Captivating Player Experiences: Merging Sound and Narrative in Mobile Games

Sound is one of the most powerful ways to tell stories, spark emotions, and help players feel truly connected to the game world. When it comes to mobile games, audio is rarely considered a priority – its importance in the game experience often goes unnoticed. At Metacore, sound isn’t just an afterthought, it’s a core pillar of design. Previously I uncovered some of the mysteries behind mobile game audio – this time, I’ll be delving deeper into how we merge the sound of our game with the story.

Audio as a Core Pillar of Game Design

Sound design isn't the atmosphere alone. It sees the whole product narrative, UX, and gameplay and can even inform feature design from the start.

At Metacore, audio isn’t treated as a service function. We’re active collaborators. This means sitting alongside writers, designers, and developers, and solving these creative problems together. As players ourselves, we also feel what works and that perspective shapes everything we do. We constantly play the game and look for ways the audio can better serve players and enhance their experience. For example, we recently updated legacy assets – such as button clicks, garden ambience, and the full soundtrack – which improved the overall player UX.

Audio is included in feature kick-offs which allows us to be part of the conversation from the concept phase. We then meet regularly with feature teams to stay updated, share our insights, and provide mockups of audio designs. For new games, we also allocate temporary royalty-free music and placeholder sound effects.

Storytelling Through Sound

Mobile games don’t get the same opportunity to deliver big, cinematic audio moments as console and PC games. But when we do get the chance to enhance the experience, it still makes a difference! With every moment in Merge Mansion, we still aim to deliver high quality soundscapes that enhance the story and the emotions players experience.

For example, we’ve hidden subtle references in Merge Mansion, including nods to other games and media as audio Easter eggs. They’re tiny gifts for players who notice them, but even those who don’t pay attention to them can still feel the depth they add to the gameplay experience.

Sound can assist in carrying the narrative torch, too. For example, when we needed a Christmas Carol for the game, it was us in the audio team who pushed to turn it into a cutscene of Christmas carol singers and develop it into a full in-game event, rather than just a song.

Merge You Into My Heart

The best ideas come from passion. Our hit single, Merge You Into My Heart, began as a lighthearted concept that quickly grew into something bigger.

It came at the intersection of my love for ’80s music and an excellent opportunity to create a collaboration for the books. I asked the narrative team how we could weave an ’80s sound into the soundtrack in a way that made sense for the game—perfectly timed with the Music Room area coming to Merge Mansion.

Then I collaborated with our composer, Ilmari Hakkola, to create the music. With our shared love of the 80’s, it was a really fun collaboration. This led to us deciding that we absolutely need to add a version with lyrics. My thinking was that it would live outside of the game, and be something that can connect with our players as well as tie into the larger story of the game.

Once I started sharing the track with other teams, it was generating a lot of excitement before even going out to the public. One thing led to another, and there I was, performing the song live with my colleague Maria, at the Metacore Christmas party!

This stands as a great example of a true collaboration between various teams, including community, communications, art, and narrative. Therefore, we ended up with great artwork, a retro karaoke music video, and ultimately, a great opportunity to give something truly unique and lasting to our players. If I learned anything from this experience, it’s that you should share your passions, believe in what you’re doing and then work as a team to bring it to life.

When we released the song on YouTube in the last days of 2024, it became the highest-performing organic video of the year for Merge Mansion, tripling our typical view numbers in just 73 days. It found dedicated fans instantly, landed in multiple playlists, and is still steadily growing its audience today.

This is an example of the power of audio-led storytelling: a fun idea woven into the game’s world that ended up resonating far beyond it.

Reclaiming the “Wouldn’t It Be Cool If…” Mindset

In the fast-paced world of mobile games, data plays a central role in guiding decisions. At Metacore, we rely heavily on data about our players to inform many of the choices we make. However, the success of Merge You Into My Heart wasn’t based solely on metrics; it was also shaped by the instinct and collective passion of the people working at Metacore.

Design should start with fun. With delight. With those little sparks of “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”

At the end of the day, people recognise things built from passion and joy. That’s what inspires the people we make these games for, our players. And that’s what keeps us inspired too.

Final Note

Audio is emotion. It’s immersion. It’s identity. And when paired with narrative, it becomes one of the most powerful tools we have as game makers.

So next time you’re designing a feature, ask yourself not just what players will see but what they’ll hear – and how it will make them feel. And then, let’s make magic happen.

Sam Hughes is the Audio Lead at Metacore and a Bafta-winning sound designer. He has been working in sound for over a decade.