gap: a boss fight the team was sweating through still did not deliver the impact it should. In the studio's own summary, hits lacked weight, combatlacked rhythm and punch, and fights looked intense without hitting as hard as they should. Internal feedback was blunt enough that the team rebuilt its approach.
7+CyancookGames describes its first pass at sound effects as deliberately plain and lightweight. It worked in a technical sense, but internal playtests exposed a gap: a boss fight the team was sweating through still did not deliver the impact it should. In the studio's own summary, hits lacked weight, combat lacked rhythm and punch, and fights looked intense without hitting as hard as they should. Internal feedback was blunt enough that the team rebuilt its approach.
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99 The stated conclusion is that audio is not ambience. The studio treats it as a core part of how a player perceives the world, arguing that good sound design communicates weight, danger, speed, and pressure, and that in some situations it lets a player read the flow of a fight or sense a change in surroundings without ever looking at the interface. The counterweight is loudness: CyancookGames has said it does not want audio to become overwhelming or distracting, and that finding the balance between forceful feedback and a comfortable soundscape is something it is still refining.
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1111 Creature Audio by Size Class
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13-The Unique Beastsare sorted into four size classes for audio purposes: small, medium, large, and a separate mythic tier. Each class carries different requirements for spatial presence, frequency balance, and overall sonic weight.
13+The Unique Beasts are sorted into four size classes for audio purposes: small, medium, large, and a separate mythic tier. Each class carries different requirements for spatial presence, frequency balance, and overall sonic weight.
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1515 ClassAudio treatmentSmallEmphasis on agility and speed.MediumSits between the agile and the heavy treatments.LargeHeavier low frequencies and a stronger sense of presence.MythicBuilt so players hear the creature before they see it. The studio calls this the hardest of the four and has said it has been a constant source of suffering for its audio designers.
1616 For future mythic creatures the team has floated more detailed, part-level sound design: the force of massive wings pushing through the air, the low-frequency rumble of a colossal body in motion, and the scrape of a tail dragging across the ground. The intent is that these read as an approaching mass rather than as background effects.
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1818 Music and Instruments
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2020 Music has been in development alongside the rest of the game. CyancookGames says it has researched somewhere between forty and fifty lesser-known instruments and drawn on a wide range of references tied to ancient cultures and mythology, publishing a sheet of instrument concept art that includes frame drums, bone and reed flutes, ocarina-like vessel instruments, horns, and a small angular harp.
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2222 The studio is explicit that this is not historical reconstruction. Historical references seed some ideas while others come from reinterpretation and the team's own experimentation. The stated target is music rooted in ancient cultures but leaning fully into fantasy: recognisably Eastern-inspired tones and textures blended with sound design that feels less traditional and more unexpected, so that the score reads as mysterious, unfamiliar, and specific to the world.
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2424 Dynamic Soundscape
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2626 Both the environmental audio and the music system are being built to react rather than loop. CyancookGames lists the inputs it expects to influence what a player hears:
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2828 Time of dayWeather and the seasonal cycleRegionCombat stateEnemy typePlayer locationCertain gameplay mechanics, including celestial omens
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3030 The studio's stated aim is a soundscape that shifts and flows alongside the player and the world instead of sitting underneath it as static background. It has also acknowledged the production cost that implies, and describes more interactive and adaptive sound systems as something it hopes to explore as the audio foundation comes together.
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3232 Planned Directions
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3434 Several ideas are on record as things the team wants to try rather than as confirmed features:
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36-AreaStated intentFootstepsA player's carried weight may affect footstep sound; weather and surface moisture could subtly change footsteps and environmental audio.Wind and echoWind speed, terrain, elevation, bodies of water, and environmental structures influencing how wind and echoes travel.Physics-driven audioRolling objects, massive creatures crashing into water, destructible environments, and the changing sound of projectiles passing the player's ears, tied to the Physics System.WeaponsMore distinct weapon sounds derived from a weapon's shape and material.Large-scale eventsBoiling seas, floods, miasma, and other calamitiesmade to feel overwhelming sonically as well as visually.
36+AreaStated intentFootstepsA player's carried weight may affect footstep sound; weather and surface moisture could subtly change footsteps and environmental audio.Wind and echoWind speed, terrain, elevation, bodies of water, and environmental structures influencing how wind and echoes travel.Physics-driven audioRolling objects, massive creatures crashing into water, destructible environments, and the changing sound of projectiles passing the player's ears, tied to the Physics System.WeaponsMore distinct weapon sounds derived from a weapon's shape and material.Large-scale eventsBoiling seas, floods, miasma, and other calamities made to feel overwhelming sonically as well as visually.
3737 Status
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39-CyancookGames closed its July 2026 audio update by saying there is still a long way to go, and that building a world players can hear themselves inside remains one of its biggest goals. The same post referred to an upcoming playtest and invited feedback on the audio during it, which is the only public link between the audio work and the offline playtestspromised for 2026. No composer, audio director, or middleware has been named publicly, and no soundtrack release has been announced.
39+CyancookGames closed its July 2026 audio update by saying there is still a long way to go, and that building a world players can hear themselves inside remains one of its biggest goals. The same post referred to an upcoming playtest and invited feedback on the audio during it, which is the only public link between the audio work and the offline playtests promised for 2026. No composer, audio director, or middleware has been named publicly, and no soundtrack release has been announced.
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4141 Related Topics
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4343 CombatCreaturesSeasons and WeatherPhysics SystemCyancookGames